Holy Mamzers

There were once two friends, a boy and girl of four, who were both born in a brothel. They were not only despised by all those in the brothel but also by the townspeople. When they walked through the town, mothers would cry out to their children, “Keep away from them, surely they will infect you with vermin.”

The children of the town threw rocks at them, often pelting them. The boy and girl began to roam the town at night when it was most unlikely they would be spotted and harmed.

Once they happened on a cabin in the woods. They looked through the window and spotted a man studying very big books deep into the night. Sometimes he would pray and sing a melody without words. It was a great comfort to the children and often they would fall asleep on the porch. In the morning they would awaken and find themselves covered in a blanket with a small bag of food sitting nearby.

On other nights the man would have many students in his home.  He would tell them about the Holy One, about people called the tzadikim, and the great merit of praying to Hashem in their own words. The students called him “Rebbe.”  Night after night, the boy and girl sat under the window, listening intently to every word.

When the children would return to the brothel in the morning, their faces shined with light, and those in the brothel would become enraged at the sight of them. The boy and girl gathered some of the other children and told them stories about Hashem and the true tzadikim. On seeing this, the adults would scream at them, “Get out of here, you filthy rats,” and toss shoes and debris at them. One day, a few of the ruffians dragged them off and tossed them in a pit. They landed in a cavern deep in the earth.

It was dark in the cavern, and they felt very scared. They did not understand why everyone hated them. They longed for a mother and father to take care of them. They did their best to care for each other and often encouraged one another with the Rebbe’s words.

“Dark always comes before light,” said the boy.

“The Holy One is a loving Father that is always with us,” said the girl.

As they would sleep at night, their souls would be taken up to the Heavens where the angels would care for them. The souls of the tzadikim surrounded them and spoke words of truth, reminding them of the important mission they must do.

Their souls were very excited about their mission. As they descended to the earth and entered their bodies, the boy and girl would awaken. They were full of energy, excitement and happiness and always found a small bag of food beside them. By the time the afternoon arrived, however, they would once again be filled with doubts, fear and sadness.

The yetzer hara – the evil inclination – would torment them and say, “You will never get out of here. You are trapped forever. Nobody wants you anyway. Everybody hates you.”

One day the boy said, “We need to find a way out of this darkness.”

They searched all through the cave for an opening, but they could not find any possible way out through the mile of mazes that seemed to lead nowhere. At night they would curl up and cry feeling that there was no way out and they would be trapped forever.

“Maybe we should pray to Hashem like the Rebbe said to do,” the girl said.

And so they poured out their hearts to Hashem and asked Him to help them find the light and come closer to Him. “And please help anyone else trapped in darkness,” they said as they cried themselves to sleep.

As they had prayed, there was quite a ruckus in the Heavens. A great rumbling like thunder could be heard as a multitude of angels were given instructions and sent all over the world, and especially to the town where the children lived.

One man on the way to the brothel asked, “What am I doing with my life?” He turned around and darted into the forest. Upon reaching the freezing cold river, he tore off his clothes and jumped in, dunking himself under the water several times. “Hashem, forgive me. Hashem, cleanse me,” he yelled.

Another, pushed his beer aside at the tavern, laid his drunken head on his arms, and cried…. “I’m sorry, Hashem, please help me to stop drinking. Help me get my family back.”

One woman yelling at her children, stopped and hugged them. She grabbed their hands and took them outside to look up at the stars. “What a beautiful world G-d made,” she said, “What beautiful treasures He gave me when he gave me my children. I am sorry for yelling,” she said.

A lady at the brothel pulled a tattered book of Psalms from under the floorboards. She cried over the book as she remembered her grandfather who cried and prayed over the book night after night. She packed her bags, grabbed her child, and left. “With Hashem’s help, we are going to have a new life,” she said.

“If you believe things can be broken, believe they can be repaired,” her child said, repeating the words the boy and girl had told her.

Soon there was a long line of people at the Rebbe’s door waiting to talk with him, wanting his advice and to receive a blessing.

In the morning the children awoke and saw light streaming into the cavern. They ran to find a tunnel that lead to a higher level. They were happy and excited upon reaching the new level, but after a while, it seemed even darker than the previous one. They again cried their hearts out to Hashem, and more people in the town had a great yearning to return to Hashem. This pattern of going up a level, crying out and the town’s teshuvah continued for several days.

The boy and girl became very skilled at fighting the darkness.

“Dark before light,” the boy would say.

“If you can’t find anything else to make yourself happy, do something silly”, the girl would say.

And so they would jump and dance and do cartwheels and somersaults. They laughed themselves silly by saying funny Yiddish words.

The yetzer hara would say a lie, and they would say, “we need this like like we need a loch in cop (a hole in the head.)” And they would start laughing all over again.

Again the yetzer would say a lie, and they would sing “The yetzer is a nudnick (a pest) and one day it will plotz (explode) and be no more.”

During one of their times of silliness, after they had climbed several levels, the Rebbe appeared, and there was seen an opening out of the cave.

The Rebbe took the children by the hand, and brought them home to live with him and his wife. The Rebbe’s students were appalled at this. “How could you bring them here to live in your house? They are filthy mamzers – illegitimate children.”

The Rebbe was silent for a very long time. He looked at them, crying, and said, “Once there was a boy named David. Everyone mistakenly thought he was a mamzer and treated him as such. Yet, Samuel anointed him King of Israel… Five years ago there was a decree from Heaven for this entire town to be destroyed. A great pogrom was on the way. I could not stop the decree. These two lofty souls, whom you call “filthy,” willingly came down from the Highest Heavens to carry the shame and great suffering and to bring this town to do teshuvah. You are among the lives they have saved.”