“ וכל אשר תתן לי עשר אעשרנו לך ” - "Of whatever you will give me, I will give a tenth to you."

Over 150 years ago in Russia there lived a תלמוד חכם called ר ‘ יוסף . He was a very clever man and also very humble. He knew all of the גמרא -- both the תלמוד בבלי and תלמוד ירושלמי --by heart, and also knew many ספרי הלכה and קבלה as well.

ר ‘ יוסף was thinking about becoming a רב in a large city and since he was a חסיד of the מיטעלער רבי , he travelled to Lubavitch to ask for the Rebbe's ברכה and advice. But when he informed the Rebbe of his plan, the Rebbe wasn't so excited.

The מיטעלער רבי looked up at ר ‘ יוסף from his desk and said seriously: " ר ‘ יוסף , if you are offered the opportunity of being an important רב , it's better for you to be a wagon driver."

Even two days later, when he arrived home and told his wife what the Rebbe had said, he himself still hadn't fully understood it.

"If that’s what the Rebbe said", she said, "You must go down to the wagon drivers and ask their advice on what type of carriage to buy, how much it will cost and how long it will take to learn." She answered.

"Learn what?" He just shook his head every time his wife mentioned it, and went back to studying גמרא or something else.

Then about a month later a group of the elders of the city knocked at ר ‘ יוסף 's door and officially offered him the important position of רב of the city of Minsk. He told them to come back in a week for his answer.

As soon as they left, ר ‘ יוסף 's wife reminded him that now he had no choice other than to finally go talk to the wagon drivers.

So the next morning ר ‘ יוסף put on his fur coat and high boots and made a visit to the stables. At first the drivers thought he was a customer. Then they thought he was joking or crazy. But when they saw he was serious, one of the older drivers agreed to show him around, carefully pointing out how each of the many things that a wagon driver did was difficult, dirty, or dangerous.

After several hours he returned home with a full report to his wife and a חשבון that a wagon and horse cost much more than they could afford, and that was the end of it.

" יוסף !" said his wife. "Are you a חסיד or not? The Rebbe wants you to be a wagon driver. I'll sell my jewellery and our silver שבת candle sticks, and we'll buy a horse and a wagon." And so it was that soon ר ‘ יוסף was one of the town's wagon drivers.

He accepted his new job with as much שמחה as he could. He took good care of his horses and his carriage, and the other drivers always helped him and tried to give him the easiest trips.

He also tried to keep himself as holy as possible. While he was driving he would recite the גמרא he knew by heart, and he never began working until he had spent one hour davening שחרית , but even so, he found his new life very hard and he wasn’t happy.

One cold winter morning, as he was feeding his horses and getting the wagon ready for the day's work, a rich-looking, goyishe businessman entered the stables and asked him if he was willing to take him to Petersburg.

"That's a two-day journey", answered ר ‘ יוסף . "I'll gladly take you, but I'm telling you now that I don't begin at the crack of dawn, like the other drivers. I am a Jew that believes in ה ‘ and every morning I must daven for one hour."

"Fine, fine," The businessman replied. "Maybe on the second day I'll get another driver. The main thing is that I leave immediately. All my baggage is here and I want to leave as soon as possible."

ר ‘ יוסף wasted no time getting the horses ready and in fifteen minutes they were on their way.

That night they stopped at an inn. Before they went to sleep, the businessman paid him for the day's journey, saying something about finding another driver that would leave early. They shook hands and the innkeeper showed them to their rooms.

ר ‘ יוסף woke, as was his מנהג , at midnight, washed his hands and began to say תיקון חצות . His heart was broken enough as it was, and when he began thinking of the terrible גלות of the אידן the pain was too much to bear, he poured out his heart into the words of the תפילות .

When he finished, he opened the ספר of גמרא he always took along on his trips and began studying. At daybreak, he put on his תפילין and davened שחרית .

He had just put away תפילין back after davening, and was about to sit down and have something to eat, when suddenly the door opened and there stood his passenger.

His clothes were messy as though he hadn't slept all night and it was clear that he had been crying.

"I want to … put on your תפילין ," he said as he burst into uncontrollable tears and fell to his knees. "Oh please forgive me!" He sobbed " ה ‘ , please, forgive me!"

He collapsed on the floor with his face in his hands and his entire body shaking with heart-rending sobs. The astounded ר ‘ יוסף watched with his mouth open wide. He had never seen anything like this in his life!

When the man had calmed down he explained: he was a איד , but he lived like a גוי . The night before, he was about to go to sleep when he heard through the wall the midnight תפילות of ר ‘ יוסף . At first he paid no attention, and then he got angry because it was disturbing him; but then, slowly it woke up something inside of him.

He remembered that when he was a boy his father used to daven like that. He now was a wealthy man and had long forgotten about all that but ר ‘ יוסף 's תפילות made him want to change.

He decided that he wanted to return to his true self -- he wanted to be a איד again.

Two days later they were standing before the Rebbe. ר ‘ יוסף was told that he had fulfilled the purpose of becoming a wagon driver.