Taking a Gamble
One year, the hilula of Rabbi Chaim Pinto was on a Sunday. We spent the preceding Shabbat in Mogador, Morocco. It was an especially elevating Shabbat. The atmosphere was uplifting and saturated with holiness. All who participated felt that their spiritual batteries had been recharged.
For some reason, one of the participants at the hilula chose to remain in Marrakesh for Shabbat. Sadly, he was enticed to the gambling room, where he spent the entire day and all of his money on gambling. He lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to this inane activity.
On Sunday, he joined our group in Mogador. But he was not the same man. His head drooped, and his eyes were dimmed, due to the tremendous suffering he had brought upon himself.
Had this Jew celebrated this Shabbat in the proximity of the tzaddik’s grave, he would have merited a most uplifting experience. His assets, too, would have been blessed. Unfortunately, he chose to maintain a distance from the tzaddik and the source of kedushah, and therefore he fell into the snare of the Yetzer Hara and lost everything.
