Buying the Toldos to Save Berditchev

Rav Chaim Elozor Shapira of Munkacz, author of Minchas Elozor, told this story. When Rav Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye printed his holy sefer, Toldos Yaakov Yosef on the Torah, he travelled to Berditchev on the day of the trade fair, bringing two hundred copies to sell. He rented a storefront and set one or two copies open in the window for passersby. He was certain that anyone who read a few lines would run to buy a copy.

But when interested people asked the price and he answered that it was a rendil, a very valuable gold coin, they laughed and went on their way. “For a whole rendil we can buy a new wardrobe and matching shoes,” they said. Days passed without a single sale, and the fair was nearly over. The Toldos was despondent and deeply disappointed.

Word reached the Berditchever, and the Kedushas Levi knew the whole story. He told his faithful Rebbetzin, “Our dear friend Rav Yaakov Yosef has come to Berditchev to sell his new sefer at the fair. His price is too high, and I am afraid that in his anger and disappointment the whole city will be punished.” On her husband’s advice, the Rebbetzin decided to give up one of her most prized possessions. She hurried off and pawned her shterntichel, a beautiful headpiece of silver or gold and diamonds, for two hundred rendils, and handed the whole sum to the Berditchever so that he could buy all the seforim and save the town.

The Berditchever sent a young man as his agent with the entire sum. He told him to bargain and ask for a discount on forty or fifty books, so that the sale would look genuine and the Toldos would suspect nothing. But the Toldos would not give up a single kopeck. “Even if you took all two hundred, I will not lower the price,” he said. In the end the young man bought all two hundred seforim for the full sum.

When he had finished his business, the Toldos went to take leave of the Rav of Berditchev. He apologized for not coming sooner, since he had been busy with the mitzvah of selling his seforim. He told how pained he had been that no one bought a single copy at first. “But in the end Hashem sent me a young man with a good head on his shoulders, who valued my sefer so much that he bought all two hundred copies for the price I asked.” The Berditchever listened and smiled. “Really? You don’t say,” was all he remarked.