What About Her Wages?

By scrimping and saving her pennies, the wife of Reb Zushia of Anipol was finally able to afford to buy a new dress, to replace her old, tattered one. She bought the cloth and brought it to the seamstress to sew for her.

When she came back for the dress and was trying it on, the seamstress gave a sigh. "What are you sighing about?" the Rebbetzin asked.

"It's very upsetting," replied the seamstress. "You see, as I was working on the dress, my future son-in-law came in and saw me working on it. He immediately jumped to the conclusion that the dress was being sewn for his bride. When he found out that it was not for her, he was very disappointed."

"If that's the whole problem," said the Rebbetzin, "I hereby give you the dress as a gift from me, for your daughter, the bride." No amount of argument by the seamstress changed the Rebbetzin's mind, and the dress was indeed given to the bride.

When the Rebbetzin related the story to Reb Zushia, he had only one question: "Did you pay the seamstress the full amount for her work?"

"Why should I?" she asked. "After all, I gave her the dress."

"That's entirely irrelevant," said Reb Zushia. "Every worker works on the basis of being paid, and she surely took the amount she expected from you into account in working out her expenses. Without the money, how is she to buy food for her family?"

Without another word, the Rebbetzin ran back to the seamstress and paid her in full in accordance with the agreement they had made.

Fair Profit

A merchant came to Rabbi Shraga Feivel Frank, who had a leather store, and sought to buy a large amount of leather. Considering the large quantity involved, he asked for a discount. "I can't do that," said Rabbi Shraga Feivel, "because I feel I need to make a certain percentage of profit, regardless of the quantity. However," he continued, "I can recommend other leather merchants. Maybe they will be willing to give you such a discount." He thereupon took out a piece of paper and wrote down the names of other leather merchants.

The man left the store and went to the other merchants, but found that not only were their prices not any lower, they were in fact higher than those quoted by Rabbi Shraga Feivel.

Hurrying back to Rabbi Shraga Feivel, the man was prepared to pay the original price that he had been quoted.

"I've returned, Rabbi Shraga Feivel," said the man, "and am ready to pay what you asked for."

"I'm very glad to see you," said Rabbi Shraga Feivel. "After you left, I thought things over again, and I realized that I am indeed able to offer you the price at the discount you asked for," and he refused to accept any more than the amount he had mentally decided on.

Mistaken Identity

Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Pshischa and Rabbi Yaakov of Lelov both approached an extraordinarily wealthy man to collect alms for the poor. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef was a brawny fellow, while Rabbi Yaakov was a pale slip of a man.

The man, not bothering to hear that they were not collecting money for themselves, but for the poor, told them: "I'm gladly willing to give money to the small man, who is so frail that he cannot possibly earn a living on his own. But as for you" -- and here he pointed to Rabbi Yaakov Yosef -- "you have two strong hands. If you want to eat, go find yourself a job."

Soon after the two had left, the man found out that the person he had insulted was Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, the Holy Jew, as he was known. Rushing over to the two, the man cried and begged for forgiveness for insulting Rabbi Yaakov Yosef.

"Me? You didn't insult me," Rabbi Yaakov Yosef said to him. "You must have mistaken me for someone else."

"But Rebbe, I certainly did," cried the man.

"No you didn't. You insulted the simple man you thought I was. You surely didn't insult me."

"Rebbe, please forgive me," begged the man. "I regret every word I said."

"Well, that is impossible," explained Rabbi Yaakov Yosef. "Since you didn't insult me, I can't possibly forgive you."

"Then what should I do, Rebbe?" cried the man.

"Well, since you did not insult me but you insulted the simple man you thought I was, you will have to ask and beg forgiveness from every simple man you meet for the rest of your life, and you will need to make amends to each and every one of them."

What It Feels Like

When he was already at an advanced age, Rabbi Elazar Menachem Mann Shach once attended a funeral. A torrential rain was falling, and he was not carrying an umbrella. When one of those present offered him an umbrella, he responded:

"The man whose funeral we are attending today once gave me a coat when we were in the subzero temperatures of a Siberian winter. Now, I want to relive some of the distress I felt before receiving the coat, so I can more fully appreciate what he did for me."

Casting Lots

The two great Torah giants, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Aharon Kotler, both learned in the Slutzk Yeshivah. Rabbi Feinstein later became the rabbi of Luban in Russia, but when the Communists rose to power, his life was in danger because the Communists tried to uproot any vestige of Jewish life. Finally, when life in Russia became too precarious, Rabbi Feinstein and his family immigrated to the United States, arriving there in 1936.

Rabbi Kotler, though, remained in Europe until World War II broke out. Eventually, after many trials and tribulations, he managed to escape from Europe, and arrived in Japan. Now that he was in a country that allowed Jews to travel, he had two choices. On the one hand, he could travel to Israel, where his father-in-law, Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, had already established himself. Or he could travel to the United States and join Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.

Faced with this major decision, Rabbi Kotler decided to follow the system of lots used by the Gaon of Vilna. This consisted of a certain method of turning the pages of a specific edition of the Bible, and following the direction of the verse to where this system pointed.

After casting the lot, Rabbi Kotler found that the verse he had opened to read (Exodus 4:27): "God said to Aharon, 'Go to meet Moshe in the desert'." Rabbi AHARON Kotler understood this to mean that he was to join Rabbi MOSHE Feinstein in what was the "desert" of Jewish learning in America.

It was in the United States that Rabbi Kotler established the Lakewood Yeshivah, one of the premier yeshivahs in the world.