יפה תלמיד תורה אם דרך ארץ (אבות ב:ב)

One has to conduct his business – “דרך ארץ” – in a Torah fashion.

R’ Shimon Rottenberg a’’h, from the city of Lanzut, owned a shop that sold coats for the Polish army.  The coats required exact measurements and a unique fabric shielding soldiers from the cold.

One of the army’s commanders, who begrudged R’ Shimon, reported to the government that the requirement of the coats wasn’t exact. The measurements weren’t exact, and the fabric wasn’t as thick as they had ordered. R’ Shimon was summoned to court, where if he was found guilty, a harsh punishment awaited him.

R’ Shimon feared the consequences and traveled to Belz for a bracha from Maran Reb Aharon zt’’l. Maran asked precise questions about the libel and whether the accusations were true.  R’ Shimon answered that it was all a libel and that the coats were accurately prepared according to specifications from the army. “If so,” R’ Aharon warmly wished him, “The court hearing should dissolve like salt in water!”  And so occurred.