"The Baal HaTanya Picked Up the Rusty Coin from the Floor and Began to Kiss It"

Today, the 24th of Teves, is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of passing) of the Baal HaTanya, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi zy"a (may his merit protect us). Our teacher, Rabbi Berland shlit"a, mentions the Baal HaTanya frequently in his lessons. Below is a very fascinating story shared by the Rav shlit"a in 1995 regarding the greatness of the Baal HaTanya and how he perceived the good within every single Jew!

Every person has a specific point that can bring them back in teshuvah (repentance). This is illustrated by a story told about the Baal HaTanya and the Admor (Chassidic leader) of Vitebsk—and perhaps the third was Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin. There was a certain individual whom the authorities wanted to execute, and they needed a ransom of ten thousand rubles to save his life. They only had a few hours to collect the money, and it is impossible to collect such a sum door-to-door in just a few hours. So, they went to the Baal HaTanya to ask for his advice. He said, "My advice is that you must listen to me; that is my advice. Do exactly what I tell you!" There was no other choice. The Baal HaTanya possessed an incredibly sharp and fast mind; his greatness lay in his mind's ability to race ahead. When a person has a "crack" or an opening, he already sees it. He knows which gvir (wealthy man) to approach and what to say to him—this one will give five thousand rubles, that one two thousand, another one thousand. Ten such wealthy men giving a thousand each equals ten thousand. If each visit takes five minutes, ten visits take fifty minutes. He certainly had a plan running through his head. He said, "Fine, but only after you promise not to deviate from my word—do not budge from my instructions." He then said, "We are going now to the stingiest man in the city. We are going to the greatest miser, who is nicknamed 'The Rusty Penny.' That was his name because anyone who came to him for charity would have a rusty penny thrown in their face. A rusty penny! And the poor person would throw it back at him—today we have a concept like volleyball... until the poor person got fed up and left. Then the miser would pick up the penny and say, 'This is all I can give you.'" [The Baal HaTanya said:] "We are going only to him!" Well, they saw they had fallen into a trap, but they had already committed to following the Baal HaTanya. They had given their word, and they could not retract it, for tzaddikim (righteous men) stand by their word. So, they went to him and knocked on the gate, and the man threw a penny at them. The Baal HaTanya caught the rusty penny, kissed it, and hugged it. "What a tzaddik you are! What a tzaddik! What a baal chesed (master of kindness)! What self-sacrifice (mesirus nefesh)! The money you work so hard for with the toil of your hands, for which you give your soul day and night—you have set aside such a great amount for tzedakah (charity)!" The wealthy man’s eyes bulged; suddenly, he began to "light up." He had always wanted to donate, and finally, thank God, there was someone who appreciated it. A Jew had arrived who valued the toil of his hands and his self-sacrifice. "Let’s see what he does next!" Well, the man said, "If that’s the case, I’m sorry, what can I really do? It’s true, I feel very bad, it’s a shame, but this is all I can do [meaning, this is all I can donate, and he refused to give more than the penny]." The others—the Tzaddik of Vitebsk and the Karliner—wanted to confront the Baal HaTanya. "Where have you brought us? To this place? We’ve already wasted an entire hour on your nonsense! To go and sit there, taking a penny and kissing and hugging it!" The Baal HaTanya said, "No, wait, wait." The man called out, "Wait, come back, I’ll give you another penny." [The Baal HaTanya] took the second penny, kissed it, and hugged it. "What a man of self-sacrifice! I think you are unique in the generation (chad bedara)!" He called him unique in the generation... "Who performs such self-sacrifice? A person works for money, yes, and brings it for tzedakah—does he not need it for his children? For his wife?" And he continued to praise him and praise him. Finally, the Baal HaTanya said, "Okay, we can go now." As they were leaving, [the miser] called them back [with another] ten pennies. "Take more!" [And the Baal HaTanya] kissed the ten pennies and praised him. "It seems you are unique in two generations (tari dara), not just one! Apparently, even in the previous generation, there wasn't someone like this who would give ten pennies! Who has heard of such a thing? Who has heard of such a thing since the creation of the world!" They wanted to leave again, but he told them, "Come, come back!" and he gave them a whole ruble. The Baal HaTanya took the ruble and said, "Unique in three generations (telat dara)! Who gives a ruble to tzedakah? Where have we heard of such a thing? A ruble for tzedakah? A man, such a gvir (wealthy man) who works so hard for his money!" And so it went, ten or twenty times, each time kissing the money. It became a ruble, then ten rubles, then 100 rubles, 200 rubles, 1,000 rubles, and 5,000 rubles, until he gave the entire 10,000 rubles. Five minutes before the deadline [the final hour to ransom the Jew], literally the last five minutes, they ran with the money to redeem that Jew. In the end, they asked the Baal HaTanya, "What is happening here? Who are you? What kind of ideas do you have? What wisdom? From where...?" He replied, "Look, this Jew—every Jew has a good heart. Every Jew wants to give tzedakah. There is no such thing as a Jew without it! Every Jew has a spark (nitzotz)!" This man had once become a millionaire and was famous as a gvir, but becoming a gvir doesn't happen in one day. Suddenly, it became known that there was a millionaire in the town, so people came to him. In his "holy way"—I know, he was once a simple Jew and it was comfortable for them—someone gave him something worth a penny. In short, that poor man who received the penny for the first time [when the man was already wealthy] got angry. He caught it and threw it in the man's face. He was so annoyed: "You give me a penny? Aren't you ashamed?" And he threw it in his face. [The rich man said,] "This is what I will give to every poor person from now on. I will take revenge on everyone until I find someone who appreciates my penny." And that penny became rusty, with many layers of rust. The Baal HaTanya saw all of this with his Ruach HaKodesh (Divine Inspiration)—that the one giving this rusty penny has a burning heart! A burning Jewish heart! A Jewish heart that longs to give tzedakah! A Jewish heart that wants to bring Mashiach ben David! He doesn't know how to bring Mashiach ben David, but that is how the heart is, even when it is covered with rust [in the end, he just needs someone to come and appreciate his tzedakah, and then he will open up].