The Keys to Gehinnom

One of the gabba'im in Belz was Rav Mordechai Shamash. Everyone called him Reb Mottele the Gehinnom shamash. The strange name came from his keychain, which held many keys. He kept the keys to the cupboards where all the candles were stored. In the Belzer shul everyone studied by candlelight, so it was Reb Mottele who supplied the lomdim with candles. He made sure the supply was always adequate and that no one ever used up too many.

But Reb Mottele claimed that his keys opened more than the candle cupboards. He claimed that they unlocked the gates of Gehinnom. He would tell the Rebbe and the astonished chassidim how, before each Shabbos and Yom Tov, he unlocked the gates of Gehinnom to let souls out for rest and respite, and how on Motzei Shabbos and Yom Tov he locked them back in.

What astonished the chassidim even more was that the Rebbe seemed to take Reb Mottele seriously. It is told that he often conversed with the shamash, asking him which souls he had freed permanently and who was still stuck in Gehinnom, and he would entreat and beg him to release them. Rav Aharon of Belz said that surely his father knew what was truly going on.