Weekly Chasidic Story #614 (s5769-49 / 12 Elul 5769)

The Even Better Wallet

He poured out his heart to the Rebbe, Rabbi Shalom Dovber of Lubavitch, about his troubles with the food market, his landlord and the tutor.

(Connection: Weekly Torah Reading - returning lost objects)

 

The Even Better Wallet

Tuvia Bolton

Yehoshua Benyamin was a poor chasid, with seven mouths to feed and no way to feed them. He usually took any odd job he could find but times had been very slow and for the last few years his debts just kept growing.

The grocery store owner just gave his tenth and last warning that Yehoshua could forget about getting any more food on credit. The next day he received a final notice from the landowner that he wanted all his back rent or else Yehoshua and his family would be evicted. Plus, shortly thereafter the young man that had been teaching his children Torah announced that if he didn't get his back pay he was quitting.

And then came the fire.

No one knows exactly how it started but, unlike Yehoshua and his family, the fire had plenty to eat. The houses were one hundred percent wood and the fire jumped ravenously from one to the other, leaving some twenty families homeless. Yehoshua's house hadn't been burnt much but his furniture had been wrecked and the suffering of all his friends didn't improve his spirits.

He prayed to G-d for a miracle…surely only a miracle could save him! He was positive that G-d would not let him down.

And the miracle happened!

Sort of.

It was Friday just an hour before the Shabbat. He was walking slowly home from another day of fruitless job searching when he noticed a wallet on the ground in the mud off the side of the road. He went over and picked it up and …there was no identification. Only a bunch of papers and…three hundred rubles! G-d had answered his prayers!

The money would save him! Three hundred rubles was a fortune. He could pay his debts and have money left over! It was a miracle!

Then, suddenly, he calmed down and reflected.

"What am I thinking of? Have I lost my mind?" he thought to himself. "This wallet belongs to someone. How can I just take the money? It is a commandment from the Torah to return lost items!"

But then he thought again. "Wait! If I don't take the money someone else will. Anyway, the owner probably gave up on it, which would mean Jewish law considers it ownerless so whoever finds it can keep it.

"On the other hand, maybe he didn't give up, because the wallet is identifiable, especially with those papers in it.

"But maybe I can use the money and then announce that I found an empty wallet. Then, if someone claims it, I'll know who to give the money back to at a later date."

Yehoshua was confused and his poverty already had made him half insane. It was very difficult for him to think up reasons for NOT taking the money that G-d had just put in his hands!

He decided to hide the wallet in his home and decide after Shabbat.

He arrived at the synagogue confused and worried. Now there was a third factor involved; besides his debts and the wallet, in just a few minutes it would be Shabbat and on Shabbat it is forbidden to worry, especially about monetary matters.

Despite the weighty matters on his mind, he couldn't help notice one of the wealthier townspeople, Reb Pinchas Leib, sitting near the corner also trying unsuccessfully not to be troubled.

Although normally shy, Yehoshua walked over and asked what was wrong. Pinchas, who was usually a good natured and talkative person, tried to shrug it off and deny there was any problem, but Yehoshua, much to his own surprise, insisted that he tell him what was bothering him.

"Ah, I'll tell you the truth," said Pinchas Leib with a heart-rendering sigh. "My house was severely damaged by the fire, but that was the hand of G-d and I accept it. What I can't get over is my wallet. There was a lot of cash in it, and even more importantly, there were extremely valuable documents. Those papers are worth a fortune. I saved them from the fire but then somehow managed to lose everything. I know it is about to be Shabbat, but… well… I just can't stop blaming myself for it."

"Don't worry!" Yehoshua put his hands on Pinchas' shoulders, looked him in the eyes, smiled and exclaimed. "I found your wallet! It's in my house. I found it just an hour ago!"

Pinchas Leib couldn't believe his ears. He hugged Yehoshua in joy, gave him a big kiss on his cheek and thanked him over and over again about twenty times.

Immediately after Shabbat Reb Pinchas went to Yehoshua's house and identified his wallet. He was so happy that he gave Yehoshua the three hundred rubles as a reward, saying the main thing was the papers which were worth many times more.

But Yehoshua refused the money!

He had decided that the mitzvah itself was enough of a reward! He didn't want the money. And all the pleading and arguing of Reb Pinchas didn't help.

After this, Yehoshua was even more certain that there would be a miracle. But it didn't happen. And his children were hungry.

