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{Page 363}

People's Character

by Khyam Zeydes, New York

Translated by Tamara Selden

A

During the first world war there were many merchants in Slutsk who in their youth studied in Valashni [Volozhin]. In addition to running large businesses they were well-versed in Torah. Each day they went to the synagogue and studied a page of Gemora. And a merchant like Yeshaya Mendel, a large wholesaler, would study a page of Gemora with his son after praying, and then he would go to his store to attend to business.

Yeshaya Mendel Deretsin was well known in the Minsk community. His home was a place of trade and charity, Thirty Yeshiva boys ate there every Tuesday. Yeshaya was active and generous in all charity organizations. A certain Jew whose name was Zelig the comb maker, was dedicated to collecting money for widows and orphans and others for studying Torah. He very often passed Yeshaya Mendel's house and saw thirty Yeshiva boys eating each Tuesday. He said to Yeshaya Mendel, “Very nice of you that you feed thirty Yeshiva boys one day a week. However, you know that the week has seven days and many other Yeshiva boys need to have eating days...What can you do for them?”

Yeshaya answered him, “Come to me at night and tell me the amount of charity money you collected in the course of a day, and I will give you my share.”

This gave Zelig great courage and he tried to collect even more because he knew that Yeshaya would give a large matching portion. He told this to his wife Khil Rifke and she said to her husband, “Today I had a good day in the butcher shop, so I am giving you five rubles and you will have an impressive amount.”

Late at night Rav Zelig brought the money to Yeshaya Mendel and counted it before him. Yeshaya Mendel kept his word and matched the amount. Rav Zelig, who made combs, left Yeshaya Mendel in a very happy state. He wished that there would be individuals like Yeshaya Mendel in the thousands,

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