It states (Mishlei 3:34) חן יתן ולענוים, "To the humble, Hashem gives chen."
There was a tailor who had an excellent reputation. The poritz would buy clothes from him, and people would say, "If he is a good enough craftsman for the poritz, he must be an excellent tailor." They followed the poritz's lead and bought their clothing from this tailor.
Once, the poritz asked the tailor to make him a suit and added, "Make sure that it comes out good." The tailor replied, "Can I make something that isn't good?" Not the humblest thing to say.
The tailor sewed the suit, and the poritz brought it home to show it to his wife. His wife made a foul face and said, "I can't look at it. It has no chen." The poritz returned the suit to the tailor and said, "I can't wear this. It has no chen... Sew it again and make it good this time."
The word went out. The poritz wasn’t happy with the tailor's work. People stopped buying their clothes from him. He was more expensive than other tailors, and if the poritz wasn't satisfied with his work, his clothing obviously was not worth the price.
Brokenhearted, the tailor told Reb Bunim of Peshischa zt'l that his parnassah was at stake because people stopped coming to him.
Reb Bunim had an unusual solution. He said, "Undo the seams and sew it up again exactly as you made it the first time. This time, the poritz and his wife will be happy with the suit."
The tailor asked, "If they didn't like it the first time, why would they like it the second time if I made it exactly the same way?" "Just do as I say," Reb Bunim told him.
The tailor had emunas chachamim and did as the rebbe recommended. When the poritz's wife saw the suit she said, "This is a beautiful suit. I'm so glad it turned out well this time." The poritz thanked the tailor for doing such a good job. Everyone heard that the poritz and his wife were happy with the tailor, and they began hiring him again.
But how did it happen? Wasn’t it the same clothes as before?
Reb Bunim explained, "Whatever is made with humility, has chen, as it states יתן ולענוים חן. The first time you made the clothing, you were proud, you thought you sewed the best clothes in the world, so your work didn't have chen. The second time, you made the clothes with a broken heart and with humility. And that's the reason it had chen in their eyes."
Yosef blessed Binyamin (43:29) בני יחנך אלקים, "May Hashem grant you chen, my son." The Yismach Yisrael says that Binyamin received chen because בני, which means child, alludes to young and humble. He felt humble, and humility is mesugal for chen. The Kli Yakar discusses Hashem's name ה"הוי and shows that these letters have the smallest gematriya when spelled out in full. א"ה for example, is gematriya 6. ו"וא, is gematriya 13. ד"יו is gematriya 20. All the other letters of the Aleph Beis have a much higher gematriya when spelled out in full. Hashem's name is comprised of the letters with the smallest gematriya to indicate that Hashem resides among the humble.
