The Matzavah (tombstone of the Megaleh Amukos
A person should also get into the custom of praying for his needs in his own words. These tefillos can be said almost any time of the day, and they are precious tefillos to Hashem. One of the benefits of these tefillos is that they create a bond between the person and Hashem, as the following story demonstrated:
The Megaleh Amukos [Rabbi Natan Spira, 1585-1633] zt”l, the rav of Krakow, told his community that he was about to leave them, but he wouldn’t tell them the reason he reached that decision. The community begged him to remain, but he wouldn’t be persuaded.
When the day of his leave-taking arrived, he told the community that he changed his mind. He’s staying with them.
Asked Why He Had Changed His Mind
The people of Krakow were overjoyed. They were also curious. “Why were you planning to leave, and what made you change your mind?” They asked. The Megaleh Amukos replied, “I still don’t want to tell you the reason I originally planned to leave, but o will tell you why I decided to stay.
“In our city there’s a poor peddler who earns his parnassah by selling loaves of bread, his wife baked them, and he sits by the roadside peddling the bread to the passers. A few months ago, a wealthy person recognized the pauper, “You’re a talmid chacham; I remember you from years back. You shouldn’t be working like this!”
“This is what I do for a living,” he replied.
“From now on, you remain in the beis medresh and learn Torah. I will send you a weekly stipend, even more than you earn now”
The peddler agreed, and this arrangement went on for a couple of months. Recently, the wealthy man saw the pauper on the street again, selling bread.
“What happened? Don’t we have an agreement?”
The pauper replied, “I decided to back out of the deal. I’ll earn a living selling bread, as before.”
“But a Deal is a Deal...”
The wealthy man said, “But a deal is a deal, and like every agreement, you can’t back out without a ruling from beis din.”
The Megaleh Amukos said, ‘Yesterday they came to my beis din. The wealthy person wants to continue supporting his friend, but the poor peddler doesn’t want to accept the money. It was a most unusual case.
“I asked the peddler why he wants to renege on the agreement and he said the following: “As a peddler, my wife and I are continuously praying. We pray that the dough should rise well, that the bread should taste good, that I should find dry firewood (since wet wood smokes, and ruins the bread) and obviously we pray that people should buy the bread. Our entire day revolves around our tefillos. But ever since we received a weekly stipend we almost stopped davening, since we didn’t have any worries. Therefore, we decided that I should go back to being a peddler again, so we can regain our constant connection with Hashem”
The Megaleh Amukos finished, “That’s when I decided that I want to remain here in Krakow. I want to be near people such as him.”
Reprinted from the January 25, 2024 email of the Torah Times featuring “Treasures of Emunah – Stories of Faith” by Rabbi Elimelech Biderman.
