By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
By 1967, the Perrin family had been in the fur business for over six decades. Solomon Perrin, the second generation in the business, had been heavily involved in establishing Chabad in London, and that year the community was hoping to build a new Chabad school for girls.
Around this time, Mr. Perrin received an offer to purchase shares in Canadian Devonian Petroleum. He had reliable information that the company would soon be acquired by Shell Oil, at which point he stood to make a fortune. He planned to put all of the profits into the new school building.
Mr. Perrin wrote to the Rebbe, asking for his blessing in the endeavor. “I am willing to mortgage my home to purchase more shares,” he wrote.
In his response, the Rebbe suggested that it was not a good investment. After all, there was no guarantee that the deal would go through, and Mr. Perrin obviously had no control over the situation.
The Rebbe added that if Mr. Perrin wanted to learn a lesson, he should purchase £1,000 worth of the shares. The businessman did not understand. How would he be able to finance the school’s construction by investing so little?
He followed the Rebbe’s advice, however, purchasing a modest number of shares. Over the following weeks and months, he bought the Financial Times daily, scanning the headlines for news of the acquisition. It never happened, and after an oil crisis, the idea of a deal between the two companies was terminated.
Devonian’s shares begin to fall, and Mr. Perrin was saved from losing his home…
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Such an amazing story
The Rebbe really knows what’s good for you
The picture shows the Rebbe giving a Tanya to Mr Berel Perrin of Manchester England, on ט״ז סיון ה׳תשל״ה, the famous שיחה בחוץ, when the Rebbe spoke outside the front door of 770 in honor of the printing of the Tanya in Hebrew & English for the 1st time in one volume.
R’Berel, a son of R’Shlomo who, in his own right, was & is a supporter of Lubavitch Manchester. R’ Berel built the mikveh in Lubavitch Manchester in memory of his father a”h.