Weekly Chasidic Story #949 (s5776-21 / 22 Shvat 5776)

Activating Sources of Income

There were very few people from whom Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotsk ever agreed to accept money.

Connection: Seasonal - the 157th yahrzeit of the Kotzker falls on Monday of this week...

Activating Sources of Income

There were very few people from whom Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotsk ever agreed to accept money. And the one wealthy and scholarly chasid who did support him was distressed one day to find that the tzadik refused even his accustomed gift. Finding no rest, he finally asked the rebbe directly for his reason.

"Every livelihood," answered the rebbe, "has a cause, and the Almighty is the One Who activates these causes. It sometimes happens that He chooses to put a person to the test - to see whether he places his trust in the cause, or in Him Who causes the cause - and so He removes that cause. Now if that man had placed his trust in it, then his livelihood is cut off from Above, for by his thinking he made it in fact depend on the cause. If however he had place hid trust in Him Who activates the causes, then his livelihood continues undisturbed, and the Almighty brings other causes into play, for His emissaries are countless.

"Now in my case, he explained to his chasid, "the immediate cause of my income was -your support. So I thought: what if the Almighty wants to put me to the above test, and to remove my cause? Then you will have to become poor, so that you be unable to support me. I would therefore prefer to remove the cause myself, so that you will not have to be impoverished."
"Rebbe," cried the chasid, "I want to continue notwithstanding! And if the Almighty should want to put you to the test, and that involves my being left poor, then I accept that result willingly. Anything, so long as you do not remove the source of your income yourself!"

But only after he repeated his entreaty many times did the tzadik finally agree to accept his gifts as he had formerly done.

That same year, through some misfortune, the chasid lost his wealth and became a poor man, and was forced to seek employment as a rabbi and as the head of a rabbinical court in order to support his family.
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Source: From A Treasury of Chassidic Tales (Artscroll), as translated by R. Uri Kaploun from Sipurei Chasidim by Rabbi S. Y. Zevin.
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Biographical note:
Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotsk [of blessed memory: 5547 - 22 Shevat 5619 (1787 - Jan. 1859 BCE], although born into a non-chasidic family; early became a disciple of R. Yaakov Yitzchok [the "Seer"] of Lublin, R. Yaakov Yitzchok [the "Yid HaKadosh"] of Pshischah, and ultimately of R. Simcha Bunim of Pshischah, Superficially stern, he practiced and preached a zealous and unrelenting search for truth, whose prime enemy is self-centeredness. His oft-quoted aphorisms are characteristically pungent and unsugared. Stressed earnest Torah study. Spent the last two decades of his life in isolation. After his passing, the majority of his followers recognized his disciple R. Yitzchak Meir of Ger as their rebbe.

Connection: Seasonal-- the 157th yahrzeit of the Kotzker falls on Monday of this week.

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