Rebbe and the Laundryman

The Gemora (Kesuvos 103a) records: On the day that Rebbe died, a Heavenly voice went forth and announced: “Whoever has been present at the death of Rebbe is destined for the life of the World to Come.” A certain laundryman who used to come before Rebbe every day, failed to come on that day. When he heard this (the announcement), he went up upon a roof, jumped to the ground and died. A Heavenly voice came forth and announced: “That laundryman also is destined for the life of the World to Come.”

The commentators ask: Who permitted him to commit suicide; it is evident from the Gemora that this laundryman was a wise man and a Torah scholar?

Ben Yehoyadah answers: This roof was not high off the ground and his intention was to fall on his feet. He did not wish to kill himself. His plan was to injure his feet that it should serve as an atonement for not attending Rebbe’s funeral procession. Heaven turned his plans around and he fell backwards, breaking his neck and bringing about his immediate death.

The Rama Mipano in his sefer Gilgulei Neshomos writes that Rebbe was the reincarnation of Avraham Avinu and the laundryman was the gilgul of Lavan. A laundryman whitens clothes as the name Lavan connotes. This was Lavan’s rectification.

He also says, along with many other commentators that Rebbe was a reincarnation of Yaakov Avinu and that is why the Gemora relates that Rebbe came back to life even after his death; this is because we know that Yaakov did not die.

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EATING MEAT ONLY ON SHABBOS - Yevamos 90 - Daf Yomi

The Mekubalim explain the custom of some Chassidim as to why they would not eat meat during the week. Our Gemora said that when the Kohanim eat the meat from a sacrificial offering, the owner receives atonement. There are wicked people who after their death. Their soul enters into an animal as a gilgul. When a person consumes this animal, the soul of the wicked person intermingles with the soul of the person who ate the animal. When he sleeps at night and the soul ascends to the Heaven, the two souls separate. The soul belonging to the wicked person remains in Heaven and receives atonement. This is what is meant that the owner receives atonement. This process could only be accomplished together with the sanctity of Shabbos. This also explains the opinion of Beis Shamai. When they saw an animal that had a spark of sanctity contained within it, they would save that animal for Shabbos.

Sefer Chemdas Yamim

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Daf Yomi - Megillah 14 - REINCARNATIONS

Rav Nachman said: Chuldah was a descendant of Yehoshua. Rav Eina the Elder asked Rav Nachman from a braisa which explicitly states that Chuldah was a descendant of Rachav, the innkeeper. Rav Nachman responded: Both statements are correct since Rachav converted and subsequently Yehoshua married her. The Gemora states that although Yehoshua did not have any sons; he did have daughters.

It is written [Breishis 39:10]: Now it came about when she (Potiphar, Pharaoh's chamberlain’s wife) spoke to Yosef day in and day out, that he did not obey her, to lie beside her and to be with her.

Rashi cites the Medrash: to be with her in the World to Come.

Rabbi Yonason Eibshitz asks: Where did Potiphar’s wife get the idea that she was destined to be with Yosef in the World to Come? He answers: It has been passed down through a tradition that Yehoshua was a gilgul (reincarnation) of Yosef and that Rachav was a gilgul of Potiphar’s wife.

It emerges that her words were accurate; though she was a bit hasty. Her soul was fated to be with Yosef’s soul but not in this lifetime. This attachment would have to wait until a later time when Yehoshua married Rachav.

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Daf Yomi - Taanis 8 - Reincarnations

Rabbi Ami said: Come and see how great are the people who trust in Hashem. Rabbi Ami points to the story of those who believe in the huldah u-bor - the rodent and the pit - arguing that if you believe in the huldah u-bor, certainly you can believe in Hashem.

It is interesting that the Gemora feels no need to explain what the story of the huldah u-bor entails, taking for granted that it was a story so well known that there was no need to put it in writing. Rashi and Tosfos both tell a short version of the story, but a lengthier version, whose source is in the traditions of the Ge'onim, appears in the Arukh.

As R. Natan ben Yehiel tells it in his Arukh, the story begins with a girl from a noble family who loses her way and, having fallen into a well while drinking, cannot manage to extract herself. A passerby hears her cries and shouts. After a lengthy conversation during which time he ascertains that she is, in fact, a woman and not a demon of some sort, he agrees to save her, on the condition that she will marry him. Upon lifting her from the well he wants to consummate the marriage immediately, but she objects, arguing that a Jewish man surely wants to marry according to the halacha and would not be interested in simply fulfilling animalistic urges. They agree to marry and appoint the well and a passing weasel as witnesses to their pact.

Upon returning home, she scrupulously kept her agreement, refusing the entreaties of all suitors. He, on the other hand, soon forgot the agreement and married another woman, who bore children - the first of whom was bitten by a weasel, the second of whom drowned in a well. Seeing that her children died under unnatural circumstances, she demanded an explanation from her husband, who admitted that he had promised another that he would marry her. They divorced and he searched for the woman who he had saved and promised to marry. When she refused him - as she did all others - he told her of the honest witnesses, the huldah u-bor, that brought him back to her. In the end they married and had many children, proving the passage in Tehillim (101:6) that God's eyes are upon the faithful who merit a close relationship with Him. (Courtesy of the Aleph Society)

The Rama Mipano writes that this man was a reincarnation of Yehoram who had taken two sons from the wife of Ovadia the Prophet and now he was being punished for this. He had taken those two sons by a well and every Motzoei Shabbos, the well of Miriam the Prophetess passes by all the wells in the world. The weasel in the incident had the spirit of Chuldah the Prophetess and they are the ones who punish Yehoram.

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