Learning What a Prisoner Feels

Rav Menachem Nachum was a master of pidyon shevuyim. He traveled from town to town collecting money to redeem Jews who had landed, through some misfortune, in the deep, damp dungeons of the local landowner.

Once, when he was in Zhitomir, local gentiles found a way to slander the Rebbe and had him thrown into jail. While he was held there, one of the local rabbis came to cheer him up and offered him words of encouragement.

“Rav Nuchem,” the rabbi said, “we know that Avrohom Avinu excelled in hachnosas orchim, welcoming guests. That is exactly why Hashem told him, ‘Go from your land,’ so that he himself would become a traveler. This way he could learn firsthand what a guest needs from his host, and so he could fulfill the mitzvah of hachnosas orchim to the fullest.

“Hashem knows that you excel at pidyon shevuyim. But He wanted you to succeed even more. So He arranged that you be jailed, so that through your own experience you would know what a prisoner feels and understand how great a mitzvah you do.”