"Which refrigerator can you recommend, Mr. Leibovich?" asked
a young couple after taking a tour of the well-stocked
electrical supply store, deliberating before the large
choice.
"As you can see, we have a few models: The one in front of
you is excellent, but it doesn't use its volume to its best
potential. The one to its left, is very popular, but it has a
relatively small freezer section. The refrigerator behind it
has a rather nice design, but it has a rather limited
lifespan. And the one next to it, well we don't have enough
experience with it. In general, when buying a refrigerator,
you have to pay attention to a number of important points,
first of all . . . "
"Do you have a brand X washing machine?" asks a veteran
housewife whose washing machine has met its end.
"Oh yes we do, Mrs. Cohen. The first one in this line, I
wouldn't recommend to you, as there have been some complaints
about it. You no doubt need a work horse!"
Mr. Leibovitch's reputation as the owner of the electrical
supplies store preceded him. He was one of the successful
merchants. His honesty and integrity gave him a good name and
a reputation of being trustworthy. He never recommended a
brand that wasn't good, in order to get rid of it, but only,
sincerely, because he wanted the customer to be completely
satisfied.
"Hello," two smiling couples of parents entered the store,
apparently in-laws who had come to purchase appliances for
the young couple. "We've come to inquire about basic
appliances for a young couple."
"First of all, Mazal Tov! May they build a solid home and may
you have much nachas from them!" Mr. Leibovitch
congratulated them, happy to see that more and more couples
were meriting to build a bayis neeman b'Yisroel.
While it's true his expression was always one of joy, in his
heart, he was worried. Tamar, his youngest daughter, had
already turned 23 and she was still awaiting the right
shidduch when most of her friends had already become
mothers. "If only I could already merit seeing my daughter
come in here to happily pick out the electrical appliances
for her home," he would think to himself.
It wasn't that there hadn't been offers, but they wanted the
best and they were especially sensitive owing to the fact
that they had means. They were very wary of those they
suspected had eyes only for their money. Mr. Leibovitch and
his wife cried oceans of tears, praying and hoping. But
outwardly, they tried to project calm and tranquility at
least for the sake of their daughter Tamar.
When Berger the matchmaker had suggested Tuviah Gross from
Haifa to Mr. Leibovitch, a splendid boy from Yeshivas Chayei
Torah, he was afraid he would need a lot of convincing. Not
because of any defect, Heaven forbid, in the personality of
the young man but because he was orphaned of his father.
"This young man," Mr. Berger explained, "even though he's a
great talmid chochom, a masmid of the first
order, an exceptional baal middos, in spite of all
this he has no special monetary demands. Of course it's
accepted practice that a boy of his stature receive a four-
room apartment in Jerusalem or Bnei Brak but he has his own
values. Perhaps because he is an orphan, he feels that no one
owes him anything. Davka because he's so absorbed in
his learning, davka because he's purified himself with
good middos, he is willing to make do with a little
and even for this, he knows he should give thanks."
Mr. Leibovitch had his own ways of checking out the boy.
Aside from the usual information, he would personally come to
the Yeshiva without the boy's knowledge in order to get an
impression of how he learned and how he prayed. Something
impressed him about the appearance of the modest boy, who
would be one of the first to arrive to pray. From his secret
vantage point, he stood for a long while, enchanted by the
boy's prayer. He also came late at night, stood at the
entrance of the Beis Midrash, looked inside and saw that he
was one of the only ones still there bent over his
gemora, learning sweetly, refusing to part from it.
Soon enough, the engagement of Tuviah and Tamar was
celebrated and everyone came to congratulate Mr. Leibovitch.
"He deserves to marry into a family with money!" People said.
"Here he won't be missing anything!" Mr. Leibovitch, on his
own initiative, committed himself to buying a completely
stocked apartment in one of the projects. It was decided
that, at the beginning, the couple would rent near the
parents and only later would Mr. Leibovitch buy the
apartment.
*
Alex Vladomeerski, a new immigrant from Russia, two years in
the country, had come with Vera, his old mother. Here, in
Israel, they lived under deplorable conditions and their
financial situation was most difficult. Sometimes he would
look into the city's large green dumpsters to discover there
some real finds. "What people throw away today," he would say
to himself when he would see a broken chair that needed a new
leg refitted. In fact, he was able to "furnish" his basement
apartment by a daily perusal of the garbage. Small
renovations netted him an armchair, a dresser, a table and
three chairs and he delighted in his "treasures."
He earned his living in a similar way. When they didn't have
a penny in their pockets, he would tour the market and gather
the fruits and vegetables that had rolled onto the road
before being trampled by pedestrians or run over by passing
cars. He would collect dry bread that had been put on the
fence and would bring it home to his mother who would prepare
delicacies. Mr. Leibovitch hired him out of pity. He offered
himself as a porter and for almost a year worked alongside
Boris, the veteran worker ready and willing to do any task
requested of him.
"Alex!" Boris turned to his colleague in the morning before
the boss, Mr. Leibovitch, had arrived. "It looks like the
display has thinned a little. Am I mistaken?"
