Fit the Bill

Shortly after Purim, Rabbi Yeshaya Stroh, Rosh Yeshiva of Kollel Zichron Eliyahu, spent Shabbos in Baltimore at Kehilas Bnei Yeshiva, where he had been invited to speak, marking their relationship with the Adopt-A-Kollel program.

During Shabbos, he learned that the shul was holding a raffle to raise funds for its building campaign. Wanting to express his hakaras hatov to the kehillah, he decided to purchase a ticket. One of the gabbaim encouraged him to dedicate it on behalf of the kollel, and Rabbi Stroh agreed.

The raffle was unusual. There were only 360 tickets, each assigned a number between 1 and 360. That number also determined the ticket's price, but participants would not know the amount until after entering their payment information.

Rabbi Stroh decided that if the ticket was inexpensive, he would pay for it himself. If it was one of the higher numbers, the kollel would reimburse him, since the purchase was really on the kollel's behalf. The wheel spun and landed on 326. It was far more than he had expected, so he decided the kollel would cover the cost.

Two weeks later, just three days before Pesach, he awoke to an excited message: “Amazing news. Contact us as soon as possible.” Rabbi Stroh had won the Rolex watch!

His excitement quickly gave way to a halachic question. Since he had already decided that the kollel would pay for the ticket, did the watch belong to him or to the kollel?

At the same time, his daughter had become engaged only a week earlier, and the family was beginning to face the significant expenses of making a wedding. Perhaps, he wondered, this was Hashem's way of providing some of the necessary funding?

Rather than decide on his own, Rabbi Stroh asked his rav. The answer was immediate. “Since you intended that the kollel would pay for the ticket, the watch belongs to the kollel."

On his way home, Rabbi Stroh bought cheesecake and gathered his wife and daughters around the table. This is what he shared: “No one knows that I intended for the kollel to pay for the ticket. Had I kept the watch, no one would ever have questioned me. But Hashem knows. The rav ruled that the watch belongs to the kollel, so that's exactly what we'll do.

"And as for the wedding,” he added, “Hashem will send us what we need when we need it."

True to his word, Rabbi Stroh gave the kollel the watch, which was subsequently sold for its full value of $16,000 that went to benefit the kollel.

But that wasn't the last of Rabbi Stroh's relationship with the watch.

Within half an hour of that meeting with his family, one of his daughters called him with astonishing news.

Months earlier, Rabbi Stroh's wife had applied for compensation from the Israeli government for lost income because of the school closures during the war with Iran. She had initially received only a small payment and had appealed, explaining that June was the busiest month of her working year.

The appeal appeared to have gone nowhere. When she later followed up, she was told that the program had already closed and there was nothing more that could be done. Now, completely unexpectedly, the tax authority had reopened her file, agreed that she had been underpaid, and informed her that 6,500 shekels were being deposited into their account.

The timing was perfect.

That very day, they needed to pay the deposit for their daughter's wedding hall. Rabbi Stroh had been planning to put it on his credit card and hoped the money would come later. Instead, Hashem sent it exactly when it was needed.

His daughter then shared a beautiful thought.

“A Rolex is prized because every second is perfectly precise. If someone buys a Rolex only to set it three minutes fast, they might as well buy an inexpensive watch. Hashem runs the world with that same precision. He doesn't send us what we need too early or too late. Everything arrives at exactly the right moment."

The story spread after Pesach, inspiring people around the world.

Not long afterward, while Rabbi Stroh was in New York raising funds for the kollel, a friend called. "My wife and I heard your story,” he said. “We were so inspired by your honesty that we'd like to help with your daughter's wedding.

“The Rolex is worth about $16,000. Since you already received approximately $2,000 from the government, we'd like to contribute the remaining $14,000.”

So, in the end, Rabbi Stroh's family received the very same amount of the watch toward the chasunah. By choosing complete integrity, no one lost. The kollel received what rightfully belonged to it, and Hashem provided everything the family needed—in His perfect time.

As Chazal teach, a person never loses by doing what is right.