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207 27 The Gentile Beggar’s Secret T O L D B Y E S T H E R W E I N S T E I N T O Y E H U D I T G U T - B U R G Apoor Jew with many children came to see the rebbe. The Jew was a tailor by profession—he patched up the garments of poor Jews and gentiles —and his name was H.ayyimYankel. His circumstances could hardly have been worse, yet they got more serious from day to day. So it was no wonder that the Jew complained to the rebbe about his bitter lot. The rebbe pressed the tailor’s hand. “The old beggar Ivan is ill,” he said, “and will die soon. They will sell his clothes for almost nothing.You must go buy them. Rip his clothes apart, and with God’s help you’ll be rich. But don’t tell anyone what I have said.” The tailor H.ayyim Yankel swore to keep the secret. “But Rebbe,” he added, “I don’t even have money to buy the clothes.” The rebbe put his hand in his pocket, took out a few coins, and gave them to the tailor. “Use this money to buy the clothes. But don’t wash them and don’t shake them. To be doubly safe I’ll send my shammes* to help you.” The rebbe blessed the tailor, and he set off, accompanied by the rebbe’s shammes. The two set out. They traveled all night by train, reaching the tailor’s town at daybreak. What should they hear, but that the poor gentile, Ivan the beggar, had died, and there was no money for a coffin. H.ayyimYankel and the shammes went to the deceased’s hovel, where they found an old man who was watching the corpse and sighing that there was no money to pay for the funeral. “How much do you need?” H.ayyimYankel asked the old man. “Fifty gulden.” “What will you give me for that sum?” “There is nothing except for these rags,” said the watcher, pointing to the tattered clothes in the bare room. *Synagogue caretaker.  208  Folktales of the Jews: Volume 2 H.ayyimYankel paid over the sum requested, took the bundle of wornout clothing, and went home with the shammes. Late that night, after midnight, the two ripped the clothes apart. Sewn into them they found many bank notes, along with a brief note and an amulet. According to the note, its owner was a Jew who had been kidnapped by Gypsies when he was a child and had grown up with them. When he was eleven, his grandfather came to him in a dream. “You are a Jew,” he told him. “Run away from this place to the Jews. Tell them that you are a Jew and have to put on tefillin* in two more years. After that go off someplace where they don’t know you, put on gentile clothes, and wear them for the rest of your life.” While H.ayyim Yankel and the shammes were reading this document, the rebbe showed up. The three set out for the Christian cemetery, removed Ivan’s body from its coffin, and took the corpse to the Jewish cemetery. Of course they left the coffin in the Christian cemetery. They erected a stone over the new grave in the Jewish cemetery, with Ivan’s Jewish name, as written in the note. The next day, they distributed the bank notes to poor people, orphans, and widows. A number of years later, some Jews, the brothers of the kidnapped Jew, happened to visit the Jewish cemetery. On the gravestone they saw the name of their brother who had been kidnapped by Gypsies when he was a child. They were very glad that he had at least had a Jewish burial and told the rebbe so. The rebbe sighed. “I brought your brother to a Jewish grave with my own hands,” he said. “I learned about him from an old peasant, who told me that he was a Jew but no one knew, because outwardly Ivan behaved like a gentile in every respect. Once he had a wife and two daughters, but he died alone, in a tiny bare room, because his wife left him and took their daughters with her. He was poor and needy all his life and suffered greatly. May his memory be blessed, for he was a righteous...

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