Many years have passed since this happened, but I still believe this is a special story. To this very day I feel revitalized by the inspiration I received back then, and I think it will give everyone chizuk. Hashem doesn’t abandon anyone.
One evening my wife told me an envelope had arrived in the mail. We’re accustomed to getting envelopes from the municipality, the gas company, and the like. This time it was an envelope from the electric company. I had seen the envelope even before my wife pointed it out, but I played the ostrich, hiding my head in the sand and deliberately ignoring it.
This time I could not ignore it. I opened the envelope and saw that we owed a lot of money, and I had no idea how I’d pay it. Our financial state was very tight at the time.
“What should I do?” I asked my wife. “I have no money.”
“Borrow,” she answered.
The prospect of our electricity being cut off seemed worse than that of taking a loan, but I did not want to be considered a “wicked man, who borrows and does not return.” I had no plan for how to return the loan, and therefore I did not want to take it. What could I do? I did what Dovid Hamelech did. I told my wife words of chizuk I’d heard from my Rebbe, the Toldos Aharon Rebbe zt”l. He said that when Dovid Hamelech was in Tziklag after his wife and daughters were taken from him, and Shimi ben Geira cursed him, he did not give up, but rather, “And Dovid strengthened himself in his L-rd.” He held onto Hashem with all his might, and indeed, he returned to his position as king over all of Am Yisrael. From this a Jew should learn to strengthen himself and hold on to Hashem with all his might, and to believe from the depths of his heart that his yeshuah is at hand.
My words took effect, and my wife slept well, but I did not. From where, Ribbono shel Olam? Where do I find the money to pay this bill, and more? I am a melamed; I do my work faithfully, and I have no other source of income. I am at a total loss. I have no idea.
I tossed and turned. It was a long night, pitch black. Ribbono shel Olam..., I continued speaking and strengthening myself with words of emunah. On my street there are five different banks, and all of them are bursting with money. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is kol yachol; He has many ways and means of providing, hundreds of thousands of ways of sending me money. He knows, He is able, He wants to help me, and He has mercy. He will send me my needs.
With these thoughts of chizuk I finally fell asleep, and I awoke in the morning with the feeling that Hakadosh Baruch Hu would not ignore me and would not abandon me.
Before leaving the house I gave a coin to tzedakah and said, with kavanah, “Eloka d’Meir Aneini.”
Midday in cheder, the menahel called me to his office. I had a phone call.
I came into the office, curious. It was a bit scary to get a call like that, since I did not generally get calls in middle of the day.
My wife was on the line, and she sounded very excited. “We just won the lottery!”
“What?!” I asked, “I never bought a lottery ticket!”
“Right,” she said. “It’s not really a lottery ticket, just something like it. Listen. My mother came a few minutes ago and told me that her older, single brother who is an accountant decided to give us money. He gave her an envelope for us. Guess how much money there is inside it?”
I played along, afraid of being disappointed. “200 pounds? 500? More than a thousand?”
She exceeded all my expectations. “8,000 pounds!” she said triumphantly. “That’s the amount in the envelope!”
We were amazed. We had never seen a shekel from this uncle, and here, suddenly, he was raining money down on us so generously. What happened to him?
But I knew. It wasn’t the uncle; it was our merciful Father in Heaven. He saw our pain and gave him the zechus to be the emissary to give us what we needed. May we always strengthen ourselves and hold on to Hashem!
