They didn’t wait long before Rav Galinsky got up to leave, ready to cancel the asifa, “If the community hears about its turnout they’d mock it, bringing about a big chilul Hashem. Let’s rather cancel it, and avoid this bizayon haTorah.”
Rav Toledano countered, saying that if even one person would need an ambulance on Shabbos, then of course they would call one. If so, why wouldn’t we continue with our plans for that one couple who showed up?! We can’t underestimate the value and power of One Yid!
Rav Yankele, known as the Maggid Meisharim, acquiesced to Rav Toledano, and they agreed that R' Yankele would be the one to address the audience since the participants were Ashkenazim.
So R' Yankele stepped up to the podium to start his heartfelt address, and delivered it as if he was speaking to the entire moshav. Afterward, nothing more had to be said. The only man in the audience came over and asked if they can wait so he could get his wife from the women’s section so she can meet the Rav.
The couple spoke amongst themselves for a several minutes, and finally came and approached the rabbanim. “We are Holocaust survivors,” they explained, “and we receive reparations [money used as a form of “apology”] from the German government. We moved to this settlement and found peace living here. We have a good livelihood and can afford to live without the reparation money from Germany. We feel that by giving that money to such a worthy cause, it will be the ultimate revenge to the accursed Nazis.”
The four present that night sat down at a table, and started to work out the necessary costs to build the mikvah, and after calculating how much the couple could give, they realized that they had two-thirds of the money already covered! Once two two-thirds were covered the remaining third was easily raised, and the beautiful mikvah built from those funds is still in use by the settlers of that very moshav till this very day!
Elul is a time when we Elul-vate our actions. When we work on improvement, we must remember that we are not the ones in charge of the bottom line — all we do is what we can, and the rest is up to Him. We do what we can, and Hashem does the rest.
