32. The Chasam Sofer And The Diamond Ring

00:16 Hello, my kinderlach. I'd like to share with you a story that shows how important it is to do a mitzvah with simcha, with joy. You know how you can do a mitzvah because your tatty tells you you have to do it, because your rebbe tells you you have to do it, uh, because your morah says you have to do it, your mommy says, this one says, but you're not doing it because you really enjoy it. But it's special to do a mitzvah with simcha, where you're excited about it, because when you do a mitzvah, you are connecting with Hashem. You're doing what Hashem wants. So this story is about the Chasam Sofer. Chasam Sofer was a very famous gaon and tzadik, and the story was actually written by his grandson, who remembered the story himself. Chasam-- The Chasam Sofer was once sitting late at night learning with some of his students some difficult Gemara. They were learning and thinking and asking questions and answering answers and arguing over the Gemara. They were learning really, really well. It was already the middle of the night and they hear a knock on the door. One of the talmidim, one of the students, went over to the door and opened up, and there, in a cold winter night, in the middle of the night, was standing by the door the Reb Chaim. Reb Chaim was the head of the community. He was the president of the community of Pressburg. Pressburg is the city where the Chasam Sofer was

01:57 the Rav. Reb Chaim was a very rich man. He would give a lot of tzedakah to a lot of people, to all the poor people. He would give money to the yeshiva, to the shul, and he-- Everybody loved Reb Chaim. Reb Chaim was standing so late at night by the entrance of the Chasam Sofer's house, and the Chasam Sofer rushed over to see what's going on. Why is he coming out so late at night to talk to the Rav, to the Chasam Sofer? So Sofer asked Reb Chaim, "What's the matter? You don't look good. You look, like, very sad." Reb Chaim started crying, and he said to the Chasam Sofer, "Rebbe, you don't know what's going on. I just lost all my money. I had put all my money in a business and the business was totally destroyed. I lost everything. I'm now a poor man. I don't have a penny. All my money is gone." And he cried and cried and says, "Rebbe, what am I gonna do about all the promises I made to give money to this person, to that family that was poor, and to this family, a widow, the husband had died, and she doesn't have any income, and I promised to give them money. Now I can't give any money to anyone. You know, it's be so embarrassing to the whole community that I, the very famous rich Reb Chaim that everybody loves so much, now doesn't have any money. He has to go begging from door to door

03:30 like a poor man and ask for money so he can feed his family. That's so embarrassing." The Chasam Sofer said to him, "Reb Chaim, listen, I have an idea for you. Wait here. I'm coming right back." Cham, Chasam Sofer went quickly to his room, opened up a drawer, and took out some money, and ran over to Reb Chaim and said, "Reb Chaim, here is ten thousand gulden." Gulden is like dollars. In Europe, they had gulden instead of dollars. "Here's ten thousand gulden." This was a lot of money. "And I want you to take that money and take the first train in the morning and go to the city of Leipzig." Leipzig was a place, a city in Germany, where there were a lot of people would come there every single day from all over Europe, from every country, and buy stuff and sell stuff. Everybody who had anything to sell and buy would come to Leipzig. If you had a lot of horses, you wanted to sell some of your horses, you came to Leipzig, and there people would come and who wanted to buy horses, they would buy the horses from you. If you had a lot of jackets and a lot of suits and a lot of dresses, you wanted to sell them, then you would come to Leipzig and people that wanted to buy your dresses, they would buy it from you. People would buy and sell a lot of stuff in Leipzig. Leipzig was a very famous place where everybody came

05:00 to buy or to sell whatever things they had. One of the things people would buy and sell is coffee. Do you know coffee? You bring co-- You know, coffee today, we get coffee in every store. But in those days, hundreds of years ago, people couldn't buy coffee just in the store. You had to buy coffee from someone who brought the coffee over from far away. They would bring coffee from some other country overseas. You had to travel over the ocean to get coffee because the coffee that we drink is grounded up from beans. There's a kind of bean called a coffee bean, and they grow in countries far away from Europe. They come on ships, on big ships, and takes them months and months to come over to Europe. So people would buy a full ship of coffee. That means enough coffee for like- Thousands of people to drink, and then they would sell it to different stores. That was a big business. People cost a lot of money. So our friend, Reb Chaim, came to Leipzig the next day. He took the money the, the, the Chasam Sofer gave him. He gave it him as a loan. He said, "You know, I'm l- lending it to you, and I trust that Hashem will give you hatslacha, you'll be successful. And buy," he said to him, "the first thing. If somebody asks you, you wanna buy something, the first thing somebody asks you to buy, buy it. Don't wait. Just buy the first thing." And

