Last week, I met up with family members I haven’t seen for a while.

They were having a few issues, including not being able to sell their properties, one of which had been on the market for three years already, in the UK, with no decent offer on the table.

They aren’t frum – not even a little bit.

In the past, we’ve had a lot of issues over our differing worldviews and opinions about religion and God. But over the last few years, things have shifted to the point where we can now talk about our differences, and hear the other person out respectfully.

That’s huge.

==

So, they were talking about these two properties that haven’t sold for years….

And out of nowhere, I started talking about maybe you should do a pidyon for them…

I have very good friends, dati friends, that I have never mentioned pidyonot to, because I don’t want to get into an argument for nothing. But sitting there with our family, I suddenly blurted that out, and then, to my surprise, they at least wanted to hear what IS that? How is it meant to work?

Let’s pause, to bring something from Rabbenu, translated into English in His Wisdom, No: 175:

==

Before his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Rebbe said:

I don’t understand how tzaddikim make a pidyon and intercede on behalf of another.

There are 24 Heavenly courts.

When a person presents the redemption, the tzaddik must know in which court the person is being judged. If he does not know this, he may intercede and bring the redemption [pidyon] to one court while the person is actually being judged in another.

He must therefore know precisely in which court the man is being judged, and what particular intercession and pidyon are required by that particular court.

==

I know all 24 courts.

I can appeal a case from one court to another, through all 24 courts. If I do not agree with the judgment of one court, I can ask that he be judged in another court.

Going from one court to another is certainly beneficial. No matter what the final outcome, the sentence is still delayed. Because of this delay, the sentence can be reduced because of some merit on the part of the defendant.

Even if this does not help, I can still appeal directly to the King.

This takes great wisdom and effort, and no one else in this generation can do it.

==

This is Rabbenu speaking, but we explained some sort of dumbed-down version to our family, of how it all works spiritually.

Then, they wanted to know how it had worked for us, in the past.

So, we gave them literally half a dozen examples, including when we were trying to sell my MIL’s house for a year, a few years’ back, before Covid, with no offer at all, and then the week after we gave a pidyon for it (10,000 nis, if anyone wants to know the sort of sums we’re talking about) – we got an offer for slightly over the price we thought we could get for it.

Our family knew about that story, as they’d experienced it themselves, just, they didn’t know about the pidyon that we’d paid to get things moving.

==

Next, they wanted to know if it ever doesn’t work – if we ourselves ever paid a pidyon that hadn’t worked the way we hoped.

I told them honestly we had one ‘thing’ that the pidyon hadn’t been able to shift, but with hindsight, it was already clear to us why that one ‘thing’ couldn’t be shifted, and that it was for the best.

The wife was interested…. The husband was sceptical.

Just take the shirt off my back! He said with a cynical smile. I think I’m going to become a rabbi, it sounds like a good gig..

But the wife wanted to know who to give it to – because as Rabbenu tells us above, there is really only one person in the generation, who knows all 24 courts.

==

And then, we left it alone and changed the subject.

I was sure they weren’t going to do anything, the husband was way too sceptical.

==

Half an hour before Shabbat, I got a message from the wife.

She’d done a pidyon without mentioning it to her husband (she has her own funds) – and whaddya know?

They just had a cash offer for the house in the UK, that was actually acceptable.

She just wanted me to know that.

==

I asked my contact at Shuvu about the Rav’s Torah, that when it’s finished is meant to stop the war, etc.

They were hoping it would be ready by Shavuot, but now the scribe told them the latest, it’s ready by Simchat Torah.

Simchat Torah?!

What, this madness is going to continue for two whole years?!

I was a little disappointed.

But everything is for the best.

==

In the meantime, while the general ‘sweetening’ required for Am Yisrael seems to have been delayed a few months again, I want to urge you to do everything in your power to at least sweeten things for yourself.

As much as you can.

And that’s part of why I decided to post this story up.

There is still a lot of suffering going on, all around.

But if you believe in the True Tzaddikim, like Rebbe Nachman, like the Rav, at least enough to do an experiment, and if you aren’t totally sunken in the lust for money – there are options on the table, to help ameliorate things while we’re all waiting for dawn to break, generally.

Either it’s blood (dam), or it’s money (damim).

And I know which one I prefer.

==

May we all have a wonderful Shavuot.