By Rabbi Paysach J. Krohn
One morning, R’ Avraham Yehoshua Heschel, the Kapishnitzer Rebbe, traveled from his home in Boro Park to see R’ Chatzkel, one of the members of his daily minyan in his office in the diamond district in midtown Manhattan.
When R’ Chatzkel heard that the Kapishnitzer Rebbe had come, he burst into the reception room and asked in shock and disbelief, “Why did the Rebbe come here? I would have come to the Rebbe wherever he would have called me!”
The Rebbe smiled gently and said, “It is I who needs you; therefore, it was proper for me to come to you.”
R’ Chatzkel reverently ushered the Rebbe into his private office, again expressing how embarrassed he felt that the Rebbe felt it necessary to make a personal visit. The Rebbe again assured him that since it was he who needed something from R’ Chatzkel, it was only proper that he should come, and not vice versa.
R’ Chatzkel then asked how he could be of assistance. The Rebbe began slowly, looking R’ Chatzkel squarely in the eye. “I have become aware of a family that is in desperate need of funds. The husband is out of a job; the wife must be home to care for their many children, and thus she cannot work for an income. Some of the children have been ill and there are considerable medical bills to pay. Even food is scarce in that home. I need a significant amount of money for them.”
R’ Chatzkel protested that the Rebbe could have called him on the phone and he would surely have responded with a donation. The Rebbe told him, “No, this is a very important situation to me and I felt I had to approach you personally.”
R’ Chatzkel was forthcoming. “I will give as much money as the Rebbe requests. Just tell me how much I shall give.”
The Rebbe explained that that decision is only one that R’ Chatzkel, as the donor, could make by himself.
R’ Chatzkel then asked, “May I give a check?” The Rebbe confirmed that he could. “To whom shall I make out the check?” asked R’ Chatzkel. The Rebbe looked down at the floor for a moment, hesitated before he spoke, and then said quietly, “Write the check to your brother.”
Reprinted from the Parshas Chukas 5784 email of The Weekly Vort.
