Tzedakah with mesirut nefesh

The Ben Ish Chai zt’l told the following
story:
Once, there was a poor but generous
woman who baked four loaves of bread each
day. She gave three loaves to the poor and
kept one for her family.
One morning, after distributing the three
loaves, a destitute man came to her door
begging for food. He said he hadn't eaten for
a few days. She had mercy on him and gave
him the fourth bread.
"I'll bake another one for my family," she
thought.
She took a bag of wheat kernels and went
to the shore, where the communal mill stood.
After grinding her wheat into flour, she
filled her bag with flour, flung it over her
shoulder, and headed back home to bake
bread for her family. Just then, a powerful
gust of wind snatched the bag out of her
hands and tossed it into the sea. She cried,
"Why do I deserve this punishment? Is this
my reward for giving tzedakah?"
There was a yeshiva near the shore, and
she went inside and asked the rosh yeshiva
for an explanation. "I gave extra tzedakah
today. I even gave away my family's bread.
Is this my reward for the tzedakah I gave?"
The rosh yeshiva agreed that logically he
didn't understand why this happened to
her. Nevertheless, he encouraged her to
believe that it was bashert, and for a good
reason.
Just then, two merchants came in carrying
two jugs filled with gold coins. "These are
for the yeshiva," they said.
The rosh yeshiva was shocked, and he
asked them why they were donating this
large sum.
"We have just returned from a business
venture overseas," they explained. "The
water was stormy, and the ship crashed into
a large boulder. Water came pouring into
the ship, and our lives were in danger. We
vowed that if we survive, we will give
tzedakah to the first yeshiva we find. As soon
as we made this pledge, something
miraculously plugged the hole in the ship.
That's why we're bringing you these jars
filled with gold."
"Do you know what sealed the hole of
the ship?" the rosh yeshiva asked.
"Yes, we know. When we got off the boat,
we looked to see what saved our lives. We
were surprised to see that it was a sack of
flour! The flour became dough in the sea
and glued the bag onto the ship, exactly in
the right place to save our lives. It was
clearly a miracle!"
The poor woman was astonished when
she heard this story. The rosh yeshiva told
her, "Now you have the answer to your
question. You wondered why your bag flew
out of your hands and why you were
punished after giving tzedakah with mesirus
nefesh. It wasn't a punishment at all. It was a
reward. Because of your tzedakah, Hashem
enabled you to earn an even greater merit.
You saved the lives of all the people on the
ship. This is your reward for giving tzedakah
with mesirus nefesh."

(Torah Wellsprings, Pikudei 5782, Rabbi Elimelech Biderman, shlita)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How the Mir Yeshiva was saved during the Six-Day War

During the Six Day War, many people took refuge in the bomb shelter basement of the Mir Yeshivah in  Jerusalem.  After the war, some bachurim went up to the roof of the yeshiva and found three bombs there. Miraculously they hadn’t detonated. Reb Chaim Shmuelevitz zt'l told the yeshiva students, "You probably think you were saved in the merit of your never-ending Torah and tefilot in the bomb shelter, but I know the real reason we merited this miracle. A mother and her five children were with us in the bomb shelter. Her husband abandoned her years ago, and since then she struggles to support her family all by herself. As bombs fell in Yerushalayim, I heard her say, 'Hashem, You know that I have all the reasons in the world to be angry with my husband. Nevertheless, I forgive him. And just as I forgive him, You should forgive and save us.' Her vitur and forgiveness is what saved us." (Torah Wellsprings, Yom Kippur 5783, Rabbi Elimelech Biderman, shlita)
Read more

Mesirut Nefesh

The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 9.) teaches that the world will exist for six thousand years. The first two thousand years are called תהו (void) because there was no Torah in the world. The following two thousand years are called the years of Torah. The final two thousand years is the era of Moshiach because Moshiach will come then." The first two millennia of Torah began when Avraham Avinu was 52 years old. Why don’t the two thousand years start from the time Avraham recognized Hashem (which is at the age of 3, 40, or 48, as discussed above)? The Satmar Rebbe zt'l answered that when Avraham was 52, Nimrod threw him into the fiery furnace at Ur Kasdim because he refused to worship idols. The value of Torah is when it’s kept with mesirus nefesh. Avraham believed in Hashem earlier, but when he was 52 years old, he kept the Torah with mesirus nefesh. That’s the beginning of the two thousand years of Torah. During the Communist regime, it was difficult to find a mohel in Russia. One Russ...
Read more

The Chofetz Chaim, the businessman, and a tsunami in China: A language that only Yidden understand

There was a Yid who moved to China for business. Once, while visiting in Europe, he made a stop at the Chofetz Chaim's zt'l home. "How are our brothers in China faring?" the Chofetz Chaim asked. "There are almost no Yidden there," the merchant replied. "There are millions of goyim, but only a handful of Yidden, and they are all very weak in their Yiddishkeit." The Chofetz Chaim gave him his sefer Nidchei Yisrael and said, "I wrote this sefer specifically for the Yidden who live in such places, distant from Torah centers. When you go back to China, bring this sefer to them. It will be good for them." The Chofetz Chaim continued, "And what else is new in China?" "There was a tsunami," the man replied. "Thousands of people died." "Oy, we must do teshuvah," the Chofetz Chaim exclaimed. "Why must we do teshuvah?" the merchant asked. "As I told you, there are almost no Yidden in China, and ...
Read more