# 371 (s5765-14/2 Tevet)

A Chassidic Broker

"I will not ride with you to Rabbi Feivish of Zabriza unless you give me 25 silver rubles," said Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kossov.


A Chassidic Broker

Hearing that Rabbi Feivish of Zabriza was going to spend Shabbat in Skole, his young disciple Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kosov set out to greet him - on foot, because he could afford no other way. As evening fell on Thursday a village inn came in sight. He had not tasted a morsel of food all day long, and he was weary from trudging across Ukraine, so he asked the innkeeper if he could spend the night in his hostelry.

"You may certainly sleep here," was the answer, "but I have nothing to give you for supper. I have not even got a slice of bread left to give my little ones. There is no income from this inn, and if I do not pay the owner of this village what I owe him for the lease within a few days, he will throw me and all my family into his dungeon. And I have not a solitary coin to start paying with."

Rabbi Menachem Mendel was so distressed to hear this story that he could not sleep at all that night. In the morning he said farewell, gave the poor man his blessing that the Almighty should help him, and he resumed his slow tramp along the highway.

A carriage soon overtook him, and as it slowed down the Jew sitting within called out to him: "Young man! Where are you heading?"

"To the Rebbe of Zabriza," answered the walker.

"In that case," said the owner of the carriage, "come and join me up here, because I am headed in that very direction."

"But I will not travel with you," stipulated Rabbi Menachem Mendel, "unless you give me twenty silver coins."

"Is it not sufficient that I offer to take you in my carriage without charging any fee!" fumed the other. "On top of that you demand payment?!" Then he added: "I shall give you a respectable contribution - but not such a large sum as that!"

"Believe me," said Rabbi Menachem Mendel, "that I do not need the money for myself. My request is made for the benefit of others - and for your benefit, too."

The rich man in the carriage now wanted to know what benefit he could expect to derive from his contribution, apart from having earned a mitzvah.

"Who knows what ups and downs each new day can bring?" said Rabbi Menachem Mendel in reply. "For life is a wheel that turns in the world…"

These words had their effect. The rich man took out twenty silver coins and handed them to his prospective passenger, who said: "Now I shall not move from here until you return with me to the nearest inn, so that you will be able to see with you own eyes what a great mitzvah you have fulfilled."

The rich man agreed, and they rode back together along the highway until they reached the village they sought. Rabbi Menachem Mendel handed the innkeeper the money he had just been given, sent him off to town to buy up a stock of vodka for his inn, and assured him that from that day on he would prosper in all his affairs.

He now turned to the owner of the carriage and said: "As you know from the words of our sages, 'One mitzvah brings another in its train.' Let us stay here for the morning prayers, and in the meantime, if you give your coachman some money, he will be able to go and buy bread so that our host's children will have what to eat, and we will be able to eat some of it for breakfast."

This was done, and there was enough bread left over for Shabbat meals for the whole family, as well as for provisions to last the travelers for the remainder of their journey.

As they were about to leave, Rabbi Menachem Mendel whispered in the ear of the innkeeper: "From now on you will prosper more and more, and in the course of time my rich companion will utterly lose his fortune. When the time comes, remember to repay one kindness with another!"

When they arrived at Zabriza they were unable to make their way through the busting throngs of chasidim, until Rabbi Feivish himself called out: "Make way for the people who have just performed a mitzvah!"

In response to Rabbi Menachem Mendel's account of how his traveling companion had saved an entire family from starvation, the tzadik - borrowing the words of the patriarch Yaakov - said: "I know, my son, I know. But did you tell the innkeeper how he is to act when the time comes?"

"I told him," said Rabbi Menachem Mendel, "and he undertook to discharge his obligation."

After Shabbat the rich man drove off in his carriage, a contented man. In due course, however, he was tossed by the tempests of time and fortune. Every transaction was a disappointment, every investment was a failure. He was left literally penniless. Dire necessity drove him to wander from town to town, knocking on the doors of the well-to-do in quest of alms.

During the same period Rabbi Menachem Mendel became renowned as the Rebbe of Kosov - and the innkeeper became a prosperous man, just as his young guest had promised him long ago.

In the course of his years on the road, the destitute wanderer arrived at Kosov. He did not know that the tzadik who had made the name of the town famous was the same young man to whom - in such different circumstances! - he had once given twenty silver coins.

The itinerant paupers who knew Kosov from previous visits now told the newcomer: "Let us come along and visit the local Rebbe. There is a man who knows how to provide for the likes of us!"

Recognizing him at once, the Rebbe called him aside and said: "Take my advice, my friend, and may G-d prosper your path. I will give you a letter to a certain individual, and through him you will be helped."

The pauper wondered at these words, but was too weary to ask for an explanation. With the letter in hand he set out in the direction he was told to take, and eventually found himself treading the length of the long forgotten dirt track that meandered its way to a certain remote village inn.

The innkeeper did not recognize him after his fifteen long years of privation, but before he opened the envelope he said: "I know this letter is from the Rebbe of Kosov, for this very night he appeared to me in my dream and told me that the time had come for me to repay one kindness with another."

He then reminded the wandered of their first encounter, and told him what it was that their mutual friend had whispered in his ear at the time. For the first time in years, a smile now warmed the strained features of the dusty traveler.

The innkeeper went on: "Be my guest until I make an honest reckoning of all the prosperity with which the Almighty had blessed me. Then we will travel together to Kosov, and we will do whatever the Rebbe tells us."

It is not known what instructions were given by the tzadik for the settling of their accounts, but one thing is certain - the innkeeper made the wanderer an exceedingly generous gift, the tzadik blessed him with success, and when he re-established himself in business he prospered in every venture.


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[Selected and adapted by Yrachmiel Tilles from the rendition in A Treasury of Chassidic Tales (Artscroll), as translated by our esteemed colleague Uri Kaploun from Sipurei Chasidim by Rabbi S. Y. Zevin.]

Biographical note:
Rabbi Meshulam Feivish HaLevi of Zabriza (Zebariz) studied under R. Yechiel Michel of Zlotchov and R. Dov Ber of Mezritch. He was an authority on the laws of writing Torah scrolls. His disciples included R. Menachem Mendel of Kosov. His Yosher Divrei Emes is a basic work on chasidic thought, and his teachings appear also in Likkutim Yekarim.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Hager of Kosov (1768 - 17 Cheshvan 1826) was the son of a close disciple of the Baal Shem Tov, and himself a disciple of R. Moshe Leib of Sasov. He conducted a modest business until persuaded by his contemporaries to become rav of Kosov, to which thousands of Jews then flocked. Both the Vizinitz and Kosov dynasties stem from him. His teachings are collected in Ahavas Shalom.



 

Yrachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and editor of Ascent Quarterly and the AscentOfSafed.com and KabbalaOnline.org websites. He has hundreds of published stories to his credit.

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