A poor man was walking along the road, miserable and sad. It had been years since his wife had smiled. G‑d had blessed them with a houseful of girls, beautiful, wise and resourceful — each one a gem. From the moment his eldest had come of age, matchmakers began knocking on their door with suggestions of fine young men, Torah scholars.

Sadly, when the young men heard that there was no money for a dowry, they turned away. “Your daughters are wonderful,” they would say, “but how can we expect a young man to join a family that cannot even contribute a few coins toward the wedding celebration and settling the young couple in a new home?”

As a last resort, he set out to beg, hopeful that people would contribute to the special mitzvah of Hachnosas Kallah (charity to helping poor brides get married) After all the Jewish people who are filled with kindness and mercy would have pity on his family and help him in his time of need.

Alas, he was unsuccessful in collecting the necessary funds. It wasn’t that they were stingy or uncaring. It was just that they too were very poor and had barely enough to support their own families. Those who were wealthy were overwhelmed by the many requests from far and near for help.

The poor man walked into a field, his mind was on his empty pockets and his wife’s disappointment. He barely noticed his surroundings, he leaned against a large tree, massaging his back against its ample trunk.

“Hey, you!” he heard. “What are you doing here? Don’t you know that you’re trespassing on my land?”

Looking up, he suddenly realized that he had apparently wandered into a grove of trees on the grounds of a grand manor. He saw coming towards him the poritz, the powerful landowner who had almost unlimited power.

“Oh, I am so sorry, good sir,” he was quick to say. “I was simply wandering around, feeling so alone and sad about my sorry state of affairs, and I stopped to comfort my aching back against your tree. Please forgive me for taking that simple pleasure, and I will be on my way.”

“Wait a moment,” said the poritz, not unkindly. “You look like a man who has suffered in life. Please tell me more. Perhaps I can help you. . .”

“Oh, sir you please forgive me for intruding on your land,” said the down-and-out man. “I was feeling so alone. I am a father of daughters, and I desperately seek means with which to help them get married, but why should you care about a poor old Jewish father and his problems?”

“Dear man,” said the poritz, “don’t we learn that the Holy One, Bless be He ‘created a man and for him he made him a wife (Eve) as a helper and support. From the two of them the human race sprung. He said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; let us make a helper for him like himself.’ (Genesis 2:18) (see Tobit 8:6) We are kindred to one another as established from the earliest of times as it is written “So G-d created man in his image, in the image of G-d he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

The poor man looked at the poritz in a strange way and slowly said, “I guess we are similar in some ways.”

The poritz continued. “Please take this purse of coins, and marry your daughters in gladness. I am an old man and have all the money I would ever need — t’s the joy of giving that I could use in life. Now go in peace.”

The poor man smile and said as he left, “May you live long and may you only know peace.”

Still wondering if it had all been a dream, the poor man stumbled home. It was not long before word of the miraculous chain of events spread through the village.

“What good fortune,” said one man to another. “Here’s our chance to get rich. Let’s go to poritz’s grove and try our luck.”

Making their way to the grove, they promptly located a well-suited tree and began to rub with vigor.

Sure enough, the poritz soon came to question them.

“Oh, dear sir,” they said, “Please have pity! We were feeling so sad, so alone and so hopeless that we decided to lean against your tree for a while, taking advantage of the opportunity to massage our backs.”

The senseless have vain and false hopes, and dreams give wings to fools. (Sirach 34:1)

“You’re charlatans, both of you,” thundered the poritz, who had once been a captain in the army and still knew how to bark an order. “You dare speak in such a way. You, who claim to be sincere, yet flagrantly violate what is written:  ‘You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another.’ (Leviticus 19:11)  Leave this grove at once!”

As they humbly left the garden, one of them summoned up the nerve to question the poritz. “How is it,” he queried, “that when our friend was here, you greeted him so kindly, but when we came and told you a similar story, you became angry?”

“It’s very simple. When a man is truly alone and he needs to scratch his back, he has no choice but to lean against a tree trunk. But there are two of you. You could have rubbed each other’s backs. That told me that you weren’t really as needy as you made yourselves out to be.”

As long as one has faith and a friend, no situation is ever hopeless.

May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)

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