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Weekly Chasidic Story #"The Half Million Shekel Deal with a Mosque" His rabbi said, "I
don't know but I can get an answer from Rabbi Michil- Yehuda Lefkowitz. His
driver is my friend who can go right in and ask him." Story in PDF
format for more convenient printing
"The Half Million Shekel Deal with a Mosque"
A man participated in a Torah class and afterwards asked the rabbi: "I can make 500,000 shekels providing lighting fixtures to a mosque. Should I do it?" This man wasn't religious but felt that the rabbi's advice would be valuable. He could never imagine how valuable. He continued. "Tomorrow I'm supposed to sign on the deal; they want a very expensive fixture, should I do it?" The rabbi said, "I don't know, but I can get an answer from Rabbi Michil-Yehuda Lefkowitz [a leading Torah scholar in Bnei Brak]. His driver is my friend who can go right in and ask him." He called on the spot and the driver went right in to ask Rabbi Lefkowitz the question. Rabbi Lefkowitz's response was: "The deal is not forbidden to do, but you won't see any blessing from it." When the man was told the answer, he proclaimed that he would back out of the deal because the rabbi said so. But then right away, he added, "You should know I have a big competitor that will get the deal as soon as I back down from it." Knowing his competitor would get the business made the test more difficult, but the man stuck to his decision. He strengthened himself with the knowledge that G-d provides livelihood, and that the rabbi already told him this deal had no blessing in it for him. "If the rabbi says so I will listen to his ruling though it is quite difficult," he said, concluding the conversation. As predicted his competitor got the contract. * * * "Let me tell you what happened! My competitor agreed to the deal. He received a down payment of 50,000 shekels towards buying the materials necessary for the elaborate lighting fixture, with the balance, 450,000, due upon completing the installment of the fixture." "He bought 300,000 shekel worth of materials and parts and put it in the mosque, with the intent to come back in the morning and assemble the fixture. Early the next day he knocked on the gates of the mosque. When the guard came over and asked him what he wanted, the man explained that he came to put together the lighting fixture they agreed on the day before. The guard called the mosque administrator to double check. After a brief dialog, the guard hung up the phone and began shouting at him "What lighting are you talking about? No one at all hired you here! Get out of here now!" "The man delayed a bit trying to see what he could do, until the guard cocked his weapon and threatened to use it if he didn't leave. The man left empty handed, literally running for his life, leaving behind a fortune of equipment and materials never to see them again. He was so scared he didn't file a complaint against the people at the mosque. Thus, he lost 250,000 on the deal." The first contractor, the one who spoke with Rabbi Lefkowitz, announced to his rabbi: "I now fully believe that when you listen to the advice of the sages, you won't lose from it!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editor's note: The moral of the story is its last sentence. Why This Week: The basic principles for most of Torah financial law is to be found in this week's Torah reading, Mishpatim. Biographic note:
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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.