A Challenge
In 1981/5741, a new chapter in Reb Shmuel’s life began. It was a fateful time, with many challenges and hurdles; yet at the same time, there were many successful endeavors and multitudes of mitzvos.
It is specifically during the extraordinary times in a person’s life that his real personality comes to fore. During ordinary times, when everything hums along smoothly, a person might have the ability to conceal his true essence and cloak his real character so that he appears different than he really is. But when challenges arise, he has neither the strength nor resources to maintain any facades, and his inner essence emerges — either in all its beauty and glory, or unfortunately, the opposite.
Challenges do not only come in the form of troubles; wealth is also a challenge. There are many affluent people whose personality flaws unfortunately become more apparent with their ascension to power. Reb Shmuel’s wealth, on the other hand, served to clearly highlight his virtues. He was modest and quiet, and when he was blessed with great success, his ahavas Yisrael flowed forth from deep inside him. When he acquired the financial abilities to help others, then that became his focus.
However, the purpose of a person in this world is to strive for perfection and be mashlim his soul, so that he should merit to bask in the Presence of Hashem after his passing. That’s why a person is given various tests and challenges, with the objective of elevating him and purifying him so he can perfect his soul. Apparently, Reb Shmuel’s mission in life was not fulfilled by being successful in overcoming the challenges put forth by wealth.
The great period of wealth in Reb Shmuel’s life came to an end; a new, painful, and difficult chapter ensued.
The Latter Challenge Was Greater Than the First One
The new situation was not easy for someone who had become accustomed to the pleasures of giving. Having the ability to give with an open hand was the culmination of Reb Shmuel’s dreams. He’d hardly benefitted from his money; he was constantly giving it to needier people. And then all at once, these dreams were crushed; his aspirations were inhibited.
Harav Noach of Lechovitz remarked before his passing, “When I reflect on my days and years, and make a cheshbon hanefesh on my actions and deeds, I notice that it is specifically those days that I’d considered ‘weak,’ because I’d felt that I did not merit to serve Hashem properly on those days, that in actuality, were the best days. And on the contrary, the days that initially seemed to me that I was more successful in my avodas Hashem were in fact the ‘weaker’ days!”
Throughout life, it is difficult for a person to see clearly what is essentially good and what is bad. His thought processes are not like those of his Creator, Who knows what is good for the person and what will bring him to accomplish his true purpose.
Chazal say in Maseches Pesachim that Rav Yosef ben Rabi Yehoshua ben Levi fell ill and was niftar, and then came back to life. His father asked him, “What did you see in the World of Truth?”
Replied the son, “I saw an upside-down world! The higher ones were below and the lower ones were above.” Meaning, the people who in this world are considered the elite reside in a lower place in the next world because they are truly not so important. By contrast, the people who seem to us to be on the lower end are the ones sitting in the most honored places On High.
Said his father, “My son, you have seen a world of clarity!”
Distraught at Not Being Able to Give
Reb Shmuel’s son, Reb Yitzchak Beirach, related:
To most people, it would seem that my father’s best days were those when he supported orphans and widows and donated unfathomable sums to tzedakah and chessed causes, while the days that he did not have the ability to do so were bad days.
In truth, however, his difficult years were his greatest years. HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave him the merit of being able to elevate himself during these years even more than before.
During this time, we watched the intensity of the emunah that glowed inside him, and marveled how he accepted everything with such equanimity. He never doubted the love of Hashem. He believed with all his heart that HaKadosh Baruch Hu had ordained and orchestrated each and every detail.
We saw my father secretly crying because he was unable to help others the way he would have liked to. We saw him valiantly facing this tremendous challenge for more than twenty years, after which he returned his completed soul to its Creator to bask in the Eternal Light.
These are mussar lessons of a different kind, vignettes that illuminate his personality, but also illustrate his unbreakable bond with chessed. The stories that follow are a mere drop in the ocean — and in truth, there was much more than can possibly be written. It’s hard to depict the lofty levels of his precious soul with mere words. Perhaps this inadequate description can help us gain some insights into the brilliant light that shone from my father’s personality even during turbulent times, and later, during the waning years of his life — which in essence was the beginning.
Fateful Turnabout
It all began in 1979/5739. In India, a distant subcontinent, the diamond industry took root and began to thrive. Although it took place far away, the reverberations of this change were felt acutely, and eventually eroded Reb Shmuel’s tremendous wealth.
The price of diamonds worldwide began to decline as the result of increased supply, thereby harming diamond dealers throughout the West. Dealers exported cheaper diamonds, and the top-tier diamond dealers sustained tremendous losses following the price drops.
Throughout it all, Reb Shmuel harbored the hope that the situation would change and the prices would rise again. The diamond industry had always been a volatile one, and he anticipated that soon enough, the recovery would surely arrive.
But this time, the crisis was real. The situation only got worse.
By the end of 1980/5740, he found himself under immense financial pressure, but he was still able to maneuver and work things out. But then, a tremendous blow came from a different direction — in the form of the Abuchatzeira trial, detailed in the previous chapter.
It’s Not a Gift, It’s a Loan!
