Every year on Parshas Shekalim, Ezras Torah holds its annual fundraiser campaign to cover their budget needs for the year. With the many cases of hachansas kallah, bikur cholim, and more, the organization stands ready to offer financial support to whoever is in need. That Shabbos is one of their primary sources of income.
During one such campaign, Reb Hillel Litwak, the administrator of Ezras Torah, heard a man repeatedly answering Amen in a loud voice before the chazzan concluded the bracha. Reb Hillel knew that it was stated in Shulchan Aruch that one must wait until the end of the bracha before answering Amen. If one does not wait, his Amen is called chatufa, snatched.
Reb Hillel approached the man to explain the gravity of an Amen chatufa. After explaining the concept, Reb Hillel began to search the shul for a Mishna Berura, volume 1, to show him the halacha inside (siman 124), but he couldn’t find any copies. The man thanked him for pointing it out, and they parted.
The following Friday, Reb Hillel received a letter from the bank that said that one of the checks that was given to Ezras Torah for their campaign wasn’t signed. In the envelope with the letter was supposed to be the unsigned check, but when Reb Hillel looked at the check, he discovered that it was not the check that had been given to Ezras Torah. It was someone else’s!
Shortly afterward, a woman called Reb Hillel and said that she’d received a similar letter from the bank about the check she’d deposited not being signed, and that in the envelope was a check made out to Ezras Torah. Reb Hillel was relieved; now he knew where his check was. But was the check he’d gotten in the mail her check? Upon investigation, he realized that it was! He assured her that they would make the exchange after Shabbos.
On Friday night, as Reb Hillel was preparing to make Kiddush, it dawned on him that the name on the check was the same as that of the man who he had spoken to about the Amen chatufa, and the address was near the shul he had attended the previous week.
Immediately after Shabbos, he called this family and spoke to the husband, and he confirmed that he had been whom Reb Hillel had corrected about the Amen chatufa. Reb Hillel headed over to their home and exchanged checks. At that time, he was able to show the husband the words of the Chofetz Chaim inside, hoping that he’ll accept it as “the letter of the law,” not just a chumra. The man drank Reb Hillel’s words and made the change in his way of responding Amen.
A switching of a check is not a usual occurrence, and for the mix-up to involve the person he had corrected about the halachic matter the previous week was not coincidental. It was only because Hashem cares so much about our mitzvos and would do anything just so that we should be able to observe His mitzvos properly.
