Hagaon Rabbi Meir Mazuz Zt”l told over the following story from someone who heard it in Tunis from Rabbi Yona Taib Zt”l.
There was a poor man who lived near Rabbi Yona Taib. To his good luck, he started making money and became a successful businessman. But sadly, as his fortune grew his prayers went down. At first he stopped coming to Shul and prayed quickly at home and then rushed to his store. But as time went on he stopped davening during the week altogether until he even stopped coming to Shul on Shabbos.
His righteous wife lectured him but to no avail.
One day Rabbi Yona Taib passed by and heard her sighing, “what terrible tragidies have befallen me.”
The Rabbi was taken aback. “What happened to you,” he asked?
She told the Rabbi how her husband had stopped altogether going to Shul and wasn’t even praying at home.
The next morning when the Rabbi went to Shul he passed by the man’s house, knocked on the door until he woke him up and told him to join him and come to Shul.
The man was too embarrassed to say no. So without much choice he went with Rabbi Taib to Shul.
After Shacharis he went to his store. That morning some officers came from the Royal family and ordered a lot of merchandise. After filling up their wagons he asked for payment. They started shouting at him, “are you not ashamed to ask again for money. We already paid you.” And they drove off, leaving him without any payment.
The man was devastated but couldn’t do anything. When he came home he said to his wife, “look what happened. Today I went to Shul to pray and look what happened to me.”
The next morning the Rabbi came by again and woke him up. Without much choice he accompanied the Rabbi to Shul, prayed and headed out to his store.
This time a woman came in and bought a large amount of merchandise. She piled it on her wagon and ran off without paying.
Once again he headed home with a loss. He decided that going to daven in Shul was definitely the cause of all his troubles. He decided that tomorrow morning he will slip out his house extra early to avoid the Rabbi.
He got up extra early, got dressed and headed out his house. As he opened the door, the Rabbi was standing outside.
“It’s so early,” he said to the Rabbi.
“Yes, it is very early, but there is a Shiur in Shul in Mishnayos and Zohar. Come and join us.”
He went with the Rabbi and after the Shiur and prayers he headed off to his store, wondering what loss he is going to endure today.
A young officer walked in to the store and asked for a large amount of merchandise. The man thought to himself, here we go.
He prepared everything for the officer. The officer said, “I don’t have any wagons here with me. I am going to leave everything here and hire some wagon drivers.
The store owner calmed down a little. At least this officer isn’t a thief like his previous customers.
But the officer never returned and the store owner noticed that he had left his wallet on the counter.
It was time to close and the officer hadn’t returned. The man put the wallet in his pocket and took it home with him to look after and return to the officer.
On the way home he met Rabbi Taib. The Rabbi smiled to him and said, “today you earned nicely.”
“What did I earn? If the officer doesn’t return I won’t earn anything. And even if he does, it won’t cover the loss of yesterday and the day before.”
“Your profits are in your pocket,” said the Rabbi.
The man was confused.
“Let me explain,” said the Rabbi. “A man who starts rectifying his ways and changing for the good gets challenged by the Yetzer Harah. The first day you went to daven with Minyan the Satan (the Samach Mem – a name of the Satan) came and tested you with a bad day. The next day the Satan came again in a different form (the wife of the Satan called Lillit) and tested you again. After withholding the tests both times and you still came to Shul, Eliyahu Hanavi came to cover your losses and bring you profits.”
The man opened the wallet and saw profits for all three days.
This is the explanation of the Passuk in this week’s Parsha (8-2) ‘In order to test you and afflict you, to know what is in your heart, will you fulfill Hashem’s Mitzvos or not.”
Many times a person does a Mitzva properly. But then it seems that because one did the Mitzva one lost out and very possibly at that moment in time one did. But Hashem is busy testing us. Do we fall in to the trap or not. In the long run Hashem has storehouses of reward in this world and the next to repay us for all our losses and gain profit.
Our Avoda is not to be carried away by those moments of what looks like a loss but to realize that Hashem is standing there testing us to see if we are listening to him and knowing that in the long term one doesn’t lose out by doing Mitzvos properly.
A person who comes to Shul every day, davens properly, comes on time and stays until the end of davening may think that he will lose out and very often have the temptation to leave Shul a few moments or minutes early. But Hashem is testing us.
For many stores Saturday – Shabbos is the best day of the week with the most customers and highest earnings. Sadly, sometimes, Jews succumbed to that difficult test and left their stores open. But Hashem is testing us. Hashem has so many ways to make up for those losses and make us earn somewhere else.
Maybe the above story sounds very far-fetched to happen to us that we meet up Eliyahu Hanavi in disguise after davening in Shul.
But many of us remember 9/11 that happened the week of Selichos just before Rosh Hashana. And many of us remember the story about the man who stayed till the end of Shacharis and Selichos and ended up being delayed to his office in the twin towers and ultimately was outside as the buildings were bombed.
Hashem tests us, but the purpose of these tests are to reward us.
