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Weekly Chasidic Story #1433 (5785-35) 28 Iyar 5785 (May 26, 2025) The Torah Scholar Who Had Doubts About G*D "Whomever I asked replied either that those are dangerous questions that must not ask, or gave such weak answers and explanations that they themselves admitted weren't satisfactory. So now I have my doubts about many things." Why This Week? [The first day of] Shavuot is also the anniversary of the passing of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chasidic movement.
Story in PDF format for more convenient printing The Torah Scholar Who Had Doubts About G*DA wealthy Jew had an only daughter who was becoming of marriageable age. While there were many promising young Torah scholars in his own town, he desired to have an exceptional Torah scholar as a son-in-law. After much effort in many locations, he indeed found one such young man. The couple married, settled down and were extremely happy. The young man learned in the yeshiva study hall and grew in his learning and Torah knowledge. Everything was going as desired. Some years passed, and the wealthy father-in-law began noticing small changes in his son-in-law's conduct and observance of mitzvot (command-ments). At first, he tried to dismiss them as insignificant changes, and perhaps his learned son-in-law has reasons to conduct himself in this new manner. "After all, he knows much more than I do, so who am I to question him!" But as the weeks and months passed, he began noticing that he was taking off much more time from his learning and was seen in the company of others who were known to be completely non-observant. This was a situation that he was no longer able to ignore and pretend all is well. So one day, he sat down with his son-in-law and asked him, "What caused this drastic change. Are you perhaps unhappy about something or is something or someone bothering you?" The son-in-law replied, "I am extremely happy and fortunate. Your daughter is an excellent and kind hearted person. She is the perfect wife, and you are very gracious to us. A man couldn't ask for more. "But you want to know if everything is perfect, what caused these changes? I began having some questions about G-d's ability to do certain things that our sages stated had happened. I noticed that some of the great commentators also wrote that these things are exaggerations. So I no longer knew what is real and what is being said as a way of a parable or metaphor. "Whoever I asked replied either that those are dangerous questions that one is not allowed to ask, or gave me such weak responses and explanations that they themselves admitted weren't complete or satisfactory answers. So now I have my doubts about many things, such as does G-d really care about such minute details, for example, when you wash your hands for bread, does it have to go until the wrist and a drop off makes it invalid or it isn't so important. And therefore I decided not to do it at all." The father-in-law was torn with grief. This is the son-in-law that he had hand-picked for his wonderful daughter, who is so proper in her observance of every commandment. Is everything lost G-d forbid? "No! It can't be," he told himself. "I must find a way to correct this." Turning to his son-in-law he said, "My dear son-in-law, you are much more learned than I, and if the great Torah scholars of the town couldn't answer your questions satisfactorily, I for sure don't have the ability. However, I am asking you one thing. Please come with me to a great sage and allow him to answer and clarify everything." Wanting to please his father-in-law, especially as he always has the ability to say that the answer this sage gave was not a convincing or even a good answer, he agreed. The father-in-law didn't waste any time, but immediately set out with his son-in-law to see the Baal Shem Tov. They arrived in Mezibuzh on a bright sunny day and the father-in-law poured out his troubled heart to the Baal Shem Tov and pleaded with him that he does whatever is in his ability to bring the son-in-law back to the ways of G-d. The Baal Shem Tov asked them to join him on a small journey. With the father-in-law sitting on his right and the son-in-law sitting on his left, they left Mezibuzh. Once they were out of the city and on the road in midst of an open field, the Baal Shem Tov turned to the son-in-law and said, "Young man, can it rain now?" Looking at the clear blue sky, the young man replied, "No, there isn't a cloud in sight." The Baal Shem Tov said, "And I say it can rain!" Looking up once again, the young man peered in all directions to make sure that he saw correctly and indeed there wasn't a cloud in sight. So he smugly retorted and said, "It is impossible! No way in the world can it rain here at this very moment." The Baal Shem Tov smiled and said, "And I say it will rain momentarily!" A few seconds later the heavens opened and a deluge of rain came pouring down. The young man was bewildered. Not only is the rain pouring from a cloudless sky, but the Baal Shem Tov's wagon is remaining completely dry! This was truly miraculous and beyond human comprehension. Being an extremely intelligent person, he realized why the Baal Shem Tov showed him this and didn't try to answer his questions verbally. Far be it that the Baal Shem Tov was merely showing off to him his miraculous powers. It was much more than that; he had clearly demonstrated, that stories of our sages that are beyond human comprehension, doesn't mean that they never occurred or are not real. There are many happenings that human intellect says one way, but in actuality they happened the opposite way - the way he thought was impossible. Once this question was answered, he realized that all of his other questions and doubts were based on this premise. And therefore if this was resolved, they all have nothing to stand on. Full of remorse he turned to the Baal Shem Tov and begged him to guide him back to the way of G-d. Once, during the first year after the passing of the Bal Shem Tov on the second day of the festival of Shavuot, his close followers gathered and sat together, and many of them related a miraculous story of the Baal Shem Tov that they personally were privy to. That night the Baal Shem Tov came to one of his students in a dream and said, "My greatness is not my ability to do miracles, it is my awe of heaven for even the smallest detail of a mitzva." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Why This Week? [The first day of] Shavuot is also the anniversary of the passing of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chasidic movement. Biographical note:
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Yerachmiel
Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor
of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories
to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells
them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.