Rebbe Avrohom Twerski of Trisk

The Maggid's Night Visitors

It is told that before Rav Mordechai of Chernobyl passed away, he divided his kingdom among his children and put the Trisker Maggid in charge of the people from the Other Side. Rav Avrohom lived by a set schedule. At eight o'clock in the morning he rose, went to the mikveh and davened. At two o'clock in the afternoon he would begin to yawn. "I am so tired, I have to lie down a little," he would say, and he went to his room until three, when he davened Mincha and Maariv. At ten o'clock at night he might begin to yawn again and say that he had to return to his room.

Chassidim relate that the Trisker Maggid in fact never ate and never slept. He also never kept any seforim in his room. When he closed the door, he was working with souls from the Other World who needed fixing, and such souls cannot read Torah. So as not to shame them, he allowed no books in his room, and if he found one he put it out.

Once the Trisker Maggid came to a village where only one Jew had room in his house for the Rebbe and his chassidim. This man was a mitnaged (an opponent of Chassidus). He had heard many stories from fellow mitnagdim and doubted the rumor that the Rebbe never slept or ate. "Eating I can believe," he said. "He sleeps so much that he does not need to eat. But he does not even keep a book in his room, so you cannot tell me he is not up there napping." The wealthy man was glad to host the Rebbe, because it gave him a chance to prove what Rav Avrohom did behind closed doors.

While the Rebbe was davening Maariv, the host slipped into his room and hid under the bed. At ten o'clock the Rebbe told his chassidim, "I have to go back to my room." The man heard Rav Avrohom come in and sit down on the bed. The chassidim closed the door to give the Rebbe some privacy, but then it seemed to open again, and a crowd pushed into the room.

He heard the shuffle of feet and murmured pleas. During the day he had seen the Rebbe receive ten, even thirty people at a time, but this sounded like thousands. Where were they all coming from, and how could they fit into so small a room? By day people said, "Rebbe, I am sick, please heal my back," or "I need money for my business," or "Find a wife for my son." By night the voices said, "Rebbe, I am so broken. They will not let me into Gan Eden, and they will not let me into Gehinnom (Hell). All I can do is wander. Please fix my soul." Worst of all, when the man peeked out from under the bed, he saw no feet at all. He shook with fear and could hardly keep his teeth from chattering.

Then a different voice cried out, "Rebbe, have compassion on my tormented neshamah (soul). Fix me." "What can I do for you?" the Trisker Maggid asked. "While you were alive, you never came to me. You did not give me even one penny of tzedakah to connect yourself to me. How can I help you now?" "There must be a way," the soul pleaded from deep anguish. "Actually, there is one way," said the Rebbe. "Your neighbor Shmuelik was one of my top chassidim, and he gave me a great deal of tzedakah in his lifetime. If he were to tell me now that one penny of what he gave was for you, I could find a way to help you." "Shmuelik would do that for me, I am sure." "Then go and ask him." "How can I? He will not believe that I come from you." "Then I will send someone along to be your witness."

At that, the Trisker Maggid gave a strong, swift kick under the bed and said to his host, "Come out." The man realized that the Rebbe was about to send him into the Other World as a witness between two souls, and he begged from under the bed, "Please, Rebbe, do not do this to me. I promise I will not tell anyone what I saw." "Come out," the Rebbe repeated. The man crawled out on his stomach, crying and clinging to the Rebbe's feet. "Rebbe, you have seen that I have a wife and three children. I do not want to die yet. I am not ready to die."

"Chas v'shalom that you should die," said the Rebbe. "But if you spy on me, you must go as my witness. Take my stick and walk with this man's soul to the cemetery." The man looked around. The most frightening thing was that no one else was in the room, only himself and the Trisker Maggid. "Knock on the first grave in the second row," the Rebbe told him, "and say that Avrohom ben Channah orders Shmuel ben Rivkah to give one penny to fix the neshamah of this Jew, Yosele, his neighbor."

The man who hid under the bed, it goes without saying, lived to become a very great Trisker chassid. The story was heard from his great-great-grandson.

A Soul Sent to Fix the Avrechim

Rav Avrohom said that his soul came down to this world to correct and fix the avrechim, the young men learning in yeshiva. For this reason his sefer Magen Avrohom includes many guidelines for yeshiva students.

Magen Avrohom