The Kelmer Maggid came to a city where a modern Talmud Torah had been erected. The leaders wanted the new school to receive a certain amount of the charity money that belonged to the old school. A heated argument arose and the Kelmer Maggid was asked to give his opinion. So he rose and addressed the people in his own inimitable way:
“My good friends, I want to tell you a story. A man arrived at the gates of paradise dressed in modern clothes, with a trimmed beard in the fashion of a Frenchman. He wanted to enter. Father Abraham, who stands near the entrance, approached him and asked, ‘Who are you?
‘I am the Vilner Maggid,’ the man explained. Abraham stared the newcomer’s attire and repeated, ‘You are the Vilner Maggid?’ Tell me, in which synagogue did you preach?’
After a few similar questions that man broke down and confessed. ‘The truth is that I am a former actor of a Vilna theatre. When I acted on the stage, I impressed my audience to such an extent that they had shared many a tear. Tell me, Father Abraham, am I not a preacher who is worthy of being in paradise?’
‘Perhaps you are right,’ Abraham replied, ‘but in the meantime you cannot come in. You will have to wait until one of your listeners whose life has been improved by your speeches comes here. Then both of you will enter.’
“Now, my friends,” the Maggid said, “you are probably anxious to know what happened to that man. I can tell you that he is still waiting near the entrance of paradise for a follower whom he had turned into a tzaddik to arrive. I can say the same in reference to your new Talmud Torah, which boasts that it will produce scholars of great learning and wisdom. My decision is that we should wait until we see one outstanding personality out of this modern school. Somehow I feel that we have to wait a long time, like that actor still standing near the gates of paradise.”
Remain true to who you were born to be.
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