By Nechama Bar
Silence. The only sound was the tick-tock of watches. R’ Chaim sat in his store waiting for customers who for some reason were not showing up. He took a T’hillim from a drawer under the counter. At least he would use the time to say T’hillim. He had a lot to ask of Hashem.
Chaim is a Vizhnitzer Chassid, a G-d-fearing person. He runs a successful jewelry store. Many people go to his store because of his good reputation.
Many? That was true up until a short time ago. In recent months, customers became fewer for no obvious reason.
In particular, the sale of gold watches had gone down. The watches that used to be sold frequently, now sat there, ticking, as though to say: Look at us and buy us.
Chaim scratched his forehead. He had been thinking of creative ideas of how to get his customers back. He put a lot of money into advertising and other forms of persuasion but in vain. It did not increase his sales.
What will be? If the situation continues like this, I will have to fire some employees. I am spending a lot now on maintaining the store while income keeps diminishing.
Another unsuccessful day passed. In the evening there wasn’t much in the cash register. Chaim clicked the metal door closed and locked it. The dark skies matched his mood. He slowly walked home as his thoughts continued to swirl.
One day followed another, one week followed another, and the situation got worse. The store would have been shut down by now if not for the Rebbe.
It was a regular day and as usual, few customers came in. Some of them bought some little items while others walked around, looked, and left.
At noon, as he did every day, Chaim closed the store for a short while as he davened Mincha in a nearby shul.
That evening, he planned on speaking openly with his employees about the trouble the store was in and how he would have no choice but to fire some of them.
Chaim was not looking forward to this discussion. I know how hard it will be for them to find other work. How can I look into their eyes? It’s complicated and so unpleasant to pick who to fire and who to keep …
He arrived at the shul and looked at this watch. A quarter of an hour remained until Mincha. He decided to use the time to learn something. He went over to the bookcases and something caught his eye. In gold letters it said, “Igros Kodesh.”
He was not a Lubavitcher Chassid but like many others, he had heard about many miracles the Rebbe does through the Igros Kodesh.
I never asked the Lubavitcher Rebbe for a bracha through his book. Who knows? Maybe there is something to it … Maybe I can also be saved? It certainly can’t hurt … Not much time remained for him to think about it.
Chaim took the matter seriously. He knew that asking the Rebbe for a bracha was no simple thing and he prepared properly for it.
“Rebbe,” he said soundlessly, “You are the only one who can help me. My jewelry business is going from bad to worse. I tried many things to make things improve but nothing helped. Please, bless me and pray for me so my business flourishes and I will make a good living once again!”
He randomly opened to page 210 in the Igros Kodesh, volume 12. Tears came to his eyes when he saw what the Rebbe wrote. The Yiddish letter began with, ‘I received your request for a blessing for peace of mind and a peaceful parnasa.”
That was just what he needed! But the big surprise was further along in the letter:
“Your business is in watches and you need to learn a lesson in avodas Hashem from watches since watches are very useful to a person for his daily routine …”
The Rebbe went on to say what can be learned from how a watch works and connected this to the mitzva of tefillin.
Chaim was astounded. He hadn’t dreamed of opening to such a precise answer. Out of curiosity, he checked how many other letters in the Igros have the sentence, “I heard that your business is in watches” and the answer was, zero! It was the only letter in the whole set and he had opened to it.
He left the shul encouraged. He canceled the evening’s meeting. He resolved to check his tefillin and to strengthen a few other areas and waited for a miracle.
In the days that followed he felt a change. Customers slowly returned, and his cash register filled up.
***
A year went by. Chaim and his wife were wondering whether to advertise or not. On the one hand, advertising would bring in more people. On the other hand, advertising cost a lot of money.
They discussed it for a few weeks and then one day, when he was in shul, he once again came across the Igros Kodesh.
I already got a bracha from the Rebbe; why not try again?
This time too, he opened to an amazing answer. The Rebbe wrote about efforts not going wasted. Chaim understood from this that if he advertised the store, it wouldn’t be for nothing.
He advertised and the business thrived even more.
Chaim does not forget thanks to whom the store is successful. He repeats his story at every opportunity and tells people about the possibility of connecting to the Rebbe through the Igros Kodesh.