06:43 so Reb Chaim came to Leipzig and as he's walking down the street, he meets an old friend who didn't know that Reb Chaim lost all his money. He said, "Reb Chaim, oh, I've got a deal for you. I want you to buy a ship full of coffee. It's not here yet. It's on... It's in the ocean. It's in the sea, still traveling, but I own all the coffee and I'm selling it to you. So when it comes to the shores of Europe, you will own the coffee and you'll be able to sell it to all the stores." Reb Chaim didn't hesitate, didn't think for a moment. The Chasam Sofer said to him to buy the coffee. A- anything somebody offers you to buy, buy it right away. So he said, "How much does the coffee cost?" He says, "10,000 gulden." And the Reb Chaim says, "10,000 gulden? Wow, that's exactly what I have in my pocket." The Chasam Sofer gave him exactly 10,000 gulden. So he pulls out the 10,000 gulden, gives it to this man, and the guy signs a contract, a piece of paper, "I'm selling you all the coffee that's coming here next week. Next week it's supposed to arrive on the ship. This is gonna be your coffee, and then you can sell it and make a profit and make extra money." And so Reb Chaim waited and something happened. You understand there are other people also who buy coffee, and so there are a number of ships that come in

08:05 from far away, right? From countries far away overseas, and they're also bringing coffee. And of course, the, the number of ships are bringing coffee, that makes the price of coffee lower because since there's a lot of coffee available, a lot of people can buy it, so then people are not paying that much for it. But what happened here is to Reb Chaim, that the other ships that had coffee on them and they were bringing them to Europe, to Leipzig for other people to sell, they all drowned. There was wind and storms, and the coffee went down into the ocean and never, never came to Europe. The only ship that made it to Europe was the ship that Reb Chaim bought. And because he was the only ship with coffee that came to Europe, everybody wanted to buy coffee, but there wasn't enough coffee because there was only one ship that came with coffee, so the price of coffee ga- kept going up and up and up and up. And Reb Chaim was able to sell his coffee for so much money. He made back all the money that he lost in Pressburg back at home, and even more. He made even extra money, extra profit. And so Reb Chaim, um, next day quickly took a train and went home, back home, and he also arrived late at night, and he went straight to Chasam Sofer's house. But before he went to Chasam Sofer's house, and before he left Leipzig, before he took the train, he

09:45 decided to go to a jewelry store. And he thought because the Chasam Sofer was so nice to him and saved him, he helped him, 'cause he lost all his money and now he made all his money back, "I'm gonna buy the Chasam Sofer a present. I'm gonna buy for his wife." Chasam Sofer should be able to give to his wife a nice present. He bought a beautiful ring with a diamond, very expensive, and put it in his pocket and took the train back to Pressburg, came there late at night, knocked again on the door, and this time when the Talmud opened the door, they saw Reb Chaim smiling, happy, and Chasam Sofer came running to the door and says, "Reb Chaim, how did it go? What happened?" Reb Chaim says, "Thank you. Thank Hashem. I made all my money back and I made all the money and I made even more than that. I make more profit. I made extra money." And the Chasam Sofer calls him in, calls him in, "Oh, thank you, thank you. That's so nice to see. And here," he says, "here's the 10,000 gulden that you, you loaned me. I, I thank you. I used it and now I made the money back. I can give-- pay you back the, the loan that you gave me." And then he says to the Chasam Sofer, "And Rebbe, I, I bought you a little present because you were so nice to me. You gave me a loan of 10,000 gulden. Here, I

11:06 have a diamond ring. Maybe you wanna give it to your wife, to the Rebbetzin. She should have a nice diamond ring." And Chasam Sofer sits down, says to Reb Chaim, "Okay, show me the diamond ring." And he takes out the diamond ring from the box and he looks at it, and he looks and says, "Wow, this is so beautiful. This is so amazing. Wow, what a beautiful diamond. Wow, my wife, the Rebbetzin, she's gonna love this diamond." And Reb Chaim is very happy. The Chasam Sofer, the Rav, actually likes the diamond. He likes the diamond ring. "Oh, I bought a good present for him." But then the Chasam Sofer says to Reb Chaim very seriously, "Reb Chaim, did you forget that we Jews have a mitzvah in the Torah that says you're not allowed to take ribbis?" You know what ribbis is? When somebody gives somebody a loan- And you're not allowed to take more money back. You're supposed to give him a loan and not take anything extra back. If I give somebody $1,000 as a loan for a week, and he said in a week he'd give it back to me, you're not allowed to take back $1,000 plus another $10. You're supposed to only take what you loaned him. You're not supposed to take extra money saying, "Oh, because you loaned me that money, I'll give you a little extra as a, as a present." You're not allowed to do that. That's called ribbis. You're not allowed. It's an aveira. The Chasam

