There was a Rosh Yeshiva who often flew to America to raise money for his Yeshiva. He always flew business class so he could focus better on his learning.
One day, right before leaving for the airport, the airline called to apologize that business class was overbooked. He had two choices: take a flight tomorrow night or fly economy today for half the price. He took the economy seat and made the best out of it.
Once in New York, his friend got him an appointment with a very wealthy man named Nachmi, whom he had never met.
Nachmi didn’t ask him any questions, he wasn’t even so interested to hear about the Yeshiva. All he wanted to know was how the Rosh Yeshiva had traveled to America—business or economy.
The Rosh Yeshiva said, “Economy.” Nachmi smiled and said, “That’s all I need to hear,” and wrote him a check for $32,000.
Later, the Rosh Yeshiva called his friend asking why Nachmi didn’t want to hear anything about the Yeshiva.
His friend laughed and said Nachmi meets people all day. He likes to give big amounts only after he knows the money won’t be wasted on extra comforts like business class, but will be used only for Torah.
(However, this rich man was incorrectly viewing rabbis, as they may have good reason for flying business class.)
But the Rosh Yeshiva started to wonder, maybe this money was given by mistake? Maybe he shouldn’t use it and should return it?
The Rosh Yeshiva was nervous for no reason.
- It was obviously all from Hashem. Out of all the flights he could have taken, this was the one where business class was full, and he had to sit in economy just so he could meet this donor. Hashem arranged it all for him.
- He doesn’t need to give the money back. The rich man never asked any other questions—how he was flying back, or even whether he always flew in economy.
