One of the 73 commandments in this week's reading, is to return lost items. This is very relevant to this month; Elul (the last month of the Jewish year), when we "return" to G-d before Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur; the Days of Judgment.
In Judaism it is called ‘Tshuva‘, and it means to ‘Return’ to true Jewish awareness of G-d and His Torah.
That is the job of "Tzadikim" (completely G-dly Jews). To give advice, prayer, inspiration, and help Jews to return to their true purpose.
Here is a story about a great Tzadik, that will illustrate.
The fifth Rebbe of Chabad Rabbi Shalom DovBer had just arrived in Petersburg after a long train ride, but when he went to collect his baggage from the baggage room, he was dismayed to find that one piece of luggage, a chest full of very important books that he brought with him to learn from, couldn't be found.
The Rebbe was very upset, and after the workers searched for over an hour with no results, he had no choice but to proceed to his hotel dwelling.
Early the next morning he returned to the station with no results. But he didn’t give up and sure enough his salvation arrived.
A young Chassid by the name of Avraham Eliyahu Gurarie entered the Rebbe's room with the following sad story:
He needed help. A few months earlier he got married, received a sizeable dowry of ten thousand rubles from his wife's family, and promptly lost all but a thousand of it, in a foolish business deal. At first his wife was only angry, but one thing led to another, and now she was talking about divorce. She didn’t want to be married to a fool. He broke down in tears and begged the Rebbe to help.
"Here" said the Rebbe, handing him the ticket stub for his lost trunk. "Take this, go down to the train station, and ask them to find my books. I'm sure you will succeed."
The Chassid took the ticket, and excitedly ran to the station but he was in for a disappointment. The baggage room was locked and deserted. He knocked and pounded on the door and called out, but no one answered.
He couldn't return empty handed, so he wandered around in the empty depot trying to figure what to do till he saw an open restaurant. He went in, sat down, ordered a tea, took out a cigarette, and began to smoke.
After just a few minutes, he felt that someone was staring at him. He looked up, and sure enough a well-dressed man was sitting at a table in the empty restaurant looking at him with a friendly gaze. He must have entered while he was deep in thought. The Chassid nodded hello, offered him a cigarette, and in no time, they began a conversation which eventually got around to the lost trunk. The man interrupted.
"Well, isn't that an amazing coincidence! I happen to be the manager of baggage and shipping here. You know what? Here, just give me that ticket and I'll fix it up".
He left the restaurant, and in minutes the entire station reverberated with yelling and shouting from the baggage room. The workers had been on break, and a few minutes after being yelled at, they emptied out the room, carried out all the suitcases and bags, and found the Rebbe's trunk in a corner where it had been concealed behind all the other luggage.
When our hero returned to the Rebbe with the books, the Rebbe was overjoyed and said,
"Avraham Eliyahu, I owe you a favor. If you want your money and happy home back, then I advise you to travel to the city of Korch which is by the Black Sea".
Avraham went home and told his wife how he, her husband, had actually helped the Rebbe, and what the Rebbe told him. When she heard all this, her anger temporarily transformed into pride, and she joyously began preparing his suitcase, and baking him enough cakes to last him a few days.
"Maybe he isn't such a bumbling fool after all," she thought to herself.
The next day, when Avraham reached Korch, he checked into a hotel and, being that it was a hot summer day and he really didn’t have any definite plan of action, he decided that he would go for a swim in the Sea before he began walking the streets in search of his savior. (After all, the Rebbe did not give him clear instructions).
He was sitting on the sand, after having finished his swim, eating from the food his wife had prepared, when he noticed that a Jew seated near him was admiring his fine cakes. Avraham offered him a taste, and in no time, he was telling him his entire story down to the last detail of the Rebbe's advice.
"You know what?" His newfound friend replied. "I think maybe I can help. Tomorrow, meet me here at this same time....and don't forget to bring some more of those delicious cakes with you. It would be a shame to lose a wife that bakes such cakes," he said with a smile.
