Sun Mar 9 2003

The fish speaks up

By Gronem the SHISTER, HasidicNews.com Writer

New Square (HN) - Two weeks ago tuesday four o'clock in the afternoon, a fish reportedly spoke up in a fish store in this Hassidic town.

Zalmen, the owner of the fish store took out a 12-pound fish from the live fish crate and was getting reeady to cut it up and prepare it for sale when he got a phone call and had to leave the room. While he was out, his latino employee started yelling and shouting loudly. Zalmen returned to see what was going on and the guy told him that the fish is acting strangely, that he should go the "rebbe" (the Skverr'e Rebbe) and have him remove the "devil" from the fish.

Zalmen then heard the fish making noises as if it was sobbing and then the fish said in Hebrew "tzrichim shmira, hasof bah" (we need protection, the end is arrving). The fish cried some more and then said "Ani tzarich tikkun, ani tzarich tikkun" (I need repair, I need repair). "repair" in this sense means forgiveness.

Zalmen and the gentile were both frightened. While the gentile thought it was the devil, Zalmen was convinced that the fish embodied a Jewish soul that was being reincarnated ("megulgal") into a fish for its sins in its previous human life. By going through the pain and torture of having to live the life of a fish and then by serving the cause of observant Jews, the soul will be forgiven his sins and be allowed entrance to "olam habba" - the world to come.

In his immense excitement about the incident, Zalmen cut his finger and had to be taken to the hospital to have it stitched up. Zalmen quickly instructed his worker to put the fish back into the water with the other fish.

When he returned, he realized that since the fish needed a "tikkun", he must now locate the original fish and make sure it is eaten by pious Hassidim on the Shabbas so that the Jewish soul will have a tikkun. Since he couldn't identify the fish, he had all the fish in the crate distributed to the Chassidim and the scholars (Talmidei Chachamim).

The incident strired up emotions in the Hasidic world and amongst all Jews who believe in "gilgul neshamos" (reincarnation of the souls). Some noted that the incident occured during the weekly recitation of Seder Mishpatim. The Zohar in this week's Parsha states "v'ilein seder gigulaya" - this is the chapter of reincarnation.