Reb Shimon from Bnei Brak relates: I realize that my story is a bit unusual, because we all have the feeling that it’s no problem to get hold of, for example, shoes; it’s just that you have to pay for them. So naturally, a person concerns himself with getting money in order to buy shoes, with the understanding that once he has money, he’ll surely buy them.
I thought that very thing, until I discovered that we really needed shoes. My wife’s shoes had reached the point that they were torn, and now it was clear that she had to buy shoes. This was no luxury; even Chazal say that shoes are the most basic items.
I checked my bank account and discovered the secret I already knew: There was no money in the account. I told my wife, “Go shopping, and Hashem will help.”
I thought to myself that women never buy shoes in the first store they come to. They go in, check it out, move on to another store, look through it as well, check whether the shoes comfortable, ask about the price, and try to find out if perhaps in another store there are shoes that are less expensive or nicer or in a different color.
At that moment, this way of doing things suited me very well. It bought me more time.
She went out shopping, and I davened to Hashem to help me.
The merchandise in the stores was not bad, but the shoes were really expensive, and when there is no money you don’t buy. After my wife went to several stores, she went to visit her parents, and she mentioned to them that she was looking for shoes. “I recently bought shoes,” her sister said, surprising her, “and they don’t fit me well. Maybe they’ll fit you?”
She showed my wife the shoes, and wonder of wonders, they were exactly the shoes she was looking for! And they fit her like a glove.
That’s how Hakadosh Baruch Hu sent us shoes – no money, just emunah and tefillah.