Things were starting to move fast, and Avraham was excited. The next day found him sitting in the same place by the sea, but this time eating cakes with the man he had met the day before, together with a third person, who appeared to be a successful businessman.
"I heard your story, young man," said the businessman. "And I'd like to help you. By the way, you know these are REALLY tasty cakes. Please give my compliments to your wife. I have a freight car filled with cigarette papers. I'm willing to sell them to you for a thousand rubles. That's all you have, right?
Well, I think that you can sell them for a good price in Kremenchug where the cigarette factories are. And if you can't, I'm always willing to buy them back from you. What do you say?”
Our hero saw the hand of G-d in this deal, and promptly handed over the entire thousand rubles without asking any questions. In fact, the businessman had to force him to go down to the freight yard to see what he had purchased.
The businessman had the freight car sent to Kremenchug with Avraham accompanying it. When he arrived, Avraham immediately made his way to a relative of his that lived there; a well-known Chabad businessman called Rav Tzvi Gur-Arie, to sell his newly acquired cigarette papers.
But Rav Tzvi was anything but enthusiastic. They really weren't worth much more than what Avraham paid for them. Maybe five hundred rubles more. When he heard how the Rebbe was involved, he raised it to two thousand.
"No deal!" said our hero emphatically. "Either give me the entire ten thousand which I ask for, or I'll go elsewhere!"
Rav Tzvi had no choice than to send him away empty handed. He was willing to give charity, but not eight thousand rubles! And the Rebbe never said that all the ten thousand would come from this one sale.
But Avraham Eliyahu did not lose hope. Exactly the opposite. To everyone he saw, he proudly announced that he had cigarette papers and was willing to sell them for no less than ten thousand rubles. Of course, no one really took him seriously.
Until the next day. Someone stopped him in the street and nervously asked,
"Excuse me! Are you the one that is selling the cigarette papers?"
"For ten thousand rubles" Avraham added.
"Here is the money! Let me see the merchandise, and it’s yours." Said the man.
They traveled to the trainyard. Avraham showed him the freight car, and received the money on the spot.
He later learned that there had been a fire in one of the main cigarette paper factories, and all the cigarette producers were desperate.
When Rav Tzvi eventually heard about the fire, he too rushed to Avraham, only to find that he was too late.
"But you can go to the man who sold them to me in Korch,” Said Avraham.
But when Rav Gur-Arie got there, the businessman told him that there were no more papers. And really the only reason he sold that carload to the young man was because he had mercy on him.
Meanwhile, our hero returned home with his "lost" dowry, and peace returned to his home. Happy ending!!
Almost.
The next day our hero went to the Rebbe and thanked him for saving his marriage and saving his money. But when he asked for advice on how to invest his returned wealth, the Rebbe just looked at him with a smile and said; "Now we are even. Good luck."
What can we learn from this story?
Even the most righteous and holy of people, even leaders of Israel like the Rebbe, need the help of ordinary people like you and me to ‘find lost luggage’. (How much more so do we need each other).
Each of us has a precious G-dly purpose for which we were created. But each of us, whether because of poor education, bad habits, bad environment, bad character, laziness or just bad luck can lose it.
From our story we learn these lessons about this:
- Our true identity is our soul; if lost it always can be found.
- No one likes to lose what is truly theirs and everyone is happy to have it returned;
- If we help others to retrieve what they lost, in the end we help ourselves.
- It is good to have help, but, after all, we must learn to manage on our own.
That is exactly what Moshiach will do and why we must await his arrival. Moshiach will RETURN true Jewish identity to all the Jews and RETURN true meaning and love to all mankind.
And we have the power to bring Moshiach one moment sooner!
We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish faith, hopes, prayers and suffering. Now it could be that just one more good deed, word or even good thought, can do it.
Wishing all our readers a happy, healthy, successful NEW year with …….. Moshiach NOW!!