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This Shabbat we begin the fifth and last book of the Five Books of Moses book of Devarim (Deuteronomy). This is Moses directions to the Jews that were about to enter the Land of Israel.

But it is different than the previous four. It was spoken by Moses to a LOWER generation of Jews that had not experienced G-d ‘Face to Face’ (Deut. 5:4) at Mount Sinai.

Also, we are now in the last nine days of the Three Weeks of Mourning; the lowest days of the Year culminating with the saddest day in the Jewish calendar; Tisha B’Av – the Ninth day of the Month of Av when both Holy Temples were destroyed.

But, paradoxically, this Shabbat (Shabbat Chazon); although it is in the ‘nine days, is supposed to be the happiest Shabbat of the year! (because it is forbidden to show ANY sign of sadness on Shabbat),

To understand how this is possible, here is a story. (HaGeula weekly page #467)

The year was 1990 somewhere in the north of Israel. A middle-aged, hard-working Jew by the name of Ariel Chadad, heard the door open in his appliance store. Customers! He put down the newspaper he was reading and looked up to see seven, well-dressed men, suits and ties, enter.

But it didn’t look good; they didn’t look like customers.

He tried to force a smile and asked them if he could help but they just stood there, straight as statues and one of them presented him with a small calling card and said, “Israeli Revenue Service. Your business has been randomly chosen to undergo inspection. We want to see all your books”.

Ariel’s smile faded; he scanned their faces to see if it was a joke. It wasn’t. He closed the store, cleared off a few tables, brought out his account books and they went to work. He knew it was going to be bad; no one ever came out of such investigations clean. But he had no idea how bad.

Several hours later they closed the books, gathered all their papers, put the books in a large cardboard box, sealed it and before taking it outside to one of their cars, solemnly presented him with an official document filled with neat rows of numbers topped with all sorts of stamps, headings and seals.

His eyes drifted to the bottom. Sum total: He owed the government THREE MILLION Shekels!

He sat down, opened his shirt collar and counted the zeros. There were six of them all right. First a three with a comma after it, then three zeros with another comma after them and then three more zeros. Three million!!

“Three million??” he almost whispered. “There must be some mistake.” He looked up at the officials, but they were already heading out the door. One of them turned to him and said. “If you want to clarify anything there’s a phone number on the card or one of the numbers on the paper. Have a good day!”

He wiped his forehead and called an accountant and a lawyer. The next few weeks were a nightmare chain of frustrating meetings, desperate telephone calls, pleas for mercy and disappointments.

It was hard reality. It seems that in the twenty years that he owned his store he had done his own accounting and had missed a lot of important details. He never dreamed his little store was important enough for an investigation. But after all it was no mistake; after reckoning the mistakes, fines, penalties and compound interest there was no way that even a penny could be deducted.

He was finished for LIFE!! Even if he sold his business, house and spread the remainder of the debt over the next hundred years he would never be able to pay it off! And he had a family to support!

But then, precisely when things looked helpless a faint ray of light shone through the darkness.

Ariel kept his store open. It at least kept him occupied; it took his mind off his troubles a few hours of the day and kept him from going insane. And it paid off! One day, one of his customers, a religious Jew, happened to notice the miserable look on his face and asked what was wrong. When he heard the reply he told him not to worry. There was a solution. In another month he and a group of other Jews were going to visit the Lubavitcher Rebbe on a subsidized charter flight that had been arranged by Rabbi Tzitlin from Tzfat. Chadad had heard of the Lubavitcher Rebbe before but he never took the name too seriously. Until now.

He got the phone number, called, asked to be included, was told that the list was closed, begged to be included, called friends to influence Rabbi Tzitlin, prayed and a week later got his wish; a few places opened up and he was IN!!
The trip was just what he needed. Not only did it take his mind off his troubles, it awakened some part of him that he never knew existed; his Jewish soul. The prayers, the Chassidim, the Torah learning, the Farbrengans (Chassidic get-togethers) with the Chassidim and the massive ones with the Rebbe put him in another world.

But every once in a while, the number 3,000,000 popped up before him! He would go to prison! And he COULDN’T pay!!

He asked Rabbi Tzitlin what to do and was told not to worry. Every Sunday the Rebbe gave dollar bills to thousands of people to encourage the giving of charity (each recipient was to give at least its equivalent to the needy) and with each dollar he also gave advice and blessings.

Sunday arrived. Thousands were standing in line ahead of him and thousands more behind him; all sorts of Jews in all sorts of garb and hairstyle. As he got closer to the Rebbe he saw that each person got to stand only a second or two; long enough to get the dollar and hear a short blessing, before being pushed on by the Rebbe’s secretaries.

But for some reason when his turn came, they didn’t push him. They let him talk. “Rebbe!” he almost cried “I owe three million in taxes on my business and can’t pay!”

The Rebbe took two one-dollar bills, handed them to him and said, “One is for your old company, and here is one for your new one; Blessing and success!”

Ariel Chadad suddenly found himself outside. ‘What type of blessing what that?’ he said to himself. “What did the Rebbe mean? What old company? What new one? Why didn’t he talk about my debts?!”

A week later he returned to Israel with two small rays of hope; the Rebbe’s dollars and mysterious blessings. Although he didn’t understand them, he had optimism.

A week later his phone rang, on the other end was one of the stone-hearted officials whose voice he recognized all too well. “Hello, Chadad? Ariel Chadad”

He had spoken to this man, begging, pleading for mercy, tens of times with no success. Now the official was calling him. Must be more bad news.

“Yes, this is Chadad” He replied. The voice on the other end said. “Listen! The head of the entire department. I don’t know why, but he lowered your debt. He told me to call you.

Now you only owe one hundred and fifty thousand! You hear me, Chadad?! He removed two million, eight hundred and fifty thousand shekels from your debt.

He was shocked. He didn’t owe three million!! If it wasn’t a joke, if it was true  ….. it was a miracle!!!

But then he caught himself and said “So, wait a minute. Tell the manager thank you!! I really have no words. But I do still owe one hundred and fifty thousand! Right?”

True it wasn’t 3 million but it was like reducing a jail sentence from a million years to one thousand years; both were impossible.

But the miracle had just begun. He couldn’t understand why but in the next few weeks, the officials found ways to cut away an additional sixty thousand and then to spread the remaining ninety thousand over the course of several years.

The Rebbe’s dollar did its job! That would have been enough of a miracle for him. But the Rebbe gave two dollars.

A few months later he unexpectedly got an offer from a good friend to be partners in a hardware store together. His friend would put up most of the money. Good location, easy terms. He could sell his old store and start anew.

He did it and it succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. In less than a year he paid all his debts and was a new man. This was the new company the Rebbe was talking about.

But the main profit was not the money but the soul awakening that accompanied it. Ariel Chadad became one of the thousands that realized that success and money is only the means. The goal is to be focused on the same thing as the Rebbe; to do everything possible to make the world a perfect place.

This answers our questions about this Shabbat being the highest within the lowest.

Really this week’s Torah portion where the Jews are on a low level and this week’s Shabbat which is a high level have the same point.

As we saw in our story, it is precisely by being ‘helpless’ and ‘low’ like Ariel Chadad in our story that we begin living in The Creator’s world where there are no limitations, no selfishness and no suffering.

Only then can we want what the Rebbe wants and transform all these days of sadness and mourning to joy and blessing And, as the Rebbe said repeatedly; this should happen at any moment.

We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish service, hopes, prayers and suffering. It all depends on us! Just one more good deed, word or even good thought, can bring …….

Moshiach NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel

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