7 months ago

Ki Teitzei: Returning Lost Selfs

One of the 73 commandments in this week’s reading is to return lost items (22:1). This is very relevant to the Jewish month of Elul (the last month of the Jewish year, which we are currently in), when everyone is trying to “return” themselves to G-d before Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur; the Days of Judgment • Full Article

In general, that is the job of “Tzadikim” (completely G-dly Jews). To help people to return to their true G-dly purpose through advice, prayer and inspiration.

Here is a story about how retuning a lost item TO a great Tzadik, the fifth Chabad Rebbi Shalom DovBer (Resha’b) helped someone to return themselves.

The Rebbe Resha’b had just arrived in Petersburg after a long train ride, and when he went to retrieve his baggage, he was dismayed to find that a trunk full of very important books was missing.

The Rebbe was very upset, the books were very precious to him, but after the workers searched for over an hour with no results, he had no choice other than to proceed to his dwelling without the trunk.

Several days later a young Chassid by the name of Avraham Eliyahu Gurarie entered the Rebbe’s office with the following sad story:

A few months earlier he got married, received a sizeable dowry of ten thousand rubles from his wife’s family, and promptly lost almost all of it in a foolish business deal. Only one thousand rubles were left.

At first his wife was just angry, but one thing led to another, was saying she regretted marrying such a fool and began talking about divorce. He begged the Rebbe to help and broke down in tears.

“Here” said the Rebbe, handing him the ticket stub for his lost trunk. “Take this, go down to the train station, and ask them to find my case of books. I want them back today. I’m sure you will succeed.

The Chassid took the ticket, and excitedly ran to the station expecting immediate, miraculous results but he was in for a disappointment. The baggage room was locked and deserted. He knocked and pounded on the door and called out, but no one answered. Looks like it was closed for the day.

He couldn’t return empty handed, so he wandered around for a few minutes in the empty depot, till he saw an open restaurant, went in, sat down, ordered a tea, took out a cigarette, and began to smoke.

The restaurant had been empty when he entered, but after just a few minutes, he felt that someone was staring at him. He looked up, and sure enough a well-dressed man was sitting at a table looking at him with a friendly gaze. Our Chassid nodded hello, and offered him a cigarette, and began a conversation and when it got around to the lost trunk the man interrupted.

“Well, isn’t that an amazing coincidence! I happen to be the manager of baggage and shipping here. You know what? Here, just give me that ticket and I’ll fix it up”.

He left the restaurant, and in minutes the entire station reverberated with his yelling and shouting. The workers had been on break, and after being yelled at, they emptied out the baggage room and found the Rebbe’s trunk in a corner behind all the other luggage.

When our hero returned to the Rebbe with the trunk of books, the Rebbe was overjoyed and said,

“Avraham Eliyahu I owe you a favor. If you want your dowry money and happy home back, then I advise you to travel to the city of Korch which is by the Black Sea”.

Avraham went home and told his wife how he, her husband, had actually helped the Rebbe, and what the Rebbe told him. When she heard all this, her anger temporarily transformed into pride, and she joyously began preparing his suitcase and baking him enough cakes to last him a few days.

“Maybe he isn’t such a bumbling fool after all,” she thought to herself.

When Avraham reached the town of Korch he checked into a seaside hotel. Being that it was a hot summer day, he decided to go for a brief, refreshing dip in the Sea before walking the streets in search of his savior.

He was sitting on the sand, after having finished his swim, eating from the food his wife had prepared, when he noticed that next to him a Jew was sitting, admiring his fine cakes. Avraham offered him a taste, and in no time at all, he was telling him his entire story down to the last detail of the Rebbe’s advice.

“You know what?” His newfound friend replied. “I think maybe I can help. Tomorrow, meet me here at this same time….and don’t forget to bring some of those delicious cakes with you. It would be a shame to lose a wife that bakes such cakes,” he said with a smile.

Things were starting to move fast, and Avraham was exited. The next day found him sitting in the same place by the sea, but this time lunching on his cakes with the man he had met the day before, together with a third man, who appeared to be a successful businessman.

“I heard your story, young man,” said the businessman. “And I’d like to help you. By the way, these are REALLY tasty cakes. Please give my compliments to your wife. I have a freight car filled with cigarette papers. I’m willing to sell you them for a thousand rubles. That’s all you have, right?

Well, I think that you can sell them for a good price in Karmanchuk where the cigarette factories are. And if you can’t, I’m always willing to buy them back from you. What do you say?”

Our hero saw the hand of G-d in this deal, and promptly handed over the entire thousand rubles without asking any questions. In fact, the
businessman had to force him to go down to the freight yard to see what he had purchased.

The businessman had the freight car sent to Karmanchuk with Avraham accompanying it. When he arrived, Avraham immediately made his way to a relative of his that lived there; a well-known Chabad businessman called Rav Tzvi Gur-Arie, to sell his newly acquired cigarette papers.

But Rav Tzvi was anything but enthusiastic. They really weren’t worth much more than what Avraham paid for them. Maybe five hundred rubles more. When he heard how the Rebbe was involved, he raised it to two thousand.

“No deal!” said our hero emphatically. “Either give me the entire ten thousand which I ask for, or I’ll go elsewhere!”

Rav Tzvi had no choice than to send him away empty handed. He was willing to give charity, but not eight thousand rubles! And the Rebbe never said that all the ten thousand would come from this one sale.

But Avraham Eliyahu did not lose hope. Exactly the opposite. To everyone he met, he proudly advertised that he was willing to sell his papers for ten thousand rubles and no less than ten thousand rubles. Of course, no one really took him seriously

Until the next day. Someone stopped him in the street and nervously asked,

“Excuse me! Are you the one that is selling the cigarette papers?”

“For ten thousand rubles” Avraham added.

“Here is the money! Ten thousand rubles cash! Show me the merchandise and it’s yours.”

They traveled to the trainyard. Avraham showed him the freight car full of papers, and received the money on the spot.

Avraham later learned that there had been a fire in of one of the main cigarette paper factories, and all the cigarette producers were desperate.

When Rav Tzvi eventually heard about the fire, he too rushed to Avraham, only to find that he was too late.

“But you can go to the man who sold them to me in Korch” Said Avraham.

But when Rav Gur-Arie got there, the businessman told him that there were no more papers. Those were all he had. And really the only reason he sold that carload to the young man was because he had mercy on him.

When our hero returned home with his “lost” dowry of 10,000 rubles his wife was happy and peace returned. But when he then went to the Rebbe to thank and he asked for advice on how to invest his newly returned wealth, the Rebbe just looked at him with a smile and said;

“Now we are even. Good luck.”

So we see that even the most righteous and holy leaders of Israel like the Rebbe, need the help of ordinary people like you and me. (How much more so do we need each other). And those who help, get helped.

What we can learn from all this is:

1) Each Jew has a lost item; namely a holy soul and G-dly purpose that we are out of contact with.

2) Everyone is happy to have this ‘lost’ identity returned.
3) If we help others find it G-d helps us.
4) After all, we must learn to manage on our own.

The Rebbe assures us that our good deeds or even one good deed, can make even the Moshiach arrive a bit earlier and help EVERYONE to find ALL they lost.

Today we are standing on the shoulders of thousands of years of Jewish suffering, prayers and self-sacrifice. Now it could be that just one more good deed, word or even thought can bring……Moshiach NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim, Kfar Chabad, Israel

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