I have the merit of publishing a weekly sheet on the weekly Torah portion. On Tuesday, a dear Heaven-fearing man approached me and asked for the bulletin. I told him that today it was going to print, and that tomorrow, Wednesday, with Hashem’s help, I would have the sheet for him. He asked if perhaps there was any way to receive it today, because he already wanted to go through the sheet today and prepare himself for Shabbos Kodesh. I explained to him again that on Wednesday I would take care of it for him.
I came home and thought to myself: “What did this man really ask for? Just the sheet that you have the merit to publish so that he can prepare for Shabbos. What is the problem with making a Jew happy by printing one copy on your home printer?!”
Saying and doing—I went over to the printer and printed him one copy. I sent the sheet with my son to deliver it to his house. When my son returned from the errand, I asked him if he had found the man and whether he was happy with the sheet. My son answered: “He was disappointed because you sent him the bulletin of Parashas Shelach instead of this week’s parasha, Parashas Chukas.”
I quickly checked and saw that indeed I had made a mistake in the title of the parashah, and instead of Chukas I had written Shelach...
I immediately called the printing house, and they told me they were just about to begin printing the sheet. They stopped, and I sent them the corrected version with the right parashah and title.
I saw clearly that more than the host does for the poor person, the poor person does for the host. Hashem sent me a small test, and the moment I withstood it, I saw how much I had gained. As R’ Shlomkeh of Zvhil said: “When a person takes one step for another, he saves a thousand steps for himself—literally!” For if the title of the parashah is incorrect, people will not take the sheet, and all our efforts would have been in vain...
י.ר.
