The Note in the Siddur

It is told that an elderly, respected Jew of Uman sold all he had and set out for Eretz Yisroel, hoping to end his days there and be buried in its holy earth. Within days of arriving he was back, and he would not say why.

Soon afterward he fell ill and asked the men of the chevra kadisha (burial society) to visit him. Twice they came, and twice he spoke only of small matters. The third time, he told them his story.

As a young merchant he had passed through Berditchev on his way to the fairs, always stopping at the Rebbe's door. Once, as he waited, a commotion burst into the Rebbe's room. A poor money-changer had lost three hundred borrowed rubles. He had accused his servant girl, cursed her and beaten her, and now her family had come for justice. The Rebbe found the girl innocent, but the money was gone and the poor man was ruined.

Pained for both, the Rebbe declared that whoever supplied the sum would have a share in the World to Come. The young merchant stepped forward, asking only that the promise be put in writing. The Rebbe gave the money to the money-changer, blessed the girl with a good match, and handed the merchant a folded note. Never open it, he said. When you sense your end is near, have it placed with you in your grave.

The merchant had hidden the note inside the cover of his siddur, and he had left that siddur behind in Uman. That was why he had come home. After his passing, the men of the chevra kadisha opened it. It held a single line: a promise that the gates of Gan Eden would open for him, signed Levi Yitzchak son of Sarah.