Reb Yaakov relates:
I work as a cook. I have a very successful catering business, baruch Hashem. Hashem gave me the ability to prepare food that is tasty to those who eat it, to spice it as necessary, to cook it for as long as is needed – not too little and not too much, and I thank Hashem for sending me His blessing through a pipeline that enables me to participate in the simchahs of Yidden, in the beautiful and exciting parts of life.
It was on a Monday. I met my friend in the beis midrash, a friend to whom I’d wished a hearty mazal tov the previous week on the birth of his son. I knew him and knew that his means of covering the expenses of a seudah were not great. I did not anticipate that he would ask for my services at all. But I wanted to help him, so I went over and asked him, “Tomorrow there’s a bris, no?!”
“With the help of Hashem,” he replied in a tone indicating that this was a tefillah. “Do you want any help?” I asked.
To my good fortune, I meant what I said, because if I had asked only to be polite, I would have been shocked by his answer, because the father of the newborn answered me simply: “I ordered a caterer for the bris without portions of meat. Only side dishes. I wanted to ask – Are you willing to prepare the meat for the seudah?”
I answered yes, and I was happy to help. This was to be a small seudah; he wasn’t talking about large quantities.
It was already past 1 a.m. I was tired from the entire day, but a promise is a promise. I went to the commercial kitchen where I cook, in order to take meat out of the gigantic freezer, and what did I see? The freezer was unplugged. It wasn’t working! The freezer had a huge quantity of meat in it, worth about 10,000 shekels. I had planned on opening it only the following night. What would have happened had I not come there in order to help my friend? The freezer would have remained unplugged, and all the meat would have defrosted and spoiled. The loss would have been tremendous.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu saved me from a major financial loss through the chessed I was doing for my friend.
I always knew that it was worth doing chessed, but such proof is a tremendous chizuk. I saw tangible proof of what I had been told long ago: When a person does something, he does it for himself!