Suddenly he remembered: the Rebbe! He would travel to the Rebbe ('the Rebbe Reshab'; Rabbi Shalom Dovber the fifth Rebbe of Lubavitch) for a blessing or at least for advice. Why hadn't he thought of this earlier!

Two days later he was in Lubavitch, standing before the Rebbe pouring out his heart about his troubles with the food market, his landlord and the tutor. But the Rebbe seemed to ignore all this and instead asked him if anything good had happened to him recently.

Yehoshua was dumbfounded, he couldn't figure what the Rebbe meant. Something good? But then he remembered the wallet, and the mitzvah that he had done.

"Very good," said the Rebbe. "So there is nothing to worry about. In the merit of returning that lost item you will be repaid ten-fold. Meanwhile, if you are offered a job as a cantor, take it."

He thanked the Rebbe profusely and backed out of the room. But when he was alone with himself he thought, "Cantor? Why, I'm no cantor! I've never been a cantor in my life. Who would want me as a cantor?"

But sure enough, two days later, when he arrived back home, a carriage was waiting in front of his house, and out of it stepped two honorable looking Jews who wasted no time in asking him to be the cantor in their town for Rosh Hashana! They even offered him an advance of ten rubles (about two months' wages).

His instinctive urge was to refuse. He had a nice voice but he had never been a cantor and he had so many problems. How could he pray in front of a congregation with the proper attitude? However, he also remembered the Rebbe's words, so he accepted.

He practiced seriously before the holidays, and when the time arrived his troubles and broken heart ironically proved to be his biggest asset. The crowd, who had enough troubles of their own, was moved by the simple sincerity of his prayers. They even invited him back for Yom Kippur with a raise in salary… paid in advance!

After Yom Kippur the president of the synagogue thanked him profusely and even gave him a bonus but added an apology. He was not able to find a carriage to take him back to his home. All of them had been hired by travelers. He gave Yehoshua more money and, with more apologies, asked him to please try to search for a carriage on his own.

The next morning Yehoshua understood how bad the situation really was; literally every carriage was indeed gone. Finally, someone suggested an old man that had once been a carriage driver and might be willing, for the right price, to take the job.

Yehoshua headed for the old man's hut on the outskirts of the town but when he got there and opened the door he realized that it was a dead end. The man, who must have been well over eighty, was lying sick in bed and was totally blind!

But just as he was about to turn and leave the old man called out.

"Eh? Is that you Yorik? Did you call the priest? Is he coming? I don't think I'll last much longer."

Yehoshua realized that the old fellow must think that he is someone else so to calm him down he answered. "Yes, yes, the priest is coming."

"You know, Yorik." The old man wheezed and half whispered. "You know I have no children. But I have some money and I want you to have it. It won't help me where I'm going. It's buried in the back yard here under the large brown rock. I stole it from a Jew. Heh heh! One of my passengers over twenty years ago. Go and take it, I only used some of it. As far as I know the Jew isn't even alive any more. Heh, heh!"

Yehoshua left the old man, ran outside into the yard, pushed over the rock and sure enough, there was the old wallet. He picked it up and could tell that it was stuffed.

He put it in his pocket and, afraid that Yorik would return any moment, ran back to the town as fast as his legs would carry him. And behold, there was an available carriage! He gave the driver a good price and in a day's time was back home.

He told the entire story to his wife, produced the wallet and together they opened it. It was filled with notes and they were all large denominations! They eagerly counted it and it totaled to exactly three thousand rubles!

Suddenly he realized what the Rebbe meant that he will be repaid ten-fold! It was ten times the three hundred he returned to Reb Pinchas! All of Yehoshua's financial worries were gone forever!

~~~~~
[Source: adapted by Yrachmiel Tilles from the rendition of his friend and colleague Rabbi Tuvia Bolton, the popular teacher, musician, recording artist and storyteller, in his weekly email for the yeshiva which he heads, Ohr Tmimim (ohrtmimim.org/torah )].

Connection: Weekly Torah Reading (of last week - sorry!) - returning lost objects. Also, the upcoming High Holidays.

Biographical note:
Rabbi Sholom-Dovber Schneersohn (Cheshvan 20, 1860 - Nissan 2, 1920), known as the Rebbe Reshab, was the fifth Rebbe of the Lubavitcher dynasty. He is the author of hundreds of major tracts in the exposition of Chasidic thought.



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Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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