Please enjoy selected stories and teachings of Rav Simcha Bunim from Rav Tal Zwecker’s sefer Returnity, The Way Back to Eternity – Selected Teachings from the Chassidic Masters on Teshuvah.
Before he became a Rebbe, Rav Simcha Bunim was a merchant. He was once in the marketplace buying grain. He haggled and bargained with a Polish farmer over the price of the grain, but the farmer stood his ground and only raised the price. “Poprowice,” he told Rav Simcha Bunim – “Do better” in Polish. Although the farmer only meant that he wanted Rav Simcha Bunim to pay him more money, the farmer’s words rang in Rav Simcha Bunim’s ears even after he had returned home that night. Poprowice! Improve! Do better!
The Tzaddik took these words to heart. See, even the farmer is telling you to improve, he said to himself, and he resolved then and there to better himself. “Surely now is the time to do teshuva!” he declared.
