The Clock of the Seer of Lublin
ough he had no money, he had no choice but to stop, so when he saw a little motel on the way, he entered. He sat down and ordered a cup of tea and sipped it slowly. After two hours, when he saw that the rain was coming down stronger he ordered another cup of tea and then another. At midnight, the owner of the motel offered him a room because he wanted to close the lobby. Since he was not able to pay for the tea and he could not leave in the rain, he decided to stay in the room.
The rain continued as if the heavenly pipes have opened up like they have not since the time of the floods of Noah. One day passed and then one after the other, and the rain did not stop. The entire time the owner of the motel is feeding Rabbi Yosef and he knows that when the time would come to pay he would have nothing to pay with. On the fourth day, the rain had finally stopped. He wanted to take leave and continue his journey. He turned to the owner of the hotel and said, “I have nothing to pay with. Tell me how much I owe you, and I will pay as soon as possible.” The owner replied, “How will I know that you will come back and pay me since I do not know you at all. Open the bag you have and I will see if there is something that you have that I can use.” Rabbi Yosef opened the bag and took out his father’s kapota (Chassidic jacket) and clock and said to the motel owner, “I want you to know that this clock and coat belonged to my holy father, the Seer of Lublin. Please choose what you would prefer.” The motel owner could not decide by himself if they were valuable so he called on his wife to come and give her opinion. His wife looked at the coat and said, “It is a beautiful jacket. But everyone knows that since you are not a holy Rabbi, they will just say that you are being arrogant, and it will ruin your reputation. Let’s take the clock, and that way we can milk our cow regularly. The cow will be happy and we will be happy that we will be able to milk her before the milk goes sour.” They took the clock and Rabbi Yosef left. The motel owner and his wife hung up the clock in their bedroom. For many years to come they were happily milking the cow.
Many many years later another righteous man came to the motel. His name was Rabbi Dov Ber of Radoshitz. The motel owner recognized him and gave him his own bedroom. He and his wife went to sleep in the smaller bedroom below. The whole night, the motel heard Rabbi Dov pacing in the bedroom. He could not fall asleep. In the morning, Rabbi Dov came for breakfast. The motel owner asked Rabbi Dov, “Why couldn’t you sleep. Was the room not comfortable?” Rabbi Dov asked the motel owner, “Where did you get the clock that is in your bedroom?” The motel owner explained to him that the son of the seer of Lublin once had slept there and did not have money to pay with, so he gave him the clock. Since then, the cows have been happy to be milked on time. Rabbi Dov told him, “I want you to know that this is not just an ordinary clock. I used to learn Torah from the Seer of Lublin. When we were sitting and learning Torah, we would hear this clock ticking in the background. The ticking of an ordinary clock marks that a second passes by and is not coming back. Another moment was burned. But the clock of the Seer of Lublin, reveals that the Messiah is closer to us by another moment. Every second that goes by brings us closer to the redemption.”
On the same note, When I was 18 years old, there was a young man sitting next to me reading a Playboy magazine. I asked the young man, “What are you doing?” We started talking. I asked him, “Are you enjoying what you are doing?” “Every night I go to sleep and pray that I should be a different human being,” answered the young man. I said to him that, “I go to sleep thankful to G-d for what I do in life. Every night I pray to G-d that I will be learning Torah the next day just like I did today.”
