We recently discussed how the Baal Bitachon does not fear competition. There was recently an article in Ami magazine that perfectly fits this topic: Aha! Moments by Rabbi Yoel Gold.
He tells the story of a Yeshiva man who, like many others, sells things on Amazon. He acquired 70 iPads and planned to sell of them for $400 each. He put them up for sale at night and the next morning, they were all sold! He was thrilled, but froze when he realized he’d sold them for only $40 each by accident. He lost almost $28,000! , He considered cancelling the sales but he quickly realized if he cancelled 70 orders, he’d look really bad.Then he got an email from someone described simply as “Yehuda from Lakewood.”
“Hi Chaim,” Yehuda wrote, “I’m an Amazon seller, like you. I sell iPads too and I’m always looking around at other sellers to see what they’re up to. Last night I saw that you had posted iPads for $40.00. It was obviously a mistake, and from your name I realized you were a fellow Jew. I didn’t want you to lose money so I bought all the iPads. I’ll return them to you so you can post them again at the appropriate price.”
What a beautiful deed of Kiddush Hashem- helping your fellow competitor.
After I read the story, I called the author, my friend Rabbi Yoel Gold. He added more to the story. The buyer had been unknown up until this point, but then Yehuda from Lakewood called Rabbi Gold after reading the story on a chat of Amazon sellers from Lakewood. When someone posted it there, he realized it was about him. We still didn’t know his identity though.
Then, more Hashgacha pratit. I wanted to print the story, but my printer was out of ink so I asked Ralph Tawil, who works upstairs at the Torah Center, to print it for me. When he saw the article he said he knew Yehuda from Lakewood. He’s his Habruta (learning partner)’s son’s brother-in law- Judah Bergman- from our community! What a tzaddik! So I spoke to Judah. He said he realized the seller was Frum because of his user name: “LYBerdichev”. Levy Yitzhak of Berdichev was a tzaadik who loved Bnei Yisroel and is considered to be a protector of people’s business ventures. The seller chose that name and look how he was protected!!
Hashem’s Hashgacha!
Not only did we get another lesson in help your competition and you won’t lose, but we also were able to identify Yehuda from Lakewood!
There is more to the story ..stay tuned!