The Ten Garments

Rav Simcha Bunim of Otwezchek, grandson of Rav Yitzchok and son of the Vorker Rebbe, once told the following. It is told that when Rav Mordechai Yaffe was a young man, he was exceedingly handsome. A gentile noblewoman saw his beauty, desired him and plotted to ensnare him. When he understood her evil intentions and tried to escape, she threatened him with torture and imprisonment. Seeing no other way out, he fled through a sewer grate. In the sewers he was befouled and almost choked by the stench and the putrid fumes of rotting garbage.

All ten of his garments were soiled and ruined, covered in sludge. When he emerged, it is told, there was a great tumult in Heaven. His great self-sacrifice was recognized, and it was decreed that he would merit to write ten magnificent seforim, matching the ten garments he had lost in his flight. He therefore called his ten works Levushim, garments: Levush Chur, Techeles, Ateres Zohov and so on.

After he overcame the test, he davened that none of his descendants should be attractive, so that they would never face a similar trial. His tefillos were accepted, and all his descendants were dark-complexioned from then on.

Rav Simcha Bunim concluded, "Nine of his seforim were printed in his lifetime. How I wish someone would reveal and print the tenth."