12:37 Sofer says to this Jew, to Reb Chaim, "You can't give me that ring because you paid me back the 10,000 gulden, but now you give me also a ring. That would be ribbis. It's a big aveira in the Torah." So Reb Chaim says, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I forgot. Okay, so I'll take back the ring." And he thanks the Chasam Sofer, and he leaves the house. He goes home happily. The talmidim of the Chasam Sofer were watching everything, and they couldn't believe their eyes, and they went over to their Rebbe, the Chasam Sofer, and asked him, "Rebbe, why did you first show him how much you liked the diamond? You made it sound-- You made him so happy that you really liked the present. You liked the present he bought you, and you were so excited about it. And then you said, 'No, I can't take it because it's ribbis.' Why didn't you tell him right away, 'It's ribbis. I'm sorry, I can't take it'? First, you, you made it sound like you, you really like it, and you wanna take it, and, and, and you got him all excited, and then you told him you can't take it. Why did you do that?" Chasam Sofer says, "I'll tell you why I did this, because I learned from my Rebbe how important it is to do a mitzvah with simcha. And because I wanted to show simcha, that I can do the mitzvah all the way with the greatest simcha, that's why I did this.

14:01 I wanted to first see how beautiful the diamond is, and still doing it because Hashem said not to do it, that's why I'm not gonna do it. Not because I don't like the diamond. I like the diamond, but I'm still not gonna take it because Hashem said so. And to me, that's the greatest simcha to do the mitzvah the right way." And he says, "I learned this from my Rebbe, and this is the story. My-- I was a little boy. I had a very famous Rebbe. His name was Reb Noson Adler. Reb Noson Adler was a big tzadik. Reb Noson Adler lived in Frankfurt." Frankfurt was a city in Germany, a famous city. The Chasam Sofer, when he was a little boy, um, was living in the house of Reb Noson Adler. Literally lived in the same house together, and he would learn day and night with the Reb Noson Adler because the Chasam Sofer, when he was a little boy, already learned day and night. He was-- Everybody saw the Chasam Sofer was gonna be one day a great gaon, a great talmid chaham and tzadik as he became, one of the greatest geonim of his time. But as a little boy, Reb Noson Adler took him into his house, and he gave him food and everything, and they learned together for many, many hours. He says, "One time," he says, "it was Motzaei Shabbos. It was late at night. It was a blizzard. Snow outside. It was winter. It was freezing, and there's

15:23 a knock on the door, and, uh, my Rebbe, Reb Noson Adler, was already old, opened the door, and there there were two men with fur coats, snow-- covered with snow, and big fur hats and boots, and they're coming in. They said, 'Rebbe, please, we need you to come with us. We live in a small village near Frankfurt. It's only, like, maybe 15 kilometers from here. But because it's a snow, there's two feet of snow, we brought a wagon that without wheels. It's a wagon with sleds. So we have two horses and a wagon with sleds, and we're gonna go now because I'll tell you what happened. The mayor of our town made a new law against the Jews that Jews have to pay a lot of taxes. It's gonna make a lot of families very poor. And we know that our mayor loves you. He thinks that you are such a great chaham, and he l-- always talks about you. We think if you come with us to-- now, we'll arrive early in the morning in the village, and then you'll be able to tell the mayor that you don't want him to do this, and he'll listen to you because he likes you. If you don't come now, and it'll be too late because tomorrow morning he's already signing the law. He makes a sign, and once he signs the law, it's too late. I need you to come early before he signs the law so that you can tell him not to do

16:48 it.' And Reb Noson Adler said, 'Oy. It's so freezing cold. It's two feet of snow. Uh, what am I gonna--' He says, he says, "The Chasam Sofer was a little boy. He was, like, maybe, uh, 10 or 11. 'You come with me. We'll go together.' Then they put on their fur coats and their boots, and they go into the wagon with the sled, and the two men and the wagon driver-- There was a goy, a wagon driver who was whipping the horses, and they started moving slowly through the night. And they went outside the city. It was dark, and it was middle of, like, one o'clock in the morning. Really late, late at night. And they... With-- The horses went very slow because there was a lot of snow on the road. It was freezing cold. And the Reb Noson Adler and the Chasam Sofer are sitting in the back, w-you know, warming themselves with their, with their coats, trying to stay warm, and they were learning. They was talking in Torah. And they were turn-- Torah-- They were talking so, so deeply with the Torah. They were learning and arguing over the Gemara and the, and this sefer and that sefer. And the learning made them very warm." Right when you get all excited about the arguments of the Gemara and the Sefarim and the Mefarshim and Rashi and Tosfos and the Rambam, and they became all excited, and they got all... It was very good because it made them warm. So just a

