In addition to cleaning the homes, one of our preparations for Pesach is chesed.
At the beginning of Hilchos Pesach, it states פסח לצורך לעניים לחלקן חיטים לקנות מנהג, "There is a custom to buy wheat and to distribute it to the poor for Pesach" (429:1). In our generation, we give matzah and other yom tov products to the poor for Pesach.
The Ben Ish Chai zt’l shared the following story:
There was a poor woman who, despite her poverty, tried to help those less fortunate than her. Every day, she baked four loaves of bread. She would keep one loaf for herself and her family and distribute the rest to the poor.
One morning, after distributing three breads, a poor man came to her door asking for food. He said he hadn't eaten in days. She compassionately gave him her last loaf, which she had prepared for her family. "I will bake another bread for my family," she told herself.
As she had used all her flour, she took a bag of wheat kernels to the seashore where the communal mill was located and ground the grain into flour. She filled her bag with flour, flung the bag over her shoulder, and headed back home to bake bread for her family. Just then, a powerful gust of wind snatched the bag from her hands and tossed it into the sea. She was left with nothing. She cried, "Why do I deserve this punishment? Is this the reward for my tzedakah?"
There was a yeshiva near the shore. She went in and asked the rosh yeshiva for an explanation. "I gave extra tzedakah today. I gave away my own family's bread to help the poor, and now I have nothing. Is this my reward for my selfless deeds?"
The rosh yeshiva agreed that he didn't understand why this happened to her. Nevertheless, he encouraged her to believe it was bashert and for good reason.
The woman was still present when two merchants suddenly entered the yeshiva holding two jugs filled with gold coins. "These are for the yeshiva," they said.
The rosh yeshiva was shocked and asked why they were donating so much money to the yeshiva. "It is to express our gratitude to Hashem for the miracle He performed for us. We have just returned from a business venture overseas," they said. "The water was stormy, and the ship crashed into a large boulder. Water poured into the ship, and our lives were in danger. We vowed that if we survived, we would donate a large sum of money to the first yeshiva we found. As soon as we made this promise, miraculously, something plugged the hole in the ship. That's why we are bringing you these jars filled with gold."
"Do you know what sealed the ship's hole?" the rosh yeshiva asked.
"Yes. We looked to see what saved our lives when we got off the boat. We were shocked to see that it was a sack of flour! The flour became dough in the sea and glued the bag onto the ship, exactly in the right place to plug the hole and save our lives!"
The poor woman was astonished when she heard this story. The rosh yeshiva told her, "Now you have the answer to your question. You wondered why your bag flew out of your hands and why you deserved this punishment after you gave tzedakah with so much mesirus nefesh. But now you understand that it wasn't a punishment at all. It was a reward. In the merit of your tzedakah, you were granted the merit to save all the people on the ship. This is your reward for giving tzedakah with mesirus nefesh."
The Divrei Chaim of Sanz zt'l would have high levels of ruach hakodesh at his Seder, and after the Seder, he would speak about how other tzaddikim of his time conducted their Seder that year. (He saw with his ruach hakadesh the Sedarim of other tzaddikim, and the impression that these Sedarim made in Heaven, and he would speak about them.) One year, he particularly praised the Seder of Rebbe Eliezer Mendel of Lelov zt'l. "The Seder of Rebbe Eliezer Mendel of Lelov zt'l shone this year more than the Sedarim of all other tzaddikim."
Until this point, the story is known. But I heard an addition to this story:
What was so unique about Rebbe Eliezer Mendel's Seder that year? He lived in Yerushalayim, and that year he received a sizeable sum of money from a wealthy person in chutz l'aretz to distribute to the poor Yidden of Yerushalayim. Rebbe Eliezer Mendel distributed all the money. He didn’t take a cent for himself, although he was also poor. This merit elevated his Seder to such great heights.
Reb Shimshon Aharon Polanski, the Tepliker Rav zt'l, once came to his beis medresh in Yerushalayim a few days before Pesach and announced, "Rabboisai! There are many almanos/widows in Yerushalayim who need help cleaning for Pesach." Everyone stopped what they were doing and was ready to help. The Tepliker Rav told each person their own address and explained, "I was referring to your wives. They need help. Why are you letting them struggle alone as if they are widows? Why aren't you helping them get ready for yom tov?!"
