Another story from Rav Zilberstein
Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein tells a wonderful story of a woman who built her home in the proper fashion. In Volozhin There lived a Jew named rabbi Isaac who aside from having illustrious ancestors, was also very wealthy and a leader of the community. He would travel on business to various Jewish communities & always bring his wife back a gift from his travels when he returned home.
Once his wife asked him to bring back a set of the Talmud, a very & expensive rare commodity at that time. Rabbi Isaac made the effort to fulfill her request & although it was difficult was able to obtain a full set of shas for her. His wife then established a lending library of sorts in her house & any scholar living in town or visiting town who needed to look up something would be able to come to their home and borrow it. When the scholar would finish with that volume, he would return it and take another one in its stead.
Once the Shaagat Aryeh, Reb Aryeh Leib came to their home and asked to borrow a certain mesechta. When this woman saw that this outstanding scholar came to her home to borrow a gemarah, she told him that he should not exert himself to come to her home, rather that whenever he completed a volume she would send one of her servants to him with the next volume for him to continue his learning. This arrangement was duly implemented and continued until the rabbi had borrowed almost all of her volumes of the Talmud she had. When he left the city, he blessed the couple that Hashem should give her two sons. One who would teach the talmud to the entire Jewish people and the other who would be proficient in all of shas. This blessing was for filled; this woman’s two sons were none other than Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner and his brother Rabbi Zalmaleh.
Rav Biderman tells the following story:
A Kotzker chassid once came to the Rebbe of Radoshitz zt'l and told him that his mazal fell, & he didn’t have parnassah anymore. The Radoshitzer asked, "Do you say tachanun?" Ashamed, he admitted that for many years he didn’t say tachanun. "How many tachanuns are you missing? When did you begin skipping tachanun." The man replied that he was still a young bachur when he began being lenient with tachanun. They made a calculation and realized that he was missing thousands of tachanuns. The Rebbe told him, "From now on, be cautious to say tachanun. Additionally, you must say all those tachanuns that you missed. If you will do so, your mazal will come back. But if you miss even just one tachanun that you owe, you won't get your yeshuah." The man followed the Rebbe's advice. It took a few weeks, but he said all the tachanuns that he “owed,” and he was careful to say tachanun in the tefillos. His mazal improved, and he became wealthy.