The trial robbed Reb Shmuel of his peace of mind. He wasn’t able to focus his attention fully on saving his business, which was not thriving at the time. He lost huge sums every day.
But despite the searing blows, he did not despair. He constantly sought ways to overcome the obstacles, and kept thinking optimistically about the success surely waiting just around the corner. These hopes galvanized him to continue to innovate and produce.
Before Pesach of 1981, he was forced to sell most of his merchandise, although the value had declined drastically, and to determine a debt repayment arrangement with the bank.
After he finalized the details, he came to the Rebbe to ask for help in requesting a loan from friends in Vizhnitz, so that he could start anew. When asked how much he needed, Reb Shmuel named a large sum.
After he left, the Rebbe summoned three wealthy people to a meeting in his house and they discussed lending Reb Shmuel the sum he had asked for.
Harav Peretz Tuvia Steinmetz, Rosh Kollel Vizhnitz in Elad, related that he heard from his grandfather, Reb Zelig Steinmetz, who was one of the lenders, the following:
We knew that Reb Shmuel’s situation was difficult and we were being asked for large loans. “I owe a lot to Reb Shmuel Daskal,” the Rebbe said. “I ask that you lend him a generous sum, and with Hashem’s help, Reb Shmuel will repay it.”
We didn’t really believe that Reb Shmuel would be able to repay the loan. His situation was dire, but we decided to give it to him as a gift, and didn’t expect to ever get the money back.
The three of us sat with the Rebbe and divided up the sum. “You’ll give this amount and I’ll give that amount.” Each time, the Rebbe cut us off and emphasized, “Not give — lend!” Within a few hours, the Rebbe transferred the entire sum to Reb Shmuel.
And to our great astonishment, Reb Shmuel repaid the entire loan to us within a short time.
Gedolei Yisrael Share His Woes
One day, Harav Shlomo Berman, one of the roshei yeshivah of Ponevezh, contacted Reb Shmuel and said, “The Rosh Yeshivah Harav Shach asks that you come to see him.”
When he returned from the Rosh Yeshivah’s house, he told his family, “The Rosh Yeshivah told me he heard that I’m a baal tzedakah and that many families in Bnei Brak were assisted by me. And now that I’ve hit financial troubles, he wants to give me some advice.”
A few months later, he went to the Rosh Yeshivah again to update him about the arrangement with the banks, and he took his children with him. The Rosh Yeshivah conversed with him at length about the state of the business, and asked how the negotiations with the banks had concluded.
“Hashem should help that you should succeed!” Rav Shach blessed Reb Shmuel warmly.
Faith in Success
The 1980s heralded a new phase in Reb Shmuel’s business dealings. Until 1980, he received a firsthand site from the Syndicate, which meant great wealth. If he bought merchandise for half a million dollars, he sold it for double that amount. During the 1970s he became very wealthy.
In 1981, there was a major crisis in the diamond industry, and the price of diamonds declined by tens of percentage points. Had Reb Shmuel worked only using his own capital, he would have retained his wealth. However, he purchased seventy percent of his merchandise through bank loans, which meant that when the value of the merchandise dropped, his own worth was also erased, and he was left with huge debts to the banks.
Determined to continue working, he took loans from private people in 1981, and began working without the Syndicate, which translated into smaller profits. He built himself up enough to repay his debts to the bank. He was also able to keep many of his employees and retain his real estate assets. Still, it was a far cry from what he had been, and he sought other avenues to try and regain some of his wealth.
At his age, his caution was not what it had been in earlier years, and some of his attempts failed badly, namely the diamond enterprises in Zaire and Romania.
In the summer of 1981, Reb Shmuel traveled to Meron for a break, together with his friends and managers of the business, Reb Benzion Weiler and Reb Baruch Aber. He was optimistic despite the hard year he had endured. “You’ll see,” he told them encouragingly, “with Hashem’s help, the good times will come back.”
They didn’t want to voice what they were really thinking, since, in truth, they were doubtful about his ability to recover from the staggering losses. The situation was dire, the debts to the banks were overwhelming, and he was still talking about success.
But the unbelievable happened, and the recovery began. Three years later, in the summer of 1984, he traveled with the same two people to Switzerland, at his expense. It was a token of his appreciation to them for remaining with him and supporting him in his difficult hours. “Whoever suffered with me will now rejoice with me,” he said.
A Blessing in Interest-Free Money
Reb Shmuel began to deal with capital, instead of loans from the banks. The profits were not on the scale he had become accustomed to in earlier years, and he also did not receive the diamonds at wholesale prices from the Syndicate in London, as described in previous chapters. Still, he felt a brachah in his business, and a special pleasure at being able to deal with his own money and not the bank’s money.
“Money without interest has a special blessing,” he told his children often, even though he’d had a heter iska with the bank.
In the years between 5742/1982 and 5747/1987, Reb Shmuel married off a few of his children in tranquility. His business thrived, the debts were paid off, and life was peaceful.
But his tremendous wealth, and especially the distribution of tzedakah on a scale that he had become used to, could not continue. He was very pained by this, and tried to give even more than his means.
