He got together some people who took down his things, and when I arrived, this avreich and his friends loaded up the furniture, cartons, and everything necessary. From there, I made several more stops to collect various vital items he needed in his new apartment, and the whole time I noticed that he was watching me and waiting for me to say something. At the end he asked, “Are you sure that 300 shekels is enough? On Motzaei Shabbos I checked out how much a transport costs, and I was told that 300 shekels might be enough to transport one item. If you want to move an entire apartment, it costs several thousand shekels, and I also asked you to make several other stops on the way.”
“Everything’s fine,” I answered him. “Where to now?”
We went to the apartment building, and I asked him to show me exactly where his new apartment was. I waited calmly for them to take everything out, and I helped with whatever I could. When the avreich took out money to pay me, I told him to keep the money. I explained that I was totally not a moving truck, but that I dealt with sound systems. I had simply purchased a van and searched for a Yid with whom I could do an act of chessed. Our whole meeting was min haShamayim and very emotional: He had been davening to Hashem for several days already to send him an affordable moving truck, and I had been davening to find someone who needed me.
“If you still want to pay me,” I told him, “take me to your kollel and give me three minutes to speak to the avreichim there.”
And why did I so badly want to speak to these avreichim? Because I saw this avreich, and how he worked so hard and put in so much effort in order to give me 300 shekels, and who knows what vital food item he had given up on in order to do so. I saw that also after a week of searching and also after he understood that there was no chance he would find a moving truck for this price, there was no way he could add more money. And as for me, I just wanted to help, to simply help him and his friends who were struggling like him, and to teach them something from my experience, something that perhaps they did not yet know.
I told the avreichim that several years earlier, I was entangled in debts with huge interest rates and with no idea of how I might get out of that pit. One day, b’rachamei Shamayim, I came across a sefer on the subject of Birkas Hamazon. What can I tell you? It opened my eyes! Until then I hadn’t known that reciting Birkas Hamazon with kavanah is a segulah for wealth. I read the book in depth, and it gave me a totally different outlook on the mitzvah of Birkas Hamazon. I atarted to say the brachah with kavanah, word for word, and within a short time I paid off all my debts and truly began to succeed financially.
In conclusion, I said that I wanted the tzibbur to strengthen themselves in Birkas Hamazon, and there would be yeshuos and bountiful parnassah.
I think that beyond Birkas Hamazon, it is important to understand one thing: It isn’t work that brings money. I could have worked from morning to night and remained in debt. In order to gain parnassah, you need siyata diShmaya! That alone. And therefore, it was worth my while to search for a Yid in order to do chessed with him. It is worth more than all the sound systems put together...
