Make your own free scrapbooking design

Respect

There was once a beggar named Leib'ke who would always sit outside the Synagouge.
.A business man named Menashe, who was in financial trouble, gave Leib'ke some Tzedakah and asked him for a blessing for his business.
As a result of the blessing, Menashe had tremendous success in his business. Before any business trip he would ask Leib'ke for a blessing and it always worked! His business flourished and he opened many new stores!
Many people started coming to Leib'ke to ask for various blessings and all the blessings he gave were fulfilled. The holy Baal Shem Tov heard about this and asked Reb Leib'ke to come to him. The Baal Shem Tov asked Leib'ke what he did to merit that all his blessings should be fulfilled. Leib'ke said that he did not know, so the Baal Shem Tov asked Leibke to tell him about his life.
Reb Leibke said that he wasn't always a beggar. He used to be a tailor and would travel from place to place with his partner and they would fix people's clothing or make new clothes for them. After two years of saving up money they decided to go back home to their families and open a business in their home town.
On the last leg of their journey, they came to a town where a landlord had thrown a Jewish family into his dungeon because they could not pay their rent.
The ransom to free the family was half the amount of money that the tailors had saved up during the past two years. Leib'ke took his entire share of the money and used it to free the poor family. When he came home he had debts to pay but because he had no money left he became a beggar.
The Baal Shem Tov told Leibke that because of his self sacrifice to help the family in the dungeon all of his blessings would be fulfilled. The Baal Shem Tov helped Leibke start up his business again and learnt with him Torah. Leib'ke became a great Torah Scholar and was respected by all.

The lesson from this story is that we should respect every person because you never know what circumstances brought the person to where he is. Every person is special and has a mission on this earth!

Create your own photo slideshow