"You definitely see correctly!" Alex answered. "Yesterday,
when I was in the storeroom, Mr. Leibovitch asked me to take
some appliances with a few, small hidden defects from the
display: a refrigerator, stove and oven and a washing
machine, and transfer them to an apartment that was rented
for his daughter. Why is he giving them inferior
merchandise?"
"I mind my own business," Boris said. "I'm sure he has his
reasons!" Both were quiet went Mr. Leibovitch entered the
store. They noticed something was different about him lately.
His mood wasn't so great. They felt he must be going through
something.
"Maybe it's about his daughter who's getting married soon?
She's the youngest at home and he's probably very close to
her," Boris whispered.
"So why did he give her appliances only from the display?"
Questioned Alex.
"I don't know what to tell you," Boris shrugged his shoulders
and returned to his work in the storeroom.
The wedding date was set for a few days after Tish B'Av and
the wedding was relatively modest. It was obvious that Mr.
Leibovitch was proud of such a chosson. After the week
of Sheva Brochos, life returned to normal. Tuviah began Elul
at Kollel and Tamar began organizing her home. Only then did
she notice that the appliances she had received weren't
packaged.
"I can't understand why the appliances we received aren't
new," she told her husband. "When Alex brought them up, they
weren't packed like they normally are, they were even a bit
dusty. I didn't say anything to my parents. My married
brothers and sisters received completely new appliances, so
why shouldn't we?"
"I'm sure there's a good explanation," Tuviah replied, "even
if you don't know what it is. It doesn't bother me. In my
opinion, nobody owes me anything and I have to be grateful
with all my heart for whatever I get and not ask questions or
want more!" Tamar smiled. How true!
"It seems that there's something bothering my father," Tamar
said to her husband one day, "He's not the same."
"It's possible that as his daughter you can notice these
slight differences but if he wanted to share with us what he
was going through, he would definitely do so. It's not our
place to ask."
One day between Rosh Hashonoh and Yom Kippur, during working
hours, Leibovitch took a moment when there weren't any
customers to leave the store saying he'd be back soon. He
returned a while later holding a small package from which he
took out a nice looking esrog box.
"This is a present for my son-in-law for Succos," he
explained to Alex. The day after Yom Kippur when Mr.
Leibovitch was passing the four species market in the
evening, he found an esrog mehudar. He already had
one, so he decided to give the esrog to his son-in-law
Tuviah. He arrived home, placed it carefully into the box and
wrote his son-in-law a heartfelt dedication.
"I can't thank you enough," Tuviah exclaimed emotionally when
he received the gift, "What an exquisite esrog and
what an impressive box!"
"There's no need to thank me," apologized Mr. Leibovitch
clearly uncomfortable. "You deserve much more, it's just a
small token, with no connection to our appreciation for you
my dear son-in-law!"
On Hoshanah Rabbah, Tuviah returned from prayers, completely
absorbed in a sugiah he had been trying to work out
for a few days. Not noticing a pair of eyes following him, he
entered his home and asked his wife to make a blessing on the
four species which she did and placed them on the table. She
made breakfast and took it into the succah on a
tray.
From the moment Alex had seen the lovely box that Mr.
Leibovitch had bought for his son-in-law, he desired it for
himself. It looked very expensive and if he were to get his
hands on it, he would be able to vastly improve his financial
situation. He still had the address of the young couple, from
when he brought them the electrical appliances.
During chol hamoed, when the store was closed, Alex
was free. He had done his homework in the meantime. He
noticed that Tuviah's succah was on the closed balcony
at the corner of the apartment. After Tuviah entered the
house, Alex waited a few minutes. Then he put his ear to the
door and when he didn't hear any noise, he understood that
they'd gone to the succah. He gently turned the handle
of the unlocked door, peeked inside and saw the esrog
box. Slowly, he sneaked inside, grabbed it and exited without
leaving a trace.
Only later, when they were packing to go to Tuviah's mother
for Shemini Atzeres, was Tuviah surprised to discover that
the box and esrog were both missing. When Tamar heard
the cry that escaped his lips, she ran over to see what had
happened and saw him standing in the living room white as
chalk, holding the lulav, hadassim and arovos
but the esrog and its box were gone. A search of the
house yielded nothing, as if the earth had swallowed it
whole.
"Look," said Tuviah, reasonable as always, "Anyway, it's the
last day of yomtov; we can keep the matter hidden
from your father for now, maybe a miracle will happen and
we'll find the box. Even if we don't, why should we upset
him?" They didn't have to make a lot of effort to hide it
since they were in Haifa for Simchas Torah and right after
the chag, Mr. Leibovitch announced suddenly that he
was going with his wife for a two to three week vacation
abroad. It was a bit strange for them to be taking a vacation
immediately after the holiday, when everyone was returning to
routine, but of course, they said nothing.
