A poor man was walking along the road, miserable and sad. It had been years since his wife had smiled. The Holy One, blessed be He had blessed them with a house full of girls, beautiful, wise and resourceful — each one a treasure. From the moment his eldest had come of age, matchmakers began knocking on their door with suggestions of fine young men, learned and pious.
Sadly, when they 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 his neighbors — “merciful ones, the children of merciful ones”— would have pity on his family and help him in his time of need.
He hoped to collect enough money to marry off his daughters, but he was unsuccessful. It wasn’t that the people were stingy or uncaring. It was just that they, too, were poverty-stricken and had barely enough to support their own families. The few who had more were overextended, constantly trying to respond to requests for assistance from far and near.
Now, on his way home, his mind was on his empty pocket and his wife’s disappointment. He lost track of his surroundings and found himself in a grove of trees. Tired, 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?”
Looking up, he suddenly realized that he had apparently wandered onto the grounds of a grand manor and was face to face with the poritz, the feudal lord who had almost unlimited power over his property.
“Oh, I am so sorry, Your Lordship,” 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,” the feudal lord said gently. “You look like a man who has suffered in life. Please tell me more. Perhaps I can help you . . .”
“Oh, Your Lordship is too kind,” 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 father and his problems?”
“Dear man,” said the feudal lord, “please take this purse of coins and marry your daughters in gladness. I am an old man and have all the money I can ever need — it’s the joy of giving that I could use in life. After all, ‘Who gives to the poor shall not lack.’ “(Proverbs 28:27)
The wealthy poritz thought for a moment and then continued, “I learned many years ago. ‘Turn not away your face from any poor man, and the face of G-d will not turn away from you’ (Tobit 4:7) Now go in peace.”
Still doubting whether it had all been a dream, the poor man stumbled home. It was not long before word of the generosity of the feudal lord spread through the village.
“What good fortune,” said one man to another. “Here’s our chance to get rich. Let’s go to that same estate 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 master of the property soon came to question them.
“Oh, Sire,” 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.”
“You’re charlatans, both of you,” thundered the lord, who had once been a general and still knew how to bark an order. “Leave at once!”
As they humbly left the garden, one of them summoned up the nerve to question the feudal lord. “How is it,” he asked, “that when our friend was here, you greeted him so kindly, but when we came and told you a similar story, you called our bluff?”
“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. 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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Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. (Joel 1:3)
