It was 1951, and young Yitzchak walked along the streets of Yerushalayim on a spring Shabbos afternoon, returning home after his weekly Tehillim group. As Yitzchak turned onto a quiet narrow street, his eye caught the glare of the sun shining off something lying on the ground. As he came closer, he saw that it was a gold coin. What should he do? The coin could help his family for the next few weeks. The poverty at that time was rampant; a typical Shabbos seudah consisted of two challos, a slice of fish, and some rice.
But Yitzchak stopped; it was Shabbos Kodesh. He was not permitted to take the coin. Yitzchak Eisenbach remembered that although he could not move the coin, he was allowed to stand over the coin without shifting it. He placed his feet on the coin and was planning to wait the two remaining hours until Shabbos was over and then take the coin for himself.
From the window of his apartment, a young Arab was observing the scene and wondering why a Jewish boy was standing in the same spot for twenty minutes. He came outside and noticed the radiating glow. He then walked up to Yitzchak, pushed him over, took the precious coin, and walked off.
Yitzchak laid there helpless against the Arab’s attack, and after he left, Yitzchak cried his way home. When he came home, his father asked him what happened, and Yitzchak told his father the whole story — how he’d found a gold coin, how he’d planned to stand on it till Shabbos ended, and how the Arab had pushed him and took away the precious coin. His father tried to comfort him but to no avail. Yitzchak was disappointed.
On Motzaei Shabbos, when Maariv ended, the great tzaddik and gaon, Rav Weidenfeld, zt”l, known as the Tchebiner Rav, called Yitzchak over and asked him why he was sad. When Yitzchak told the Rav what occurred, the Rav looked at Yitzchak and said, “Ask your father if he lets you come to my house. There’s something I want to tell you.” After getting permission, Yitzchak walked home with the great tzaddik.
“Yitzchak,” the Rav started, “you lost a gold coin today, and you must be very sad. I have a gold coin in my drawer, and I’m willing to give it to you, but on one condition.”
Yitzchak’s eyes perked in disbelief. “What’s the condition?”
The Rav smiled and said, “On the condition that you grant me the reward of the mitzva you’ve done. You got one of the biggest mitzvos possible; you held yourself back from moving muktze by not taking the gold coin. That mitzva is so great, and I eagerly desire it for myself. If you give me the zechus, then I’ll give you that gold coin.”
When Yitzchak heard the Rav’s words, he came to the realization that although he didn’t have a gold coin, he had something far more precious than money could buy. He had acquired the great mitzva of guarding Shabbos, and that was priceless. He then looked at the Rav and said, “I would rather not give that away.”
The Rav patted him on the forehead and wished him “Gutta vach.” Yitzchak skipped home realizing how much he’d gained with his precious “find.”
Reprinted from the Parshas Noach 5785 email of Rabbi Moshe Hirschberg’s Zichru Toras Moshe
