Do Not Leave the Torah | Terrifying Stories about the Great Virtue of Engaging in Torah

Terrifying "Mussar" stories about the great virtue of engaging in Torah and the severity of one who leaves the Torah. An awesome incident with a Dybbuk (possessing spirit) that caused the neglect of Torah study, the punishment of one who degrades the value of the Torah, and a tremendous reinforcement for cleaving to the study of the holy Torah21:56 | 28/05/2026 | 12 Sivan 5786

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Rabbi Nehorai says (Sanhedrin 99a): Anyone for whom it is possible to engage in Torah and does not engage [in it], concerning him the verse says: "For he has despised the word of Hashem.

"My master and teacher, the wonder of the generation, our Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, ZTvK"L, used to tell with awe and reverence the incident with the Dybbuk, and this is its description:

There was a man in Kelm, a merchant, the son of patriarchs and a son of Torah (a scholar), and his name was Rabbi Neta. He had an only daughter, whom, when the time came, he married off to a young yeshiva man who was an outstanding Torah scholar. He gave him a dowry of several thousand rubles, and for several years fed them at his table, and the son-in-law sat and engaged in Torah.

When the designated time was completed and the couple stepped away from his table (support), the young man's wife began to argue a claim of, "And if you shall say, what shall we eat?".

The husband answered her that he could not separate from the Torah and engage in commerce, and cast, Heaven forbid, all of his Torah into the sea.Until she gave him advice and said: We will take the dowry money and open a "house of commerce" (a store), and I will stand there all day. Except for two hours a day that you will stand there, and the rest of the hours you will be able to continue learning your Torah as before. The husband agreed, and so they did.

And behold, in the first three months, he indeed conducted himself this way, but after that, the two hours already turned into four hours, and afterward into eight, etc. Until he became entirely immersed in commerce, and he did not even have time to open a Gemara...

And it came to pass one day, on the departure of one holy Shabbat, after midnight, outside heavy snow fell with storms and tempests, and the woman went outside to pour out a barrel of unclean water. And behold, when she returned, she felt as if she were suffocating and could not speak.

Her husband immediately ran and rushed a doctor to his house, who did not know what to do with her. The next day he went with her and sought many doctors, and they also traveled to the city of 'Vienna' where the greatest doctors were, but they all brought up potsherds in their hands (failed completely). No one knew how to state the source of the illness.

They began to talk in the town that perhaps this was a 'Dybbuk' that had entered inside her, and because of this, the husband and wife traveled to the city of Stutchin, where there was a Kabbalist named Rabbi Menachem Mendel, of blessed memory, to whom people would travel for matters such as these....

When they came before him, he asked the Dybbuk a certain thing, and suddenly they heard a voice answering. And as is known, when the Dybbuk speaks, the patient's belly rises, but the lips do not move, and only the voice comes out, and so it was with her.

Then all the listeners were terrified and said, Ah, behold 'the Dybbuk'. But the righteous Rabbi Menachem Mendel said that he still did not know if it was indeed so, and asked him: Who walks with you? [Meaning, with the reincarnated soul inside the woman].

And he said: Five angels of destruction... And he asked him: What is their name?

And he said to him: Such and such. Then Rabbi Menachem Mendel said that he spoke correctly, and indeed this is a true 'Dybbuk'.

And then he began to ask him to say who he was... And he said that he was from several decades ago, a young man in the Brisk Yeshiva, and afterward he traveled to Africa, and his friends corrupted him there. And he transgressed against almost the entire Torah completely, and afterward he was riding in a wagon, and fell from it and was killed, and thus he was wandering and moving through the world until now, accompanied by angels of destruction who would lash him with rods of fire...

He said to him: Why did you not repent before your death? The Dybbuk answered him that due to the terror that terrified him at the time of his fall from the wagon, he did not manage to contemplate repentance... Afterward, he asked him: What have you to do with this woman, that you have caused her such terrible suffering?

And he began to laugh out loud, and said: This woman's mother and her husband's mother [both of whom had passed away to their world], turned with a request high up in Heaven, and demanded that I enter her and cause her suffering, because if not for this, she would have no restoration, neither in this world nor in the World to Come.

Because she caused her husband to neglect the engagement in Torah.

Since they heard this, Rabbi Menachem Mendel told the husband to promise to return to the Torah, and so he did. And Rabbi Menachem Mendel also promised to learn Mishnayot for the elevation of the soul of the young man, 'the Dybbuk', and also volunteered a sum of candles to light in the synagogue for him. And afterward, Rabbi Menachem Mendel gathered in his room a Minyan of ten men to say Psalms, and he stood behind them, and requested of the Dybbuk to exit from the woman, from the little toe that is on her foot, and the Dybbuk agreed to do so...

