Short Stories About The Hasidic Man, Rabbi Samet…
If a person is blessed, he’ll meet a man one day, a Hasidic man who is more than the kippa on his head, more than the tzitzit hanging beside his legs, more than the mitzvot he performs, and more than the Torah that he studies.
A Jew can perform all the mitzvot in the world, and he can do everything by the letter of the law. But if he has no ethics and no light within him, no humility, joy, peace, giving, and happiness, what good is all the mitzvot in the world?
I am that blessed person. Because on my first day in Otisville Prison, I met a smiling Hasidic man with pe’ot. Little did I know this man would change my life forever. I would never look at the world the same. Ever since H-Shem connected me with Rabbi Samet, I lived my life with a new sense of emmunah and bitachon in H-Shem.
Rabbi Samet was serving a 27-year prison sentence. He was already 15 years in when I met him. But looking at this Hasidic man, you would never think he spent a second in prison! This man embodied what it meant to have emmunah and bitachon in H-Shem. He is a living emmunah who taught me that no matter where you are, you are precisely where H-Shem wants you to be.
I Can Go Home Any Day
One of the most amazing things about Rabbi Samet was that he never stopped believing that he could go home and be set free. Not from the judge, lawyer, or any advocate, only from H-Shem. And every day he spent more in prison, his conviction became greater in believing that he could be freed.
“I can go home any day,” he would tell me. I used to ask him how much time he had left. But that was his only answer. The time he had done and the time he had left was entirely up to H-Shem.
Sandwiches and Torah
I had the merit to study Gemara with Rabbi Samet every day for a year straight!
But one thing about Rabbi Samet was that he loved to give, mainly to provide food. Every day we studied Torah, he would come with a brown paper bag stuffed with one of his famous tuna sandwiches, with pickles and mayo.
Not only did he care about my spiritual health, but it was a must that he would physically make sure that I was alright. I’ll never forget Rabbi Samet’s Torah sandwiches.
These Days Will Be Happy Days, Have Emmunah
Rabbi Samet wasn’t only my Torah teacher. He was my spiritual guide and a father figure to me. In a place we call prison, where men aren’t men, Rabbi Samet was the man I needed in my life. I don’t know how I could’ve grown if it weren’t for him.
I would tell him everything. Anything that I was struggling with, my spiritual and religious questions, my anxiety, my issues. I would even complain to him about being such a young man in prison and how hard it is.
He Always Told Me The Truth
“You’re lacking emmunah,” he would tell me. That’s all he would say. But the question begs, how could I pour my heart out to him, and all he tells me is to have more emmunah? He’s smart, he’s soft, he’s caring. Again, how can the only thing he says to me is that I need to have more emmunah?
But I want everyone to know that this comes from a man who went through 19 and a half years of prison, a challenge from H-Shem that most couldn’t face. So to me, this was not a man to be questioned. This was a man to be understood. And on those days when he would tell me that I lacked emmunah, he answered every question I had or would ever have. It’s the fact that the essence of a Jewish man is to have a simple and complete emmunah.
Whatever you are going through, depression, anxiety, or suffering, you must have the emmunah to say that whatever I am going through is straight from H-shem. And not only from Him but for our ultimate good.
A person can go back and forth all day about his problems. But when he says with utter simplicity, “thank you, H-shem. I believe that what’s happening is from You,” that person is complete. He fulfilled his mission on this earth.
So when Rabbi Samet would tell me to have more faith, it was the best answer I could ever receive. Simple and beautiful, and authentic.
Separation, Release, and Reunification
When Covid-19 hit, Rabbi Samet and I were sadly separated. We were housed in different housing units, which was the most significant blow to my soul. Here I was, getting one-on-one spiritual guidance and Torah study, and just like that, it was gone.
In all honesty, I didn’t care about getting infected with Covid. I was more concerned and depressed that I wasn’t learning from Rabbi Samet.
He would send me sandwiches still through the cafeteria workers. He was housed with the cafeteria workers. So when it was our turn for our housing unit to eat, the cafeteria worker would hand me off the brown bag with Rabbi Samet’s famous Torah sandwiches.
But eventually, with the help of H-Shem, this Hasidic man was released early from prison, just like he knew would happen every day. He did 19 and a half years of his 27-year sentence. And what better day to be released than Erev Rosh Hashana! This story reminds me of when he told me with a big smile, “H-Shem is here in Otisville.” Yes, He was.
I was ecstatic for him. And once again, my emmunah increased. I witnessed this man proclaim that he would be freed early every day. People thought he was crazy, but Rabbi Samet wasn’t crazy. We learn from him that emmunah isn’t emmunah if it doesn’t look crazy!!
And eventually, 2 years later, it was my turn for release. The first place I went was to Rabbi Samet’s shul! We davened in a minyan, said the blessing of hagomel upon being released from prison, and I soaked up my reunification with Rabbi Samet. I was blessed to be able to pray next to him as two free men!
What Came Out With You
When Rabbi Samet and I used to study, he would always stress to me that when we were released, the yetzer hara wouldn’t go away. Actually, the yetzer hara would only grow more complicated and cunning. It would be a more vigorous battle to live in the free world.
So when I said my goodbyes to Rabbi Samet after we prayed as free men in his shul and on the way to the airport to fly to Las Vegas, he asked me a crucial question.
“What came out with you from prison?”
“The yetzer hara,” I answered.
He nodded his head in approvement. And before we said our goodbyes, he reiterated the importance of understanding that we are on a battlefield. This is a war against the yetzer hara and to do the right thing by H-Shem. We said our goodbyes, but we would always be connected.