Adapted from "A Treasury of Chassidic Tales - Festivals" (Artscroll)

Torrents of rain beat down on his face, but the tempest did not prevent Rabbi Leib Sarahs from reaching a village, only several hours before the beginning of  Yom Kippur. He was some distance from his intended destination, but he was relieved to learn that in this village too there would be a minyan with which to pray - eight local villagers would be joined by two men who lived in the nearby forest. He immersed himself in the purifying waters of a river in preparation for the holy day, ate the meal which precedes the fast, and hastened to be the first one in the little wooden synagogue. There he settled down to recite the various private devotions with which he was accustomed to inaugurate the Day of Atonement.

" The doors of repentance are not locked even in the face of an apostate..."

One by one the eight local villagers arrived in time to hear the words of Kol Nidrei - but there was no minyan, for it transpired that the two Jewish foresters had been arrested on some malicious lie.

"Perhaps we could find just one more Jew living around these parts?" asked Reb Leib.

"No," the villagers all assured him, "there's only us."

"Perhaps," he persisted, "there lives here some Jew who converted out of the faith of his fathers?"

The villagers were shocked to hear such an odd question from the stranger. They looked upon him quizzically.

"The doors of repentance are not locked even in the face of an apostate," Reb Leib continued. "I have heard from my teachers that even when one poles about in the ashes one can light upon a spark of fire..."

One of the villagers now spoke up.

"There is one apostate here," he ventured. "He is our paritz, the squire who owns this whole village. But he has been sunk in sin for forty years now. You see, the gentile daughter of the previous squire fell in love with him. So her father promised him that if he converted and married the girl, he would make him his sole heir. He didn't withstand the temptation, so he did exactly that."

"Did his gentile wife bear him any sons or daughters?" asked Reb Leib.

"No," they all chorused. "She died some years ago, and he was left childless."

"Show me his mansion," said Reb Leib.

" They stood in silence face to face, the tzadik and the apostate..."

He removed his talit in a flash, and ran as fast as he could in the direction of the mansion, with his white kipa on his head and his white kittel billowing in the wind. He knocked on the heavy door, opened it without waiting for a response, and found himself confronting the squire. For a few long, long moments they stood in silence face to face, the tzadik and the apostate. The latter's first thought was to summon one of his henchmen to seize the uninvited intruder and hurl him into the dungeon in the back yard. But the luminous countenance and the penetrating eyes of the tzadik softened his heart.

"My name is Leib Sarahs," began the visitor. "It was my privilege to know Reb Yisrael, the  Baal Shem Tov, who was admired even by numerous noblemen. From his mouth I once heard that every Jew should utter the sort of prayer that was first said by King David: 'Save me, O Lord, from blood-guilt.' But the word used for 'blood' can also be translated as 'money'. So my Teacher expounded the verse as follows: "Save me, so that I should never regard money as my Lord...'

"Now, my mother, whose name was Sarah, was a holy woman. One day the son of one of the local gentry took it into his head to marry her, and promised her wealth and status if she would agree. Instead, however, she sanctified the name of Israel. In order to save herself from that villain she quickly got married to an old Jewish pauper who was a schoolteacher.

"You did not have the good fortune to withstand the test, and for silver and gold you were willing to apostatize. Realize, though, that there is nothing that can stand in the way of repentance. Moreover, there are those who in one hour earn their portion in the World to Come. Now is that hour! Today is the eve of Yom Kippur. The sun will soon set. The Jews who live in your village are short one man to make up a minyan. Come along now with me, and be the tenth man. For the  Torah tells us: The tenth shall be holy unto G-d."

" One of the villagers handed the apostate a talit..."

The squire paled at the words spoken by this man with the singular face and who was clothed in white. And meanwhile, down the road, the eight local villagers waited in the synagogue, huddled together in frozen dread. Who could tell what calamity this odd stranger was about to bring down upon their heads?

The door burst open, and in rushed Reb Leib, followed closely by the paritz. The latter's gaze was downcast, and his eyelashes were heavy with tears. At a sign from Reb Leib, one of the villagers handed the apostate a talit. He enveloped himself in it, covering his head and face entirely. Reb Leib now stepped forward to the Holy Ark, and took out two Scrolls of the Torah. One he gave to the oldest villager present, and the other - to the paritz. Between them at the podium stood Reb Leib, and he began to solemnly chant the traditional tune: "By the sanction of the Almighty, and by the sanction of the congregation, ...we declare it permissible to pray together with those who have sinned...."

A deep sigh broke forth from the depths of the broken man's heart. No man there could stand unmoved, and they all wept with him. Throughout all the prayers of the evening, and from dawn of the next day right until nightfall, the paritz stood in prayer, humbled and contrite. And, as his sobs shook his whole body as he recited the confession, the other nine shuddered with him.

At the climax of the Ne'ila service, when the congregation were about to utter together the words "Shema Yisrael", the paritz leaned forward until his head was deep inside the Holy Ark, embraced the Torah Scrolls that stood there, and in a mighty voice that petrified those present cried out: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is One!" He then stood up straight, and began to declare with all his might: "The Lord is G-d!" With each repetition his voice grew louder. Finally, as he cried it out for the seventh time, his soul flew from his body.

That same night they brought the remains of the paritz to burial in the nearby town. Reb Leib himself took part in the purification and preparation of the body for burial, and for the rest of his life observed the yahrzeit of this penitent every Yom Kippur by saying  Kadish for the elevation of his soul.

Yerachmiel Tilles is the Co-founder of Ascent-of

Rabbi Leib Sarahs (17 Tammuz 1730 – 4 Adar B 179

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