Part 1 of 4 – Part 2 to be posted tomorrow

 

Part I The Rabbi and Students Travel

Once there was a rabbi who was very wealthy. He knew all of the revealed and hidden Torah and understood all the seventy languages. The rabbi maintained a great yeshiva, which was attended by many students. The rabbi provided for the needs of poor students. The students loved the rabbi, their teacher.

The rabbi was a baal tzedakah (giver of much charity) and provided for many of the poor of the village. He frequently had travelers and beggars in his home. the rabbi was filled with good deeds, as a pomegranite is filled with seeds. He was known throughout the region as a holy and generous man.

His wife was nothing like him, she was a wicked woman. She resented his generosity and his love of Torah. She couldn’t bear the presence of any poor people in her house.

The world is a water wheel, the buckets ascend full and descend empty. Who’s rich today may not be so tomorrow. (Exodus Rabbah 31:14) And so it happened with the holy rabbi. He lost all his wealth and could no longer help the poor or the students.

The holy rabbi was embarassed, but chose to bear his losses without protest to the Holy One, blessed be He, for ‘all His ways are just’ (Deuteronomy 32:4). After much thought he decided to leave town secretly so that no one will know what became of him.

He called together his best students in the yeshiva and said, “You know how devoted I’ve been to you all these years. I’ve provided you with food and clothing, and studied with you. But now I have to tell you something, and I hope that you will do toward me as I have always done toward you.”

The students answered together: “Rabbi, holy rabbi, tell us your secret. And we promise that we will be true to you as long as the Holy One, blessed be He gives us life.”

The rabbi told them he that he lost his fortune and that he planned to leave town. He invited his 10 best students to join him. He still had some money and hoped they would find mercy a long the road.

The students were touched by the holy rabbi’s words that they agreed that whatever they had, whether money or clothes, they would share with him.

That night, the rabbi went away his ten best students, and no one in the village noticed their leaving. When the poor people and students found that the rabbi was gone they were deeply frightened of his wife.

The holy rabbi was greatly honored wherever he went, and he and his students were treated very well. No one was surprised that he had left home, people assumed that he and his students were traveling for some holy purpose.

Travel is hard on clothes, person, and purse. (Midrash Tehillim 23:3) After being on the road for a long time, their clothes became tattered, and they ran out of money. They no longer looked like Torah scholars and sadly had to resort to begging to meet their needs.

Weariness and hard times wore down the holy rabbi and his loyal students. The students approached the holy rabbi and told him thy were tired of their life of wandering, and they to return to their homes and families. They also promised not to tell anyone what he was doing or where he was.”

The holy rabbi listened to his students and thought for a few moments, and then he said: “My dear students, what greater praise can I speak of you than your loyalty, which you have been showing me all this time. I therefore want to ask you one more thing, stay with me until after Shabbos. Then, b’ezras Hashem (G-d willing), I’ll let you go with my blessings.”

The students answered, “Rabbi, we’ve been with you so long, we’ll stay with you until after Shabbos.”

The holy rabbi walked slowly into the nearby forest and began to meditate and pray:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you (Psalm 19:14) If I recite my wants, it is not to remind You of them, but only that I may be conscious of my dependence upon You. (Chovos haLevavos 8:3:18).

Suddenly he saw a little weasel running by, with a golden ring in its mouth. The holy rabbi began to chase the weasel, until it dropped the ring. The rabbi picked it up and saw that is was very old and that there was ancient writing on the inside, which he was able to read. It said: “Though I be old and simple, I am invaluable.”

The rabbi was very wise and he realized there was something special about this ring, and he sat and studied it. He wondered what was so special about the ancient ring. What makes it so invaluable?

For a moment he was distracted thought about his students and he said to himself, “Ribbono Shel Olam , Master of the Universe allow me to find away to send my students back to their homes with ease,” Suddenly he saw lying before him a belt full of golden coins. He was amazed and returned to his students.

He gathered them around him and told them, “This Shabbos will truly be joyful. I just learned that an old friend, who is very wealthy, lives in the nextvillage, and I’m sure he will lend me money, he doesn’t yet realize that I’m poor. With the money, I’ll be able to buy you all new clothes and we will return home together.”

He didn’t want to tell his students about the ring because “secret things belong to Hashem (Deuteronomy 29:28), so he didn’t say a word.

When they arrived at the next village, the holy rabbi bought clothes made of the finest velvet and silk for his students. He also bought himself clothing he had worn before. Throughout Shabbos they learned Torah, sang and were very happy.

He went into the city and bought a beautiful coach, fit for a prince, and he told his students:

“Dear students, come here, and I will pay you back for everything you did for me while we were roaming about, and then we shall go home.”

The students merely thought that the wealthy relative in the town had lent him a thousand ducats, just as the rabbi said to them, so that he might return home in honor. And they started back. And the people who had once closed their doors to them, now opened them wide and welcomed the travelers warmly.

However, while the rabbi and his students were away from their home town, the people were miserable. But then they found out that the rabbi and his students were coming back, and there were shouts of joy. And who was as glad as the poor people in town?

When the rabbi arrived, everyone gave him a warm welcome, for nobody realized he had gone out into the world because he had been poverty-stricken. People thought he had gone away to study. And the rabbi acted as he had always acted before. He gave charity, opened his yeshiva and brought up little boys to study. On Sabbath afternoons, following his nap, he would interpret the hard critical glosses of the Talmud for his students.

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)

Rachmiel Tobesman is a motivational speaker and Maggid (spiritual Storyteller). He is available for speaking engagements or storytelling, Click here to contact us

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