The Precious Gift of Shabbos Rav Yitzcak Zev Soloveitchik tells a story of a girl that grew up secular and decided to become religious. However, her parents were against this lifestyle change and wanted her to act as they did, so she quietly and secretly kept the Torah as best as she could. Her parents owned a housewares store and one Friday, they told their daughter that they had to go out of town for a day and wanted her to open the store on Saturday. Not wanting to cause conflict, she didnt say anything and her parents left. Right before Shabbos, she went to the store and prepared whatever she could so that she could avoid desecrating Shabbos. She turned on the lights and set up the store for the next day before Shabbos arrived. On Shabbos, she walked to the store and sat there with her siddur, davening that no one would come in so that she could keep Shabbos. For most of the day her prayers worked, and there were no customers. She didn’t know how she would explain the empty register to her parents, as they surely wouldnt believe that no one came in all day. Then, sometime before the end of Shabbos, a man came in, looked around, and found a five dollar item that he liked. He asked her the price, but she, not wanting to conduct business on Shabbos, told him it was five hundred dollars so that he would leave. The man was incredulous and said, “How can this cheap item be five hundred dollars?” She said to him, “If you dont want to buy it, you dont have to.” However, the man really wanted it and tried to get her to lower the price, but she wouldnt budge. He left and returned a few times, trying to negotiate the price, but the girl stood strong. She said, “If you wait a little, my parents will soon be back and you can deal with them”, but the man wouldnt give up. She kept trying to push him off, and the man kept negotiating, until finally, the man agreed to her price. Meanwhile, the girl noticed that Shabbos had ended. She said, “I can sell it to you now, but only at the five dollar price. The reason I asked for such an exorbitant amount was because I didnt want to sell it on Shabbos. Now that Shabbos is over, I can sell it to you at the regular price.” The man however said, “I cant do that. Once I said I would pay a price, I have to pay it”, and he put five hundred dollars on the counter, took his item and left. The girl praised and thanked Hashem! She didnt have to desecrate the Shabbos, and she made a tremendous profit! When she told her parents what happened, they understood that by her keeping Shabbos, she actually made more money than they would earn in a month. They too saw the beauty of Shabbos and that they wouldn’t lose out, and decided to start keeping Shabbos also!
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 13:35:00 +0000
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