And then they seated the woman on a chair in the middle of the room, and suddenly she fell and rolled from the chair to the ground, and a mighty voice came out of her "Shema Yisrael" (Hear, O Israel), etc., until they heard the voice in all of Stutchin. And afterward, the toenail of the pinky of her foot split, and also one glass of the window shattered, and after that she was healed, and the husband returned to his Torah according to his promise.

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The Punishment of One Who Degrades the Value of Torah

And another awesome incident where whoever leaves the Torah falls in fear of Heaven, and afterward falls from his assets and passes away from the world:

An incident involving two brothers, G-d-fearing and wholesome, who conducted themselves like Yissachar and Zevulun. One would sit constantly and engage in Torah, while the second was a wealthy merchant who engaged in merchandise and supported his scholar brother with a wide hand (generously), so that he could learn with diligence without a burden at the doors of the Torah.

In the course of days, an idea flashed in the mind of the wealthy brother, and all his intention was only for good. One day, upon coming to his scholar brother to grant him his wide support, he answered and said to him: Will this truly be your purpose, my dear brother, and will you thus remain poor and destitute all your days, and lift your eyes to the table of others? Do you not think that the time has already arrived for you to give your mind to stabilizing your economic standing?

And what shall I do? The scholar brother was astonished. Shall I abandon the study of Torah, Heaven forbid, and go out to commerce? And in general, behold I have nothing of money of my own, how shall I go out to merchandise?! Heaven forbid! The wealthy brother hurried to reply, I did not intend to remove you from the Study Hall, your Torah is very precious to me, and the proof is that all these years I am supporting you so that you can persevere in your learning. Rather, I wish to propose a goal for you, which will merit you to two tables — Torah and greatness.

I am granting you a large and respectable sum of money, so that you can begin to trade with it with very little trouble. Most hours of the day you will be able to continue to sit in the Study Hall, and only a small amount of time will you dedicate to making merchandise by means of the respectable sum in your possession.

The words entered into the heart of the scholar brother, and he resolved to try and check the proposal. At that same standing, the wealthy brother counted into the palm of his scholar brother two hundred gold Adumim (coins), a huge sum, and wished him success from the depth of the heart.

Days passed, and success in commerce shined its face also upon the scholar brother. The few times he dedicated to merchandise doubled and tripled the two hundred gold Adumim in his possession, and his independent wealth went on swelling. Since he saw how much it was possible to profit in such a small time, he decided to try to expand slightly the time designated by him for commerce, until the feet of the scholar were excluded entirely from the Study Hall. He became a great and wealthy merchant whose businesses broke out (expanded) throughout the land, and only with difficulty did he find himself time to open a book and glance into it.

On one 'Yoma DeFagra' (day of little activity), the two wealthy brothers found themselves time to meet and sit slightly in fellowship, because during all the days of the year, businesses prevented rest from them, and even for a 'sitting of brothers' they did not find themselves an hour.

The wealthy brother answered and said to his formerly scholar brother: Believe me, that despite my many troubles and occupations, I find myself every day time, to thank and praise the Creator of the world, for that He put in my heart to advise you such good advice by whose virtue you went out from the strait to the broad space from the aspect of livelihood. However, together with this I will reveal to you my heart and will not deny, that my joy in this is not complete. Every single day my conscience tortures me anew over my being the cause for removing you entirely from the Study Hall. The Holy One, Blessed be He, is witness and Knower, that I did not intend for this, Heaven forbid and protect, and to this I did not lift my soul.

The scholar brother opened with grossness of spirit (arrogance) and broadness of heart and said: Nu, nu, if I were sitting today and diligently studying like then in those days, behold I would not have arrived to be wealthy like this day. Scarcely had the words of foolishness gone out of his mouth, and a mighty stream of blood burst from the nose of the speaker. At first it still seemed that it was just a minor matter, but from moment to moment the stream of blood went on and grew, until it arrived at a state of danger to life. The family of the wealthy man did not spare money and quickly the best of doctors were rushed to the patient, however their efforts did not bear fruit and the blood continued to flow.

Meanwhile, a deep sleep fell upon the patient, however he quickly awoke, and with a loud voice opened and said: Remove the doctors from upon me, all their efforts will be for naught, for already the decree has been decreed and there is no possibility to cancel it. Know to yourselves, the patient continued and said to those surrounding him, that my moments are numbered! Silence for me then, and I will tell in your ears that which I dreamed in these moments. In my short slumber, the holy Torah came to me in my dream, and spoke to me that my judgment was decreed to depart from the world because I degraded its honor and shamed it to say, that the study of Torah causes, Heaven forbid, the prevention of good from its owners. As he finished speaking these words of his, the man returned his soul to his Creator. Let a wise man hear and increase lesson, and cleave at every time of finding to the holy Torah because it is the source of life.