We have a rental unit that is always rented out. For twelve years it yielded us a nice monthly sum from the rental money, and we thought this apartment in this location with this demand would certainly always be rented out.
But Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted us to practice bitachon. The last tenant left, and no new tenant arrived in his place.
People came and saw the apartment, and they left just as they’d come. None of them signed a contract.
In the beginning we thought that perhaps we had to switch the doors for newer, nicer ones, and to fix up the look of the apartment a bit. We did not think it wasn’t nice enough as it was, but we thought that the people who came to see it might have thought so.
On second thought, we said, “We need to strengthen our bitachon.” We started to learn the daily learning program of Shaar Habitachon each day, and thus the awareness that Hashem knows what is best for us was sharpened in our minds. We were asking for parnassah, and who said it would come specifically through rent money? Maybe Hashem’s desire was that the apartment be empty now, and the money would come from another source?
We continued learning and strengthening ourselves as a result of the empty apartment, and after several days a relative called, and without any introduction he asked how we were doing and how was the rental of the apartment coming along?
I told him, “It’s not going right now. The apartment is empty.”
“And how are you doing?”
“We’re davening,” I answered honestly
He asked how much money we had been asking for the rent, and a short time later he called and told me he had transferred into our account the sum of the rent for a month.
The money arrived although the apartment was empty. Hayipalei MeHashem davar?
About the price of the rent at all, so he paid more than the almost-tenant who had preceded him. Afterward, when we raised the price, he understood the situation and did not try to argue, so the additional rent immediately showed up in our account.
He works in a hardware store, and he is professional at upkeep of a home. Anything that has to fixed, he fixes on his own without asking for our help.
I thought to myself, What would have happened if the almost-tenant would have settled in my apartment? He would have called me for every little thing that wasn’t working properly!
While it was very difficult for us to have the apartment empty for a month, this was actually where we saw that everything is for the best.
