The Real Shimon Cohen

I heard the following true story from Israel’s well-known darshan (lecturer), Rabbi Yehuda Yosefi, shlit”a from Bnei Brak
 
At the end of the summer, the closer one gets to the High Holidays, the price of synagogue tickets skyrocket because of the dwindling availability, especially in the main synagogues. Shimon Cohen paid a premium price for the seat he was fortunate enough to obtain, in the middle of the front row in one of Bnei Brak’s most prestigious houses of prayer.
 
With all the preparations of Rosh Hashanah eve, Shimon was running late. Mincha would be starting in seven minutes and he had an eight-minute walk to the synagogue. Trying his best to be on time, he walked as fast as he could. He arrived at the synagogue in record time and the chazzan (cantor) was just going up to the prayer podium. Shimon let out a sigh of relief and hurried to his designated seat in the front row.
 
Shimon’s heart skipped a beat. A man was sitting in his seat…
 
“Excuse me, sir; this is my seat,” said Shimon as politely as he could. He didn’t want to lose his temper twenty minutes before Rosh Hashanah.
 
The man sitting in his seat looked up at Shimon Cohen as if the latter just landed in a spaceship from Mars. In an indignant tone, the apparent trespasser said, “No, you excuse me, sir. You are out of line. Look at the name on the back of this seat – it says ‘Shimon Cohen’; that’s me! I bought this seat with hard cash. I’m afraid you’ll have to sit elsewhere.”
 
The standing (who we’ll refer to as the first) Shimon Cohen was aghast. Avoiding an argument, he summoned the gabbai. The first Shimon Cohen had a signed receipt in his machzor (holiday prayer book), signed by the the gabbai (beadle) of the synagogue, attesting to the fact that he paid one-thousand shekels for his front-row center seat. The second Shimon Cohen flashed a similar receipt and barked adamantly, “This is my seat and I have no intention of getting up.” In an oversight amidst the pre-High Holiday chaos, the gabbai had accidentally sold the same seat twice.
 
Flush as a beet, the gabbai admitted his mistake and apologized to the first Shimon Cohen. With beads of perspiration appearing on his forehead, the embarrassed gabbai pulled Shimon Cohen aside and pleaded, “Mr. Cohen, please forgive me. I made a dumb mistake – when I saw your name on my master list, I thought that it was only a reservation in your name, so when the second Shimon Cohen arrived, I simply thought that it was you, coming to pay for your seat. I know this is a terrible affront to you and a gross error on my part, but I’ll do my best to rectify. Tonight, the synagogue is jammed. I have a spare seat in the back row for you, but nothing better available. But tomorrow morning, there are fewer people in synagogue and I’ll be able to arrange a better seat for you, even in the front row.”
 
“Is that the best you can do?” asked the first Shimon Cohen.
 
“I’m afraid it is.”
 
The first Shimon Cohen looked at the clock; in minutes, it would be sundown and the beginning of the holy Day of Judgment. There was no point in arguing with the other Shimon Cohen or in embarrassing the already-humiliated gabbai. The first Shimon accepted the gabbai’s offer and went to take his place in the back row. The ventilation was terrible there and he couldn’t hear the cantor. The late-summer Israeli heat and the stuffiness made him drowsy. During the repetition of the Amida prayer, his heavy eyelids closed and he fell asleep…
 
The holy Rav Elazar Menachen Mann Shach of saintly and blessed memory, head of the Ponovitch Yeshiva, appeared to him in a dream. “Anyone who yields to someone else in order to maintain peace and avoid an argument never loses. You, Shimon, have done just that. You will surely be blessed…”
 
The image of Rav Shach disappeared and Shimon Cohen woke up. He no longer felt and stuffiness or discomfort and he prayed with joy. It turned out to be the best Rosh Hashanah he ever had.
 
The following year, the first Shimon Cohen had a big surprise on the first day of Rosh Hashanah. He was the sandak at the brit of his first grandson. The occasion was all the more joyous because Shimon Cohen’s daughter had been married for five years and had previously not been blessed with children. Her father’s act of giving in and preventing an argument made such an impression Above that all the obstacles simply vanished.
 
Rav Shach osb”m, as well as other tzaddikim, promised that anyone who gives in never loses. This is a signed check that anyone can cash in on, including you! Stay out of arguments, even when you’re right. You have everything to gain.