Make Way for Reb Shalom

A simple Jew once came to see Rav Yisroel of Ruzhin. When he left the Rebbe's room, he told the astonished chassidim waiting outside, "Do not think I am someone great. I am an ordinary Jew. Here is what happened. My brother and I had agreed that whichever of us died first would tell the other about the World to Come. My brother passed away twenty years ago, but only a few days ago did he finally appear to me in a dream.

"He told me that on the day he died, Reb Shalom Shachna passed away too. A voice on High called out for the tzaddikim to make way, and all the tzaddikim came to greet him. Then my brother heard it proclaimed that whoever passed away that day would be spared suffering in the grave, whoever had seen Reb Shalom's face on earth would escape the judgment of Gehinnom, and whoever had given him a pidyon (a donation to a tzaddik) would be spared all punishment.

"I began to cry. 'Now that Reb Shalom Shachna is gone from this world, how can I earn merit?' My brother said, 'His son, Rav Yisroel of Ruzhin, is a tzaddik like him. Giving him half a ruble is like giving his father a pidyon.' That is why I came today." Rav Yisroel later said of this man, "Since his motive was so pure, I received him with honor."