Rebbe Motl of Kalshin was a successful entrepreneur. He spoke Polish fluently and interacted with influential people in the Polish government. One day, the authorities in Warsaw were about to pass a law forcing Jews to burn all sections of the Shulchan Aruch (code of Jewish law) devoted to civil and criminal law, in order to force them to settle their lawsuits in Polish courts and thus weaken the authority of the rabbis.
When news of these plans reached the Jews, Rebbe Yitzchak of Worka invited Rebbe Motl to his office for a conversation and asked him to meet with an influential government official to convince him to abandon the bill. Rebbe Motl was horrified.
- Do you understand what you’re asking for? - he protested. “This official is simply crazy, his hatred of Jews knows no bounds. Besides, I heard that he vowed to kill anyone who tried to convince him to change his position on legislative matters! Talking to him on this topic is certain death for me. And in general, it is madness to hope that he will change his position.
Rebbe Isaac listened to this tirade calmly and said:
— Do you think that when Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses) went to Pharaoh to demand freedom for the enslaved Jews, he was not afraid?
“Of course, I was afraid,” answered Rabbi Motl. - Who wouldn’t be afraid in his place?!
- Here!.. He was afraid that the pharaoh would kill him and their meeting would be of no use. That's why God told him to "Come to Pharaoh" "Come" and not "go." God knew that Moses was afraid, so he said, “Come with Me to Pharaoh.” The same goes for you. If you go alone, you are doomed, but if you go with God, you will succeed.
Rabbi Motl's fear melted away, and he fearlessly went to Warsaw. While talking with the official, he was fearless and cheerful. The Pole did not even manage to get angry with the rebbe and immediately granted his request.
Commentary by Rami Shapiro Where is the source of fear? Some say that we are afraid of the unknown, but this is nonsense. If something is truly unknown, how can we be afraid of it? No, we are afraid of our own projections. We awaken in our imagination the greatest horrors from the past, project them onto events and act accordingly. That is, we react not to what is actually happening, but to what we have imagined.
God offers something different. Whenever you need to face the enemy, God speaks to you with the words: “Come to Pharaoh.” This means: “When you decide to go to Pharaoh, you will come to Me through Pharaoh. Come to Me through confrontation with the enemy, looking into his heart and finding one heart beating in the chest of both of you.”
God commanded us to “know the soul of the stranger” (Exodus 23:9) because each of us is such a stranger. To know an alien is to know your own heart. To know your own heart is to realize that God is both in you and in the stranger.
Such knowledge will fill you with courage and joy, thanks to which you will be able to embrace the stranger and invite him to come to the Lord through you.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru