The Pauper at the Yetev Lev's Wedding

On a Motzei Shabbos in parshas Eikev, the Tosher Rebbe sat at Melave Malka and spoke about the approaching yahrzeit of the Satmar Rav on the twenty-sixth of Av. He explained that Rav Yoel descended from a line of blessings. He then told a story he had heard from his grandfather.

When the Yetev Lev married the daughter of Rav Moshe Dovid Ashkenazi, Av Beis Din of Taltsheva, the Yismach Moshe gave his son Rav Elazar Nissan, the chosson's father, a sum of money to give to the poor at the wedding. One pauper, after receiving his share, insisted on more and named a very large amount. Rav Elazar Nissan gently answered that the money was not his and that he could not give such a sum to one person.

He went to his father and told him what had happened. The Yismach Moshe asked to see this pauper. The crowd moved aside, and from his room he looked through the doorway at the man's face. When he saw who it was, he told his son to give the pauper the full amount without any argument.

The pauper blessed Rav Elazar Nissan and the chosson with a great berachah, promising that holy and righteous descendants would come from this marriage. Then he disappeared without a trace.

Many years later, when the kallah's father prepared to move to Eretz Yisroel, the Yetev Lev went with him to visit several Rebbes, including Rav Tzvi Hirsch of Rymanow. He recognized Rav Tzvi Hirsch at once as the pauper from his wedding. Among the descendants whom the blessing had promised was the Satmar Rav.