The Childless Couple and the Monster’s Blessing

The Childless Couple and the Monster’s Blessing

As told by Rabbi Fischel Schachter, as heard from the previous Belzer Rebbe:

Many years ago there was a rabbi and a rebbetzin who still didn’t have any children. At one point the rabbi came to the Kozhnitzer Maggid, and he wept and told him, “Please give me a blessing for children…Otherwise, I won’t survive.” And the Maggid closed his eyes, and after a few moments, he said, “I don’t have a blessing to give you for children. But there is somebody who can give you the blessing: Shwartzwolf.

“Shwartzwolf” means black wolf, and this man lived up to his name. He looked like a monster, acted like a monster, talked like a monster, and that’s the nicest way you could possibly describe him. He lived in the middle of his forest with a wife and children.
“Go to him,” the Maggid said, “he’s only seen from your position on the inside.” The rabbi had no clue what that meant, but he was desperate,

The rabbi knew Schwarzwolf was a lunatic, he would scream and yell at him. But the rabbi had a plan, he would show up at Schwarzwolf’s house right before Shabbos, and tell Schwarzwolf he had lost his way in the forest, and was stuck and had nowhere else to go.

First, the wife answered the door. It was right before Shabbos and she was a mess and the house looked like a haunted house.
“What do you want?!” she demanded.
“I’m stuck, I have nowhere to be for Shabbos!” he pleaded.
“I don’t care! Your problem!” and she slammed the door in his face.

Then Schwarzwolf opened the door and roared “What do you want?” The rav got down on his hands and knees and begged to spend Shabbos with them.

“You can stay in the barn, but you’re not coming out the entire Shabbos!” And then Schwarzwolf threw him into the barn and locked the door. That Shabbos, the rabbi was about to make kiddush, but at that very moment the cow relieved himself, and then he took out his challahs, but the chickens starting pecking at them, and then, on top of all that, he saw that a naughty rooster had relieved himself on the fish. There went his meal. So the rabbi crawled up in a corner and cried the entire Shabbos.
And by Shabbos afternoon, the rabbi wondered aloud, “Why do I insist on telling Hashem how I want my life to go? Hashem, whatever you’re going to do with me, do with me. I’m in Your hands.”

And at that moment the barn door burst open, and the rabbi saw somebody who looked vaguely familiar, whose face was shining, and that person said, “Come inside the house for 3rd meal.” And the rabbi saw the most gorgeous house with the wife and kids. And that man with the glowing face said, “You’re going to have a baby this year. We’ve been waiting for the moment you relinquish control and say ‘I’m in Your hands. And you will name the baby Schwarzwolf, after me.”

And the rabbi went back home. And that very year, the rabbi and his wife had a baby boy. And right before the bris, he heard people laughing. When he asked what had happened, they said: “Remember that lunatic, Schwarzwolf? They found him dead on the ground near the mikvah.” And the rabbi let out a great cry. And he told them the story of what had happened to him that Shabbos in the barn. And the rabbi took care of Schwarzwolf’s widow and orphans until the end of his life.
In our day to day life, especially as we grow older, we see there isn’t a single day that everything goes our way. You can get angry, you can kick and scream. Or you can say, “Hashem, I’m in your hands. Just guide me, just show me what to do,” and at that point, you will begin to see doors open up. There’s a huge amount of blessing in your life, you can’t imagine how much. All you have to do is give the treasure back to Hashem, and he will place it back into your hands.

Watch master storyteller Rabbi Fischel Schachter sharing this story:

6 comments

  1. Really needed to hear this today. Thank You!

  2. What I never get is how to decide when to act and when not to act. Eg this rabbi did “kick and scream” in the sense that he asked to get the blessing and said he HAD to get it or he couldn’t live. That doesn’t sound like accepting Hashem’s will to me. How do you know when you are “kicking and screaming” and when you are just doing the appropriate histadlut?

    • JewishMom

      I always hear that we are supposed to do reasonable hishtadlut, but I don’t really know how much “reasonable’ is…

  3. Rachel F

    If you want to hear the master story teller tell this story-look up shlomo Carlebach on his album “nachamu” telling the story of the “black wolf”

    • JewishMom

      I thought this story sounded familiar! I guess that’s why…

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