The Magid of Zlotchov zy”a had a student named R’ Shmuel. He once told this student to travel to the home of a man named R’ Avrohom, who would teach him what true emunah is.
It was a three-day journey to the city where R’ Avrohom lived. When R’ Shmuel arrived, he found that R’ Avrohom lived in a large, fancy house. He wondered how he could learn about emunah from a wealthy man who seemed to have everything he could desire. Why would it be difficult for a person who experiences no suffering to have emunah?
R’ Avrohom took him into the room where he conducted his business and opened his wallet and all of the drawers. R’ Shmuel saw that they were all empty. There was no money anywhere. He asked R’ Avrohom for an explanation and the man told him, “That is my entire fortune. I have nothing. Whenever I need money, Hashem sends it to me. Whenever I am offered a business deal, I sign onto it, and I rely on Hashem to send me the funds I need.”
R’ Shmuel stayed there overnight. In the morning, he saw two men come to the house to ask R’ Avrohom to pay back a debt of 5,000 rubles that he owed them. R’ Avrohom greeted them warmly and said, “Wait here. I will go into my office to get your money.”
R’ Shmuel followed him to see where he would get money from. He saw R’ Shmuel enter the room, take out a siddur, and begin to daven. Suddenly, he heard knocking on the door. A man came into the office and handed 10,000 rubles to R’ Avrohom, asking him to hold the money for him and saying he could use it for the time being. R’ Avrohom then went back to the men he owed money to and repaid his debt.
R’ Shmuel now understood why the Rebbe had sent him there. He saw what it meant to have pure emunah every moment of one’s life.