*
Alex ran home as fast as he could. According to the weight of
the box, there appeared to be something in it. When he
reached home and opened it, he was surprised to find some
kind of lemon inside. He put it in the small refrigerator in
the corner. In the meantime, he wanted to get rid of the box
as soon as possible and offered it to a few of his Russian
friends as a pure silver box. Those interested examined the
box and gave him a reproachful look: "Alex, you're not going
to con us, the box is silver-plated and isn't worth much,
maybe a tenth of what you thought." Disappointed, Alex
decided that at least the box could decorate his home. When
she got home, his old mother discovered the "lemon" while
looking in the fridge. She felt the fruit and smelled it
repeatedly and held it to her heart while closing her eyes
emotionally.
"What's this?" she asked pointing to the esrog.
"I . . . I found it," Alex stammered embarrassed.
"And what's the box in your hand?" She demanded. "How did you
get it!" Alex understood he'd been caught. Every time he had
gotten her food or things, she had been happy and had never
attempted to find out where they had come from. And now she
was upset. He told her the whole truth about how he had
stolen the lovely box. Tears filled her eyes.
"This . . . this reminds me of something. Once my father had
one like this, what was it called? According to the special
smell I know that it's an esrog. Even as a young girl,
I remember how my father was happy when he found the
"treasure". He would hide it in an old box in a secret place
and would bless it, trembling from its holiness. My father
also used to build a succah but it was hidden so it
wouldn't be discovered."
"What, Mother?" Now it was Alex's turn to be surprised. "You
mean to tell me that you're Jewish?"
"Yes. Alex, and so are you. I thought that Judaism had
already disappeared from the modern world, that Communism had
succeeded in wiping out every trace of Judaism but I've
discovered that there are still observant Jews around and I
think that now is the time for us to return to our roots."
That day Alex and his mother did an about-face in their
lifestyles.
A year passed. Mr. Leibovitch noticed, to his great
happiness, the gradual change that Alex was undergoing and
encouraged him as much as possible. It appeared that working
in a chareidi place had had a good effect on him and
for this reason alone, it had been worth hiring him.
It was once again Erev Succos. Mr. Leibovitch bought a pure
silver esrog box and waited for his daughter and son-
in-law to arrive to give it to them. Alex passed and froze on
the spot. Then he asked permission to leave the store for an
hour. In the meantime, Tuviah and Tamar entered the store and
were shocked when he presented them with the beautiful
esrog box. It seemed that word of the box's
disappearance had reached him.
"I must apologize to you, my dear son-in-law. Last year, I
gave you an esrog box which was a simple silver-plated
box. Now, I can reveal to you why I did it. Perhaps you'll
also understand other things that puzzled you then. After
your engagement, I invested a significant amount of money in
buying electrical appliances but it became clear that I was
the victim of a crook and my entire investment was worthless.
While I was trying to figure out how to recoup the fraud, it
was discovered that your mother had a medical problem and she
needed an urgent operation abroad that cost several tens of
thousands of dollars. That was the reason that we went on
"vacation" at such an unusual time. I couldn't ask for help
because it was unthinkable that the public should catch wind
of it. My situation was very bad. On the outside, I acted
like everything was fine but the truth was that I was at an
all-time low. In order to raise the money for the operation,
I took loans from every possible gemach and I barely
held on. That's the reason, I still haven't bought you an
apartment and I gave you electrical appliances from the
showroom.
"When yomtov came, I couldn't give up buying my dear
son-in-law an esrog box so he shouldn't suspect. I
couldn't afford an expensive box so I had to buy a cheap,
silver-plated one. But now, Boruch Hashem, my prayers have
been answered, my financial situation has improved, there are
nice profits, the debts have been paid and now is the time to
keep all my promises and commitments. First of all, I'm
giving you a beautiful silver esrog box and the rest
will come, G-d willing."
Tamar and Tuviah exchanged significant looks and Tamar
said,"We didn't want to tell you, Abba, but last Hoshanah
Rabbah, the esrog box disappeared from our home. We
didn't want to upset you and we decided to keep it from
you."
Tuviah added with a smile, "Perhaps now is the time to admit
that I immediately realized that the box was silver-plated
and not pure silver but I really didn't care. I didn't think
for a moment that I deserved more. I was grateful for it with
my whole heart and didn't tell Tamar, in order not to upset
her."
Mr. Leibovitch was moved. Alex, meantime, suddenly ran in
panting and put the silver-plated esrog box on the table and
inside it an old withered esrog. In tears, he
explained about the theft and how through that esrog,
he and his mother had merited to embrace Judaism once more.
Since then, he had completely done teshuvoh but he had
totally forgotten that he had to return the box to its
rightful owners.
"I wholeheartedly forgive you and give you the box as a
present!" Tuviah said.
Mr. Leibovitch took out two beautiful esrogim
mehudorim from his drawer and gave one to Tuviah and one
to Alex.
"And what about one for you so that you can fulfill do the
mitzvah of taking for yourself the fruit of the citrus
tree?" Tuviah asked cheerfully.
"An esrog mehudar, one can easily get," answered Mr.
Leibovitch. "But I have already merited a rare and valuable
treasure, a son-in-law who is the most mehudar, whose
splendor increases from year to year.
