It was three years after his chasuna, and Efraim desired to purchase for himself a megilla. He had leined the megilla in the past, but now he wanted his own to lein from. He visited three retailers to see what they had to offer, but he was unsatisfied with the quality of whatever they showed him.
Seeing that these were the best ones available, he decided that he would have to choose from one of them. He asked if he could take samples of the three and bring it to his Rav, who’s a meivin in this, and so he did.
On the way to his Rav, Reb Shimon Schreiber, he was on the phone with a cousin of his. While they were talking, Efraim in passing mentioned that he was on the way to show three megillas to his Rav, but hearing this, his cousin told him that he should reach out to his good friend, R’ Chaim Soll from Ezras Torah in Yerushalayim, who might be of help.
At first, Efraim wasn’t up to starting with a new dealer. He had dealt with enough and wanted just to get his megilla already, but his cousin persisted. Efraim agreed and phoned him. R’ Soll offered Efraim a new megilla written by a top sofer, ready for a quick sale. “This sofer wrote a megilla for his new son-in-law, but he has to sell it now to cover the chasuna costs. He doesn’t write megillos anymore, he’s moved on to mezuzos and sifrei Torah, but he has one megilla for sale. It’s $1,400. A bargain!”
“$1,400?!” Efraim was glad to hear that, because all the good-looking megillos were selling for $2,000-3,000. R’ Soll then sent him a picture of the megilla, which satisfied his expectations. Efraim went ahead and deposited the $1,400 into R’ Soll’s TD account while R’ Soll arranged a courier to have the megilla brought to America. Within a week, Efraim was holding his new megilla.
That night, Efraim called his father-in-law to share the news. His father-in-law responded that he had set aside some money for the purchase and that he can come by and pick it up. “I want you just to know that last year, I set aside this envelope for you to buy a new megilla, and while I know that it won’t cover the entire cost, it’s yours to use toward the megilla. I set aside this money for your megilla before it would get used up for the chasuna expenses of our other daughter in shidduchim.”
That night, when he came to pick up the envelope, he saw 14 crisp, $100 bills lying in there. $1,400 exactly!
Efraim thanked his father-in-law profusely and went on to tell him the story behind “the steal of a deal.” Hearing how the sofer sold the newly written megilla to cover the chasuna costs, Efraim’s father-in-law pulled out $60 and instructed that the money be given to help the sofer with the chasuna expenses.
Efraim went to track down the sofer, but was unsuccessful. The three times he was on the phone with the sofer, the sofer denied writing the megilla. “It was my brother” was the response. After the third attempt, his father-in-law told him that he can keep the money for himself, and so he did.
The next day, Efraim and his wife drove down to the local Judaica store to buy a megilla holder. When they were paying, the cashier stated, “$59.99, please.” Efraim took out the money and paid, overtaken by the hashgacha he had just witnessed.
But the story only gets better.
Several weeks before buying the megilla, Efraim had sold a piece of furniture, and had given it to the buyer with the understanding that he would pay later. Days went by, and then weeks, but the money was not coming. He then realized that he was dealing with a swindler and that there was no point in calling anymore. The sale had been priced at $1,400.
Seeing that there was nothing to do, Efraim accepted it as a test from Hashem and moved on without getting excited over it. Several weeks later, he got the $1,400 that Hashem has reserved for him from the year before — to be used only after he’d withstood that challenge.
