A Pillar of Fire | Rabbi Elimelech Biderman

When the Rebbe, the Bas Ayin, was in Tzefas, he would not leave his apartment. Who can understand secrets of the holy? He would be closed in his room, emersed in Torah and prayer. Once he saw from the window a funeral passing by for a simple Sefardic Jew. A simple Jew. He joined the funeral until they finished the burial. And everyone was wondering, Why is he leaving the house? And walking along for the whole funeral? What happened? In the middle of the purifying ritual, the Chevra Kadisha stepped out and asked the widow, Why are his feet black? So the widow said, That’s an old story, from after our wedding. What happened? He needed Parnassah, so he was a peddler going around the villages, going to different cities to sell all kinds of things. He was overseas, abroad, to sell things, and then the daughter of a king wanted him very much, and the king decreed that he should marry her, and he couldn’t refuse. What was he to do? And they already made up a date for the wedding, all of the guests were there, and in the middle of the wedding hall was a large barrel of burning coals to warm up the hall. And this Jew knew that the gates of Gehenom are open here, he’s going to marry a Non-Jewess. So he went and jumped onto the coals. They immediately understood that they’re dealing here with a madman, jumping onto coals. They caught him by his ears and threw him out, and this way he was rid of this whole Nisayon. The Bas Ayin then said that he came out to the funeral, because he saw from the window, when the מיטה (bier) passed by, a pillar of fire going in front of the מיטה. A pillar of fire, says the Gemara in מסכת כתובות, comes out for only one in a generation, because it hints that no one in this generation is worthy of standing beside the מיטה. He was a simple Sefardic Jew. One jump onto coals, running away from an Aveira one time, look what he did. A pillar of fire that comes out for only one in a generation. If such a pillar of fire came out, imagine was a reception he got in heaven, and what a Shefa we will get in this world for Shmiras Einayim.