

Reb Koppel made a comfortable living as a wholesaler of hard liquor. As sometimes happened, the approach of Passover found him with a large stock of full barrels in his warehouse. They were worth a small fortune, and he was relying on them to provide him with the numerous dowries that he would soon need, for he was blessed with many daughters and he had no other source of income. This should not have posed a problem, for it was exactly for this situation that the sages legislated the sale of leavened products, chametz, for the duration of the Passover festival. The local gentiles had conspired against him…

But he did not know that this year the local gentiles had conspired against him. They were well aware that, as every year, Reb Koppel would be seeking a non-Jew to whom he could sell all his leaven products. So they plotted that this year no one would buy his chametz from him. They knew that he would then have no alternative but to declare it all ownerless. Then they would be able to legitimately help themselves to this valuable merchandise and divide it among themselves.


After a few hours, the deadline for benefiting from chametz arrived; after this time he could no longer own the contents of his barrels nor sell them. Having no choice, he loaded them all on a wagon, and drove to the riverside beyond the borders of the town. There he unloaded them and recited the traditional Aramaic formula: "All leaven or anything leavened which is in my possession…shall be considered naught and ownerless as the dust of the earth." He drove his empty wagon home in a happy mood…

Although he had just cast away a small fortune with just a few brief words, he drove his empty wagon home in a happy mood. He thanked G‑d that he had been able to fulfill the mitzva of ridding oneself of one's chametz in such a magnificent yet straightforward manner, for surely he would never again cast eyes on that valuable merchandise.

His family was devastated at the loss and throughout the eight-day festival barely managed to conceal their depression over their sudden state of poverty. Reb Koppel, however, spent the entire holiday in a state of exalted joy.






Biographical note:


Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from Sippurei Chassidim by Rabbi S. Y. Zevin and other oral sources.
