From the Desk of Yerachmiel Tilles
Rabbi Yitzchok Greenberg recalled a story he had heard years earlier.
About 200 years ago, in a shtetl in Eastern Europe, the entire community chipped in money to help a poor bridegroom get started in a business. Following the community’s advice, the groom bought a horse and wagon and drove to the market to buy flour, which he would then resell in the village.
One day, he bought sacks of flour with the remainder of his money, and carefully loaded them onto the wagon. While riding home, a violent gust of wind flipped his wagon over. All the sacks of flour were flung onto the rocky ground. The sacks burst open and the wind blew the flour away. The young man turned upright the empty wagon, and feeling totally distraught drove straight to his Rebbe. The sad groom told the Rebbe about the terrible misfortune.
After a few minutes of deep meditation, the Rebbe said, “G-d made that wind. I have to call Him to a din Torah (a rabbinical court hearing).”
The Rebbe wept and pleaded the case for the groom. Minutes passed. Finally, the Rebbe looked up and smiled. “You have won the case. Now, return to your village and all will be well.”
On the road home, the groom’s wagon got stuck in the mud. The unlucky groom took a broken branch and tried to dig out the wheel. The branch struck against something hard and he pushed it out of the mud. It was a chest! The young man pried it open and, behold, it was overflowing with gold coins and jewels.
After searching in vain for its owner, a judge ruled that since apparently robbers had hidden this treasure in the ground and there was nobody to whom he could return the treasure, the groom was allowed to keep it. The couple invested their fortune wisely, and became known throughout the land for their generosity and warm hospitality.
Excerpted from the Sukkos 5785 email of KabbalaOnline.org, a project of Ascent of Safed in Israel.
