The Imrei Yosher's Berachah

Rav Dov Berish's father had a great talmid, Rav Meir Arik, Av Beis Din of Buchach and author of Imrei Yosher, who was considered one of the gedolei hador and one of the greatest poskim in Galicia. When a halachic question was sent from Tchebin to Rav Arik, he agreed to answer it on one condition: that the Gaon of Tchebin, as he called Rav Dov Berish, would agree with the ruling. It was a great honor, since to all appearances Rav Dov Berish was a baal habayis and a working merchant, not a Rav or a posek.

It was Rav Meir Arik who pressed Rav Dov Berish to enter the rabbinate and take up his life's role as a posek and Rosh Yeshiva. For twenty years Rav Dov Berish had kept himself out of the public eye and lived off his coal business, and he refused as long as he could. At last Rav Meir Arik gave him a berachah: "I bless you that you should lose all your money and be forced to finally accept the chair of the rabbinate."

The berachah was soon fulfilled, in a way that showed his fine middos and his love of emes. A coal merchant named Reb Binyamin Filler ordered a large number of railroad cars of coal, a big and profitable order. A few days later word reached Rav Dov Berish that the price of coal was about to plummet. He realized that Reb Binyamin, who had bought at peak prices, would lose a great deal. So Rav Dov Berish did not deliver the coal as agreed. He waited, willingly and knowingly, and watched the prices plunge, and his savings and fortune went down with them.

Reb Binyamin's investment was saved, but Rav Dov Berish was left with almost nothing. With no choice left, he sold his concerns and left the marketplace behind.