האלך וקראתי לך אשה מינקת מן העבריות (שמות ב:ז)

A woman once came to the Baal Shem Tov zt’l and cried that she had married for a long time and didn’t merit children.  The Baal Shem Tov blessed her, and within a year, the woman gave birth to a son.

When the boy turned two years old, the parents brought the child to the Baal Shem Tov for a bracha.The Baal Shem Tov placed the child on his lap, kissed him, and returned him to his parents.

A short while later, tragedy struck.  The child passed away.  The pained parents came to the Baal Shem Tov crying and shared their tragedy.  The Baal Shem Tov consoled them by sharing a story.

“A king owned a huge palace with many servants, advisors, and riches.  One day, he summoned his chief advisor and asked, “Who will inherit my kingdom if I don’t have children? I’m thinking of asking the Jews to pray for me for a child, and then I’ll absolve them from taxes.”

The chief advisor replied, “The king should rather tell the Jews that if by the end of the year, the king isn’t blessed with a child, he will expel them from the land.”

The king accepted his advice and informed the Jews that if a child weren’t born to him, he would expel them.  The Yidden gathered together. They did teshuvah and cried and prayed to Hashem to help the king on their behalf.  Their prayers were accepted, and the king had a baby boy.

The king hired the head priest to learn with the prince when the child grew older. The priest asked that the king allow him two hours of private time in a locked room so that he could study by himself. The king agreed, and the priest and the prince formed a beautiful study partnership.

One day, the prince was curious to see what the priest did behind locked doors during those two hours. He found the key to the room and quietly opened the door.  He was shocked to find the priest draped in a tallis and tefillin. The priest fainted from shock, but the prince quickly revived him and asked for an explanation. The priest swore him to secrecy, and from then on, the two started learning the Torah together.

With time, the prince was aroused to the light of the Torah and wanted to travel far away to convert to Judaism.  The priest advised him to tell the king he wanted to learn different wisdom from other countries and ease the separation between father and son. He will separate from his father a little bit more each day. With time, the king won’t miss his son anymore.

The prince did so, and after some time, he traveled to a different country where he converted and became an ehrliche Yid. They all spoke well about him, and when he passed away and faced the Beis Din Shel Malah (the heavenly courts), one Malach (angel) commented that since he was nursed by a non-Jew for the first few years of his life, his neshama needs to return to earth for that period as a tikkun – to make amends.”

The Baal Shem Tov concluded, “You, dear parents, were chosen to have such a holy neshama in your home for two years.  These two years passed, and his neshama’s tikkun was accepted!”