05/15/2026
At the end of the week, we have been featuring excerpts from Yizkor books in JewishGen's archive. If you are not familiar with the JewishGen Yizkor Book Project, please click on this link: http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/faq.html
“The Bargain for the Share in the Next World” is one of ten stories from a collection titled 𝑇’𝑚𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑖 𝐷𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑐ℎ (The Innocent Ones) memorializing the Jews of Sassow in Ukraine. (This is catalogued under the town name “Sasov” in the JewishGen Yizkor book archive). In the wake of the Holocaust, the author, Uri Henis, could not make peace with the idea that the people he had known would be forgotten and he set out to capture in writing the events “from their pure and honest lives.” The stories are rooted in real people but rendered in a literary, narrative form -- not invented fiction, but not strictly factual.
Simcha Leibusch, a wretchedly poor Jew, who made his livelihood buying flax from peasants and selling it in town had no money left to ply his trade. The members of his household were hungry and he could no longer watch the distress of his wife and daughters. He describes his desperate plight to a revered Rabbi in the community, a Zadik, who gives him all he has – five kroners – and advice on what to do with the small amount. It is the advice that changes Simcha Leibusch’s fortunes and turns the tables on a wealthy merchant who had mocked Simcha’s poverty. But, in the end, the merchant too profits from the Zadik’s wisdom.
I’ve shortened this chapter a bit. You can find the full version online here: https://bit.ly/3PhUImk
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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝
𝐁𝐲 𝐔𝐫𝐢 𝐇𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐬
The life and doings of the Rabbi Moishe Leib from Sassow, of righteous and blessed memory, serve as a source for stories of miracles and wonders...We will raise only one drop from the great sea of stories about his deeds and ways among the simple folk.
Sassow was a small town, halfway between Brody and Lvov. Most of the houses in the town were tiny and built of wood and so also was Moishe Leib's Beit Midrash. His small dwelling stood next to the Beit Midrash. As was the custom in those days the Beit Midrash served also as a sleeping place for travelers, and the Zadik himself would look to their needs and with his own hands would tend the stove in the days of winter, so as to make pleasant the delay of those who slept in the Beit Midrash. He also would go late in the evening into the Beit Midrash, to converse with the guests in order to make sure that no one had gone to sleep, God forbid, without eating the evening meal.
Once at the time of his usual visit he found in the Beit Midrash among the guests also one of the local inhabitants who was called Simcha Leibusch. He was a wretchedly poor Jew, a waggoner and small merchant, burdened with three daughters who had reached marriageable age.
His livelihood came from small purchases from the peasants; a little flax, animal skins, and the like. These goods he would carry in his wagon to Lvov, but from the small profit with which he barely managed to keep the members of his family he had no prospect of marrying off his daughters.
Not a man of the Torah was this man and aside from the needs of community prayer his place was not in the Beit Midrash, and so the Zadik realized, when he saw him there, not at prayer time, that there was a reason for it. He approached him, sat by him, and began to inquire as to his presence in the Beit Midrash, at a time when he should be sleeping restfully in his house and getting ready for tomorrow's trade.
As he began his inquiry Simcha Leibusch burst into bitter tears and opened his heart to the Zadik. “There is not a farthing in his pocket. Not only did he not have the small amount to buy goods and to continue his trade but also the members of his household were hungry and he could no longer watch the distress of his wife and daughters. His wife, in the manner of women, confronted him with the piercing question 'What will be the end?' And they, the daughters, were silent, but the look in their eyes, it was as though it had stabbed him. He could not see any rescue, and from where would his help come?”
The Zadik thought a minute and said to him: “Simcha Leibusch, here are five kroners; it is all I have. God willing, in the morning buy with this amount a little flax, take it to Lvov and sell it to your usual customers. With the sum redeemed from the exchange of the flax, buy afterwards anything that is offered to you. Don't look much, only buy whatever is first offered to you and the Holy One, blessed be He, whose deliverance is like the wink of an eye, will send his blessing from his goodly store and you will be saved.”
Next day in the morning Simcha Leibusch set off in his wagon. The way from Sassow to Lvov in the wagon harnessed to the hungry horse of a poor and hungry waggoner took about twelve hours. All the way he drove, the poor man, in the ways of God, with the blessing of the Rabbi, and his faith was strengthened. As soon as he reached Lvov he sold his flax, left his horse at the tavern stables, and, remembering the words of the Zadik - began to wander in the streets of the city, fi*****ng the sale money that was in his pocket, and hoped that someone would appear and offer him a business deal.
And so he stood in front of the show window of a great trading-house of furs. He contemplated with amazement the wonderful coats. In this trading-house the workers were loafing, and seeing this Jew dressed in rags, showing poverty all over, standing and gazing in the show window, they found in this a way to pass their time. They went out to him and asked him with the pleasantness of joking and idleness why he was looking with such curiosity at the furs. They made of him much merriment and ridicule, asked to know what was his trade and whether he was ready to buy something of them.