18:12 few hours went by and suddenly the wagon stops. So, uh, the Reb Noson Adler, the Sam Sefer asked the people in the front, "Why did the ho- horses stop?" So they say, "Listen, one horse died, so we need to go get another animal, another horse to replace the horse so you can... Otherwise they can't... One horse can't pull the whole wagon with so many people." So they said, "Okay, we gotta wait." So the wagon driver was a peasant, um, a goy. He went. He said, "I'm, I'm gonna go find a farm where they can sell me an animal, and I will... And, and we'll... I'll tie it, and then we'll be able to go on our way." So he disappears. He went away. It's in the dark, in middle of the dark, middle of the night. The Sam Sefer and Reb Noson Adler are, are g- are learning and learning. They're excited. They're forgetting about everything. They, they did not even know what's going on. And then suddenly the goy came back. It was dark. They couldn't see exactly what he was doing. He came with the... They saw he brought an animal back, and finally, after a couple hours he brought an animal and he tied it to the wagon. But then at that moment, suddenly the Chasam Sofer sees that his Rebbe, who had taken off his boots in the meantime because it was getting a little warm in his boots, he jumps out of the wagon into the snow with his socks.

19:37 And he says, "Rebbe, what are you doing? You're jumping with your socks in the snow. You're gonna freeze. Your feet are gonna freeze." He- a- and the Reb Noson Adler can't speak, he's so excited. He says... He's pointing with his finger to the Chasam Sofer. "You should look to the front. Look to the front. Look to the front." And Chasam Sofer looks in the front and he sees that the goy brought a bull. A bull, an ox instead of a horse. He couldn't find a horse, so he asked the farmer to sell him an ox. So he said, "Okay, I'll have a, a horse and an ox." Who says it has to be two horses? It can be a horse and an ox, and together they'll pull the wagon. But you know what the Torah says. A Jew is not allowed to have a wagon drawn by two different types of animals. You can't have an ox and a horse together pull the same wagon. This is against the Torah. So Reb Noson Adler pointed that, "We can't go on. We're not allowed to sit in the wagon. We're not allowed to have the, the animals pull the wagon because it's an Aveira." So the two people in the front said to the wagon driver, "No, no, no. You can't do this. You gotta bring a horse. This is a... We're, we're Jewish. We're not allowed to do this." So the, the goy said, "Oh, I didn't know, so I'll go back and find a

20:51 horse." Eventually he found a horse. But the Chasam Sofer asked his Rebbe, Reb Noson Adler, "Why did you dance? You saw that the goy brought back an ox instead of a horse and tied it to the wagon together next to the horse. You jumped out of the wagon and started dancing with your socks. You seemed to be, like, so excited. Why?" And Reb Noson Adler said to his student, to his Talmud, the Chasam Sofer, he says, "You know what? The Torah gave us a mitzvah not to tie two species of animals to the same wagon. Now, when in my lifetime would I ever had a chance to fulfill this mitzvah? Never have imagined that Hashem will make, give me a time when I can do this mitzvah. Now Hashem gave me an opportunity, gave me this zechus that this goy tied an ox to the wagon next to the horse, so now I could do the mitzvah and not go into the wagon, get out of the wagon and fulfill this mitzvah. I was so excited that I had a chance to fulfill a mitzvah that I never imagined I would get to do." And so Chasam Sofer said to his Talmidim, "I also. I'm not a businessman. I don't give loans to people. I'm a Rav. I teach Torah. I pasken halachas. I tell people what the halacha is, what you're allowed to do, what you're not allowed to do. But business people, they give loans and they, you know, they create contracts. They

22:24 do business. For the mitzvah not to take ribbis is not a mitzvah I expected ever to do. Why? Because I'm not in the world of business. I don't do business. I'm a Rav. I'm a Rav. Here Hashem gave me an opportunity not to take ribbis. Reb Chaim came, paid me back the 10,000 gulden that I loaned him, and he also added a diamond ring." And I said to myself, "Wow, Hashem is giving me the zechus to do this special mitzvah not to take ribbis." But I wanted to make sure that I do the mitzvah right. First of all, if you don't like... Let's say somebody doesn't like eating pork, and you're not eating pork. Are you doing a mitzvah? No. You do the mitzvah of not eating pork when you like it and you don't do it. Right? Let's say somebody, uh, likes to steal and you don't steal, then you do a big mitzvah. But if you don't like stealing, then you're not doing a mitzvah by not stealing. You're just not doing an Aveira because you're not stealing, but you're not doing a mitzvah. Uh, the, the Gemara teaches us that if you wanna do an Aveira and you don't do it because Hashem said not to do it, that's like doing a mitzvah. Because you, you held back, right? And you forced yourself not to do it. You didn't listen to your Yetzer Hara and you didn't do the Aveira then, like you did a great mitzvah. So in here too, I

23:48 wanted to be sure that I like this diamond ring. So I looked at it and I said, "Wow, this is so amazing. It's so beautiful." So of course I said, "Ai, ai, I wish I had it." But Hashem said, "No, you can't take ribbis." And then I gave it to Reb Chaim back. Reb Chaim, he'll take it back, and I was so excited I could do the mitzvah of not taking ribbis. And that's the story.