By Yehuda Z Klitnick
A group of Alexander Chassidim once traveled and spent a Shabbos with the Yismach Yisrael, Harav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok Danziger. On their way home, they stopped at a hotel to rest. There, they met a Yid who got excited when he heard they were coming from Alexander.
I will tell you something that happened to me personally with your Rebbe.” The chassidim gathered around to listen to the shoemaker tell his story.
“I live in the town of Kaluzshin. It has always been difficult for me to make a living. They were offering a shidduch for my daughter, but I had no money for dowry to offer the chosson.
“I heard that in Alexander there was a tzaddik that would bentch every Yid, no matter how heartbroken he was, and everyone who received his brachos was helped. I therefore decided that I would travel to Alexander and get a brachah from this tzaddik.
“When I went in to this tzaddik in Alexander, I told him my story, and told him of the trouble I was in. I begged him to give me a brachah that I should be able to marry off my daughter.
“The tzaddik gave me a bracha “Hashem will help you!’ The winter passed without my being helped. Not only that, but things got worse. Every year I would rent a field from the poritz. I would grow lots of fruit. I would sell the fruit and there would be enough money and fruit for my family to eat. But now I lost that, because a goy came and rented the field from the poritz.
“I decided then and there to travel a second time to Alexander. When I got in to see the Rebbe I had tears in my eyes, telling the tzaddik my problems and complaining that I had not yet been helped, and in fact my problems had increased! A goy had rented the field and now I was left with nothing.
“The Alexander Rebbe told me, ‘Go home and You will rent the field, not the goy. And you will marry off your daughter without any problems.’ “I was amazed to hear these words from the tzaddik. I traveled home with my emunah in the Rebbe complete.
“When I reached home, I found out that the goy had paid the poritz in full for the field. “A few weeks later, the poritz called for me. When I came to him, he told me that he wanted to order a pair of shoes for himself. While I was measuring his feet, we got into a discussion. He asked me if I was prepared to rent his field again for that year.
“I told him yes, I was ready, willing, and able to rent the field. He explained that the goy had backed out of the deal, and the field was now available. I rented the field from the poritz, promising the poritz thirty ruble for rent for the field.
“When I went to the field to check it out, I was in shock. I saw immediately why the goy had changed his mind and why the poritz had been in such a hurry to rent it to me. The trees had dried out completely, and there was no fruit on them at all. I would have no fruits to sell, and I owed the poritz 30 ruble! Now my troubles were even greater.
“That very same day I traveled a third time to Alexander. I told the Rebbe my problems had gotten worse than before. I had agreed to pay the poritz thirty rubles that I didn’t have. Where was I going to get thirty ruble, when the trees were not going to give me any fruit? “Rebbe!” I cried out. “I have no dowry for my daughter, no parnassah for my family, and an empty field that will cost me more money for nothing!”
“Immediately, the tzaddik opened his drawer and took out fifteen rubles and said to me, ‘Take this half of the money you owe the poritz for the field. In return for this money you have to take me as a partner to share the profit with when the field brings you all the fruit!’
“I was happy to get that money, since my house was empty of food. “I came home,” continued the shoemaker, “and in my house they were sitting and waiting for a yeshua. “I couldn’t bear to visit the field anymore. I couldn’t go and work in the field, because I felt it was a waste to put work and money into a lost hope. The trees had shown me that they would not give me any more fruit, and it was obvious that this was the reason the goy had backed out of the deal.
“A few days passed, and a merchant from Lodz came to my house. Every year, this merchant came to me to buy fruit from the field and sell it back in Lodz. I was ashamed to go to the field with him. But my wife had more emunas tzaddikim than I had, and she told me to go to the field. ‘Go with the merchant to the field! You have a partner already, the Alexander Rebbe! He will certainly be a brachah to you!’
“When I arrived at the field, I was amazed. I saw that the trees were full of healthy, very nice fruit. They looked like they came from Gan Eden! The fruit was so ripe that some of them had already fallen off the trees. I collected the fruits and the merchant paid me very well for them. I took more fruit off the trees and sold it to more merchants who heard of the good fruit I produced. The more I took off the trees the more grew back. The profits were enormous!
“This kept up the entire summer. I sold all the fruit, and more grew back. The money from the profit I put into the box. “So much fruit grew, that I couldn’t leave my house to go to the Rebbe because I had to go every day and pick the fruit. This continued happening until after Sukkos.
“After Sukkos I took the box of money and I traveled to Alexander. I went to the tzaddik and I opened the box of money and poured out the money onto the Rebbe’s desk. It was 900 rubles! I wanted to take 450 rubles, as that would have been my half, and that would have been a lot of money and certainly enough for me. But the tzaddik said, ‘Take 700 rubles. From that money you will have enough to live, and a dowry for your daughter. The 200 rubles that belong to me I’m handing over to you to give to a certain kallah, an orphan that I have agreed to marry off, and I want you to be the shliach to do that mitzvah.’’
Reprinted from the Parshas Balak 5758 of Pardes Yehuda
