One of the leaders of the Misnagdim from Mezhibuzh had an only daughter. She became very ill. So he hired two Jews to watch over her during the night and administer her medication. But everything the doctors tried did not help. 

The wives started to convince the mother – that they should try to go to the Besht. 

She started to pester her husband until he agreed and promised that he would go to the Besht. 

However, since he was the head of the Misnagdim he was ashamed to travel during the day, and he quietly went by night to visit the Besht.

The Besht promised him that his daughter would be helped and would receive a cure from the Garden of Eden.

At night, there was a knock on the door and a Jew entered. He was dressed like a wagon driver with his whip in hand. One of the Jews-watchmen locked himself up, and the second was afraid to do anything. The wagon driver approached the sick girl and gave her something to smell under her nose and said: “I am bringing a remedy from the Garden of Eden. Tomorrow I will come again.” 

In the morning, they immediately noticed that the sick girl’s appearance changed drastically – she was so much better.

They swiftly ran to the Besht and Told him what happened.

The Besht instructed that when the Jew dressed as a wagon driver comes again, they should send him to him. 

At night, he came again and once again brought a remedy. So they sent him to the Besht.

The Besht asked him: “Who are you?” He answered: “I have already been dead for hundreds of years. I was a wagon driver and once traveled in the forest. I heard a heart-rending cry: oy vey – Help! Help!” He saw that a man was hanging from a very high place on a tree, and he was leaning on a weak branch to prevent his weight from [bearing down with the rope tied around his neck, thereby] chocking [and killing] him. But the branch was breaking, and it was only a matter of time before he would chock [to death].

The wagon driver saw that if he simply cut the rope, the Jew would fall and could break his head. So he figured out a way to place the wagon beneath the Jew. Thus, when he cuts the rope, he will fall into the wagon. This is indeed what happened, and the Jew was saved. 

When the wagon driver died and appeared before the Heavenly Tribunal, they weighed his Mitzvos and Aveiros [good deeds and transgressions], and the Mitzva of saving a life so drastically outweighed all his transgressions, that they admitted him to the Garden of Eden (Paradise) among the Jews of great spiritual rank. He, the wagon driver, did not feel comfortable amongst the great scholars and Tzadikim – he was after all a simple wagon driver. So they had mercy on him and appointed him as an emissary to do good deeds. And when a “cure from the Garden of Eden” is required, he is sent. 

I.F.

Dovid Fishman