Rav Zalman Leib Weiss, the gabbai of the Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz, related:
I asked Reb Shmuel, “Why do you spend all your money on others? Keep it! Look for ways to invest it securely, because Chazal have said, ‘A person should always divide his money into three: a third in land, a third in business, and a third at hand.’ Chazal taught that a person needs to ensure that his money does not get lost and chalilah used up.”
“I’m not worried,” Reb Shmuel would reassure me with a smile. “I was born into a poor home. For many years, I lived in poverty, so if poverty does come upon me, chalilah, it does not frighten me. Right now, HaKadosh Baruch Hu has granted me great abundance, and His intention is that I should share it with others. The money is not mine, it’s a brachah from Hashem! HaKadosh Baruch Hu chose me to be a conduit to give money to people who need it. Should I withhold it from them because of my concerns about the future? Everything is from Him, and the One who raised me to sit alongside the wealthy philanthropists will surely not abandon me in the future.”
“But Chazal said, ‘A person should always divide his money into three?’” I countered once again.
Reb Shmuel replied simply. “Chazal said ‘ma’osav,’ his money, but this is not my money. I have no money of my own; it’s only a deposit! Does a gabbai tzedakah who is given money to distribute to the poor have a right to look for ways to invest it?”
The feeling that the money was not his was a fundamental basis for all his acts of tzedakah and chessed. It was not for naught that the Imrei Chaim said to me a number of times, “I cannot fathom this Yid!”
