Closer to Shabbos, R’ Simcha put on his Yerushalmi kaftan, white socks, and shreimel, and made his way to the shul. On the front steps standing before him was R’ Binyamin, who immediately inquired about little Ahra’lah’s condition. “I’m waiting all this time for you,” R’ Binyamin told him. “Any updates?”
“Nisei nissim,” R’ Simcha replied. “When I got back, my wife greeted me with the good news that my son had started drinking, and the threat was Baruch Hashem stabilized. What a mofeis! Completely unexpected.”
“In no way was this a mofeis,” exclaimed R’ Binyamin, and he explained what happened:
At five o’clock that morning, he’d gotten a call from R’ Shlomo Lawrence. All the potatoes being sold during shmitah were those planted by non-shomrei shmitah, which are forbidden, and R’ Shlomo was trying to obtain imported ones for the shomrei shmitah. The chief of the agriculture department, however, has been impeding their attempts, saying that there’s no need to import as ‘there’s enough of a supply with what’s grown here.’ R’ Shlomo explained how they observant community is refraining from the potatoes due to its prohibition, but the chief held his own. Out of his inner hatred, he declared, “I’ll see to it that not one potato enters this country! If you want, you can put apples into your cholent!”
In the meantime, some askanim from the Agudah were informed about a boat in the sea, filled with potatoes. A dispute broke out between its importer and its exporter over the signed contract, and so, the exporter was selling the produce at a quarter of its retail price if they find a buyer by Friday morning at 10AM. If they didn’t find anyone by then, they’d throw the whole stock overboard!
R’ Shlomo heard of the offer and sprung to action. He headed to the chief of the agriculture department, hoping that he’d grant this golden opportunity, and he miraculously agreed! He signed off on the documents, stipulating that they not request this a second time.
The next step was to tell the exporter that they had approval to import. The exporter only agreed to defer from its course to England if the required documents would be signed in front of a certified lawyer in Tel Aviv. “And all this must be done by 10AM,” demanded the exporter.
R’ Shlomo was then faced with another problem. Who would undertake to finance such a project and have the money to make the payment by 10 AM? A ship full of potatoes is not a small sum to underwrite. R’ Shlomo knew that only one person could — and would — do it, and that was R’ Binyamin. He’d so anything to help the shomrei shmitah. R’ Shlomo phoned R’ Binyamin, excusing himself for calling at such an unearthly hour, but R’ Binyamin agreed to pay for the potatoes and called the taxi to zip him to Tel Aviv without delay.
“Wow,” R’ Simcha said to R’ Binyamin. “But how does this story have to do with my Ahra’lah?”
“I have a mesorah from my rebbeim,” explained R’ Binyamin, “that when one is going to do a valuable mitzvah, the Satan goes out trying to stop him. He sets traps to prevent it.
“This morning, I knew that I was performing a superior mitzvah, and I was sure that he would place a stumble before me. As soon as I saw you wanting to take the cab that I needed to get to Tel Aviv right away, I knew that it was a maaseh Satan — a trick set by the yetzer hara. I didn’t know that he would be there so quick — right when I’d leave the house — but because I knew that he was coming, I was confident enough to say that your baby was and would be fine. I knew that his illness was only an illusion to prevent me from heading to Tel Aviv to do the mitzvah of sustaining shomrei shmitah, and so I sent you home, calmly.”
With that R' Simcha made his way into shul starting kabalos Shabbos with extreme joy that over his baby’s wellbeing.
This incredible story is eye-opening. R’ Binyamin was so confident that the Satan would be there before he performs a big mitzvah that he was able to dismiss a case of pikuach nefesh!
There are many times that we try to do the right thing and suddenly experience unexpected challenges. “Why is this happening to me now? I’m on the way to learn, daven, help others...” But what we should remember is that the challenges are a proof that the yetzer hara is being sent to prevent us from doing something very valuable! He doesn’t need to interfere with something meaningless — only that which has quality. So, when you find yourself set up with such a challenge, think for a moment about how it’s a haskamah from “a malach” that reflects how valuable your mitzvah is. Use that adrenaline to combat him and stand up to the challenge. Take that courage to overpower him — and succeed.
During Elul, many of us experience some unexpected challenges, such as more errands, different situations that test our middos, etc., that we never seem to face during the rest of the year. By remembering that they are all because of the time of the year — days of greater value — the yetzer hara places them before us so that we’ll grow stronger. But we must keep in mind that trying our best despite them will bring Hashem so much more nachas and grant for us that much more s’char.