When he answered positively they asked him how much money he was ready to spend. While talking they took him into the store, and they were very amused that they had found themselves a matter for entertainment. When Simcha Leibusch told them that in his pocket there were only a few kroners, their merriment grew at his innocence, that was so ridiculously great that this Jew was presuming to be among their customers, when the cheapest fur in the store cost hundreds of kroners.
The circle of teasers was joined by the owner of the store, and upon hearing the particulars of the matter, he asked Simcha Leibusch to buy from him his share in the next world.
Simcha Leibusch did not hesitate a minute, and, remembering the words of the Rabbi, answered in all innocence and seriousness that he was ready to make this bargain, but one condition he presented, that the thing be done right and proper by the writing of a bill of sale, sealed with the signature of the salesman.
The merriment of the company in the store grew, paper and pen were presented, the bill of sale was written properly, and the bargain was concluded auspiciously. Simcha Leibusch paid, folded the bill, and put it in his pocket and went away, full of confidence, to his wagon and horse, to prepare for the drive back to Sassow.
And it happened that a number of minutes after his departure from the trading-house, the wife of the owner of the store arrived, and, seeing the rejoicing that prevailed there, she began to inquire as to its reason, and when they told her the particulars of the matter she exploded, shouting and wailing, at the simplemindedness of her husband.
He was wealthy, simple-minded and pleasure-seeking, while she, his wife, who was well-born, occupied herself with charities kept secret from her husband. When she heard of the thing that had happened she burst into tears and confronted her husband, saying: “Children we did not have, and what is there for us in all the wealth if at least the thought of the next world cannot console us and here by your own hand you have lost your share.”
He tried to explain to her that it was only in jest that they were speaking here, but she was adamant: that he should send out immediately to find the Jew, should give him whatever he would give, and that he should only get back the note and nullify the sale. The husband, who knew his wife and knew that if he did not do as she said his life would not be life from then on, and into whose heart her words had entered, began to feel a bit of impending doom, and winked at his friends, and they went out quickly to find the strange Jew.
When they found him and began to convince him that he should forego the bargain, Simcha Leibusch did not want to hear of it. They brought him before the owner of the store and his wife and they offered him profit on the foregoing of the bargain, but he was adamant; a bargain is a bargain and cannot be broken. The owners of the store saw in this something strange, that such a beggar was not excited by the proposed profit, and this strengthened their desire to nullify the sale.
When they pressed Simcha Leibusch very much and raised the amount of the profit, he feared that his weakness for profit might grow, remembered the Rabbi, and suggested a hearing before the Rabbi Moishe Leib, and whatever the Rabbi would judge would come to pass. The wealthy merchant, who had grown up in a devout home and only in time had moved away from his foundation, fumed and raged and in his anger threatened to throw the beggar out, but his wife declared that if he did not repair the foolish error he had made- she would divorce him.
Little by little the merchant was pacified, thought regretfully of his deeds, and there awakened in him the roots of his youth, and considering his wife and the home-peace, he decided to humble himself to the beggar and to appear with him before the Rabbi, Moishe Leib.
Friends had once advised him to go to the Zadik and receive his blessing, for the barrenness of his wife had disturbed his spirit not once. For whom did he work? Who would enjoy his great wealth? A thought blossomed in his mind: this Jewish beggar was forcing him to go to the Rabbi and perhaps on this opportunity... Even though he had not wanted to hear and had not believed... Maybe in any case It was from heaven that he go to the Rabbi, who knows?
His wife pressured, his thoughts supported it, and before Rev Moishe Leib there was held a hearing; the merchant claimed that the whole business had been only a joke, merely in jest, and the poor Jew for his part: “I have a bill of sale and a bargain is a bargain.”
By the verdict of the Zadik the wealthy one was to marry off the daughters of the waggoner, see fully to their weddings, and to give to each of them a substantial dowry and only after the fulfilling of this condition was Simcha Leibusch to return to him the bill of sale and to announce publicly that he was foregoing the bargain.
And more said the Zadik to the rich man: “See, all this is from heaven. A decree was decreed for you to go childless, but if you carry out the verdict, there is promised to you a seed of being. The Holy One, blessed be He, puts mercy before anger and because of the help that you give the daughters of Simcha Leibusch the heavenly decree for your wife's barrenness will be nullified.
The story ends thus: Matchmakers went out hastily and within a short time three canopies were erected and musical instruments entertained grooms and brides.
And even the wealthy man's wife was redeemed and after a year gave birth to a son. Her husband, the fur merchant, turned back from his simple-minded way and from then on gave charity to the needy with a generous hand and succeeded in all his handiwork.
Both the families, the descendants of the merchant and of Simcha Leibusch, were known in Sassow, and on the fourth of Shvat, the festivity day of the Zadik, they themselves would tell before the assembled audience of their history and of the Zadik's blessing which came to pass.
