How He Came to Be Called Leib Sarah's

It is told that Sarah, the daughter of a Jewish innkeeper, was a girl of great beauty. Yet her beauty never turned her head. She remained modest and G-d-fearing, obedient to her father and a right hand to her mother.

One day the son of the local landowner caught sight of Sarah and fell in love with her at once. That evening he came to his father. “Father,” he said, “I have seen a Jewish girl I must have. If I cannot have her for a wife, I will surely die of heartbreak. You must get her for me.”

“Who is she?” his father asked with concern. “The daughter of your Jewish tavern keeper,” the son replied. The landowner could not bear to see his son unhappy. The very next day he summoned the tavern keeper and demanded his daughter. “I would rather not think of what will happen to you if you refuse,” he warned.

“Let me go home and think the matter over,” the Jew said in anguish. “I will bring you an answer in a week.”

He returned home in despair. How could he break such news to his good, pious daughter? She too, he was sure, would rather die than marry a gentile. The family gathered to find a way out, and in the end it was Sarah who thought of the plan.

“Father, what about Rav Yosef, the old melamed?” she asked. He was an elderly man whom the innkeeper had hired to teach his young sons, and he had been with the family for several years. “What about him?” her father asked in confusion. “Why can I not marry him?” said Sarah. “Then we will run away from here, and hopefully the landowner will be powerless to do anything. Besides, his son will surely lose interest in me once I have married an old man.”

The tavern keeper did not wish to see his lovely young daughter married to a man older than himself, but he could see no better way out. The old man was called, and he had no objection to marrying Sarah, even though he might be risking his life. The two were married quickly and quietly and left for a nearby village.

Three days later the landowner came for his answer. He was shocked to learn what Sarah had done to escape marrying his son. After making his own inquiries and learning that the marriage had been her own idea, he chose not to pursue the matter. Still, he found it hard to believe that a beautiful young girl would prefer an old man to a young, wealthy and handsome nobleman.

Sarah's husband was a tzaddik nistar. He had known all along that his employer's lovely daughter was destined to be his wife, and he had come to that village as a melamed to wait for the right time. He had had his doubts, fearing that her beauty might lead her astray, but in the end everything turned out for the best.

Right after the wedding, the melamed took his young bride aside and made her a promise: “Since you had the moral strength to choose an old man instead of a young duke who would have given you a life of luxury and ease, you will be blessed, and your name will spread all over the country. I promise you that you will bear a child whose light will shine far and wide, who will commemorate your name all his days.”

The following year a son was born to them, and they named him Arye. As he grew, it was clear that he was destined for greatness. His father did not live long to enjoy his young treasure, and it was Sarah who raised him, teaching him good deeds and making sure that he learned Torah. She lived to see him called by her name: Reb Leib Sarah's, as he was known ever after.