Before I tell you about the wonders of Hashem, I am going to describe a very wonderful Yid. This is a Yid who opens his store on Fridays only until chatzos and not later, so if you want to purchase challos in his store, you need to come before noon.
What happens after this hour? Then you no longer buy challos, you only receive them. All the challos left over on Friday after he closes are left outside the store, and anyone who wants can come and take them for free.
On that Friday, I thought it was a really good idea to come to the store after chatzos and take challos for free. Unfortunately, though, that would be too late for me. I don’t like it when the challos for Shabbos arrive at my house so late in the day, but when money talks, the clock remains silent.
To my good fortune, however, the money did not talk too loudly, and I was still able to heed my own inner desire to complete our preparations for Shabbos earlier.
I thought to myself that it would behoove me to take a lesson from the owner of the store, who had such strong emunah that he’d earn enough even if he closed the store at chatzos and gave out challos for free. Just as he doesn’t sell after chatzos, neither would I wait for after chatzos. I would go to the store and buy challah, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu would repay me for my Shabbos expenses, as He’s promised.
I went into the store, which was packed with buyers, and while I was waiting in line with my challah in hand, I saw a familiar Yid standing in front of me. He was making a simchah, and so I shook his hand heartily and wished him, “Mazal tov, mazal tov! Much nachas!”
He looked at me strangely, and at that moment we both realized that we did not know one another. He just looked like my friend; he was not making a simchah that week.
I apologized from the depth of my heart. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry; I simply mixed you up with my friend. I feel badly about saying mazal tov when you’re not making a simchah.”
“Why ‘not making a simchah’?” my new friend said, smiling good-naturedly, “Of course I’m making a simchah. My simchah is that I am paying for your challah!”
He immediately acted on his words. I tried to object, but when my turn came, he paid the bill for my challah and went on his way.
I saw tangibly how Hakadosh Baruch Hu paid for my Shabbos expenses.
