The Piece of Chicken

In the time of the Alter Rebbe, there lived a bubby who had einiklach.

The most important thing to the bubby, was that her einiklach should learn Torah. Of course, she also wanted them to be healthy and have all the good things that a person needs, but the most important thing to her was Torah.

When the einiklach came home from yeshiva, and their bubby was home, she would ask them: “Vos hostu haint gelernt?—What did you learn today?”

So, they would all relate what they had learnt, each child in his own way. But when it was Shmuli’s turn to relate what he had learnt, there was a problem. What was the problem? The problem was that he could not remember the gemmora that he had learnt.

Shmuli remembered everything else, but not the gemmora! The bubby knew that something was wrong. Why wasn’t Shmuli able to remember the gemmora that he learnt?

The bubby da’avened to Hashem. She also said tehillim. She said: “Please Hashem, open Shmuli’s mind so that he would be able to learn gemmora!” The bubby was always da’avening to Hashem, so that He should help and Shmuli should be able to learn gemmora.

For a while, it seemed to the bubby that her tefilos were unanswered. But she knew better. “Hashem will send help soon,” she thought.

Well, Hashem did send help soon. One day, it was announced in the town that the great tzaddik, Rabbi Akiva Eiger, would be visiting. There would be a great celebration and everybody would have a chance to see the tzaddik in person.

That would be a very great z’chus—to see Rabbi Akiva Eiger and maybe even get a brocha from him.

That’s just what the bubby needed—a brocha. She needed a brocha so that her einikel Shmuli would be able to learn gemmora. So, when Rabbi Akiva Eiger came to town, the bubby was one of the first people to get in line to see him.

When the bubby’s turn came to go past the tzaddik, she broke down crying. She said to the tzaddik: “My grandson Shmuli can’t learn gemmora. Please, please give him a brocha! Please help him!”

Rabbi Akiva Eiger looked at the bubby and asked: “What has the boy been eating? What about the kashrus of the food that he has been eating?”

The bubby was so surprised! She could hardly move. Her family was very strict with kashrus. All the food that came into their house was one hundred percent kosher to the highest standards. Why would Rabbi Akiva Eiger say “What has the boy been eating?”

But, the line was going fast and the bubby had to leave the room.

As the bubby was walking home, she was thinking about what the tzaddik had said. It did not make too much sense that Shmuli had eaten non-kosher food. “Maybe,” she thought, “Shmuli ate something out of the house that he really should not have eaten.”

That really did not make too much sense either because in the bubby’s family, no one was allowed to eat anything outside the house. But maybe Shmuli had eaten something out of the house that was not kosher.

So, when the bubby got home, she asked Shmuli: “Shmuli, did you eat something outside of the house that you were not allowed to eat? Did you go to another home and eat something? There’s something you ate that you really shouldn’t have eaten.”

Shmuli looked at bubby and started to cry. “Bubby, one time I ate something that I think maybe I was not allowed to eat. Only one time!”

The bubby said: “Shmuli, one time is probably enough. What did you eat that one time?”

“Well,” Shmuli said, “one day, I was walking back from yeshiva with one of my friends. We walked past the chassunah hall and there was a chassunah going on at that time. There was singing and dancing and it was very lebidik.

“Then somebody came out of the building, with a very happy expression on his face. He saw us boys, and he said: ‘Boys! Come inside and have a piece of chicken! There is so much food here and it’s so lebidik! You can dance a little and I’ll give you a piece of chicken.’”

Shmuli continued: “My friend said: “Yeah! Let’s go inside, and let’s dance and have a piece of chicken! I am hungry anyway.’ I said: ‘I am hungry too, but I do not know about this chassunah. I was not invited and I do not know if I am allowed to eat this chicken.

“‘My parents are not here, and my bubby is not here either to tell me if I could eat this chicken or not.’ My friend wouldn’t take that for an answer he said: ‘Oh, don’t you know? All the chassunahs are here and I’m sure the chicken is good. Come on! Let’s go have a piece of chicken! It’ll only take a few minutes and it will be so much fun! We’ll dance and we’ll have some chicken.’

“So, I went along with my friend and we danced and then ate some chicken. After that, I wanted to leave right away, so that’s what we did. When we got back home, I didn’t tell anyone what had transpired, and this is the first time I am telling the story.”

When the bubby heard that, she said: “Do you remember when that chassunah was, Shmuli?”

Shmuli tried very hard to remember. It was such a long time ago. Finally, he remembered. He even remembered what day it was!

When Shmuli told his bubby what day the chassunah was, she quickly ran to the chassunah hall and went into a certain side room. In that room, there was a drawer with a notebook in it. The notebook listed each chassunah that took place in that hall.

Inside the notebook was noted the name of the chosson, the name of the kallah, the date that the chassunah took place, and other things like that.

The bubby wanted to see who was the shochet for the chassunah that Shmuli had eaten by. Maybe there was a problem with the way he shechted the chickens, she thought.

The bubby found the entry for that chassunah, and she took down the name of the shochet who shechted the chickens, and some other information.

Then the bubby left the hall, and set on her way to the shochet’s house. When she arrived there, she knocked on the door, and was let in.

She asked to speak to the shochet, and she was given a place to sit down. Soon the shochet appeared.

The bubby asked the shochet: “Do you remember shechting the chickens for this chassunah?” She then showed him a paper with the names of the chosson and kallah.

The shochet looked at the paper, and his face turned white. He said: “Yes, I do. But I’ll tell you, I’m very, very sorry if I caused any problems. What made you come here?”

The bubby then told the shochet the whole story with her einikel. She then asked: “Do you know if there was anything wrong with the chickens that you shected for that chassunah?”

“Well,” said the shochet. “Let me tell you the whole story.

“That chosson came to me before his chassunah and he asked me to shecht many chickens. Really, as a shochet, I was supposed to check a few things, to see who the chosson was and who the kallah was and if they were allowed to get married, according to halacha.

“But, then, I was busy and I needed money for my family. So, I just thought, I will shecht the chickens, get the money, and I do not have to worry about who the chosson is or who the kallah is.

“Later on, after the chassunah, I got a letter from the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe said that this man and this woman were not allowed to get married.”

The shochet continued: “Because of certain things that the man did, and certain things that the woman did, according to halacha, they were not allowed to get married.

“They would only be able to get married after they would fix up the things that they did. But, they were not careful to straighten out these things, and came to our town to get married here.

“The Alter Rebbe said that since this couple was getting married even though they were not allowed to, the chickens would not be kosher, no matter who shechted them.

“Since I did not check up to see who exactly the chosson and kallah were, I did not know that they were not allowed to get married, and I shechted the chickens. Only later I found out the chickens were considered treif,” concluded the shochet.

The bubby then saw that from this one time that her einikel ate this treife chicken, his head got “blocked up” and he was not able to learn gemmora.

Of course, there is always teshuva, so the bubby found out a way that her einikel could do teshuva.

Shmuli travelled to a different city and he learnt in the yeshiva there, day and night. He learnt with mesiras nefesh and he worked on himself so that he would be able to learn and understand the gemmora.

What do we learn from this story?

1. Something that seems to be a small thing might be a very big thing.

2. Nothing stands in the way of teshuva.