On one occasion, after the rabbi of Ponevezh had returned from abroad, he stood by the podium in the yeshiva, took out a large check from his pocket, showed it to the young men, and said, "Let me tell you the story of this check:
I was walking around Frankfurt to raise money. I went to the shtibelach and went from person to person to ask for his alms. And then a Jew, Rabbi Yaakov Rosenheim, came up to me and told me that it was not "honorable Torah" to collect money in this way. He invited me to his room, and in my presence he invited me to an appointment with wealthy gentlemen, as is the custom of important rabbis, and not like some schnorer. He called one of the rich people and told him that a great ponevizer was here. And that he was interested in meeting with him. The rich man said that he leaves the city the next morning with a train that leaves at eight o'clock, and he agrees that the rabbi will wait for him at the platform at 15 to 8 o'clock. The next day, the rabbi of Ponevezh relates, I woke up a little late, and realized that if I went to pray in public, I wouldn't have time to get to the train platform on time. I said to myself: 'I came here to collect money and not for myself. I collect for the needs of Torah, Torah rabbis, and I will pray once alone. But I immediately said to myself: 'I can't miss a public prayer because of this! A person has not yet been born who has been harmed because he listened to the voice of the Holy One, blessed be He! And I went to pray in public.
I finished praying at 8:30! There was no point in going to the dock... I decided, nevertheless, to make an effort; I went to the platform and arrived at 8:40... It was not more than three minutes before the rich man came running, and, panting, he began to apologize to me for being late, explaining that he was late for the eight o'clock train and was therefore on the nine o'clock train. He took a check out of his pocket, and wrote down a sum on it that was enough for the Ponevezh yeshiva for six months... "This is the check you see here in front of you," the rabbi said. And he added: "I didn't come to show you the check to show that I didn't miss a public prayer! It's a simple thing, there's no need to show it! I came only to tell you that if I were a wise guy praying alone to get to the platform at a quarter to eight, I would wait there at most until eight, until the train departed, and then leave the place! It is a shame that I would not wait there until a quarter to nine! I would have told myself that there must have been changes in the rich man's plans, and I would have returned here without this check."
"Trust in the Lord and do good" – a person who lives in faith and trust in God, knows that only God runs the world, can live a happy life, a life of doing good, with the clear knowledge that he will gain nothing if he is a "wise enemy" and runs, and fights, and fights, and maneuvers, and goes crazy, and does this, and does not do this... "Trust in God and do good"! Let us conclude with the words of the Rashba, who explains the words of the Gemara in Tractate Berachot [10:] that in the Shemoneh Esrei prayer, the worshipper must direct his legs and stand them close together, by which a person comes to imply that as far as he is concerned, he is unable to do anything! His legs are bound, tied! He cannot bring the beneficial closer or remove the harmful, but everything is out of God's hands.]
