A Yid from Williamsburg relates: Since I took it upon myself to give a fifth of my earnings to tzedakah, I have experienced unbelievable yeshuos. This week, without any forewarning, a pipe burst in my home. My wife called asking me to come home immediately, and I arrived to a house flooded with water.
I wanted to shut off the water pipe, but it was in a very difficult location, behind my bookcases.
I tried moving the bookcase, but I couldn’t manage it on my own. I live in Williamsburg, and we have an organization that helps out under such circumstances. I called for help, and a nice volunteer came to my house, but he apologized, saying that he could not do anything.
A few moments passed in unsuccessful attempts to move the bookcase, and then I remembered that on the previous day, I’d gotten a nice sum as payment for some work I’d done, and I hadn’t yet set aside a fifth for tzedakah. I immediately went over to the corner and set aside the appropriate sum, designating it for tzedakah.
From that moment, the whole story of the pipe switched gears. A few more volunteers showed up. They realized that the water that was flowing was hot, which meant that there was a problem with the boiler. They hurried to shut off the boiler, but the valve was located in the home of the neighbors, who were asleep at the time.
The volunteers didn’t want to wake them, and with combined efforts we finally managed to move the bookcase and shut off the water main.
A few hours later, the neighbor woke up and discovered that he had no running water. He immediately called to ask me what was going on. I told him what had happened, and he called a plumber, since the problem affected both of us.
The plumber arrived within a few minutes and solved the problem very quickly, and he did not even charge me for it.
He did not take a cent from me, because for me, this had been only a reminder to give a fifth of my earnings to tzedakah.
