30:12): “And each man will give to Hashem an atonement for his soul.” The Baal Haturim notes that the word “v’nasnu” is a palindrome, meaning that it is read the same forwards and backwards. This teaches us that when one gives money to tzedakah, it will eventually come back to him and he will not lose anything by giving.
Saved From Damaging Angels in the Merit of Tzedakah:
During the times of Rav Shmelke of Nikolsberg zy”a, there lived in his city a poor bride who was engaged to be married but the chuppah was unable to take place because she couldn’t afford to purchase a talis for her chosson, as was customary. A simple Jew sponsored the talis and, because of him, the chuppah was able to be celebrated at the designated time.
When this simple man passed away, Rav Shmelke attended the levaya. This was a source of amazement amongst the people, as he rarely attended funerals, and almost never those of simple people like this man. They suddenly noticed that Rav Shmelke took a key out of his pocket and he waved it back and forth. He then explained that many damaging angels had gathered to attempt to harm this man but because of the great mitzvah he had done, I told them, “Get away from here! If you don’t, I will throw you under ‘the dark mountains’. And they obeyed me.”
Not Worrying About the Future:
During the times of the Haflaah zy”a, there lived two brothers, one of whom was rich but miserly and the other of whom was poor but generous. The wealthy brother never gave any money to tzedakah, whereas the poor brother would give away whatever he had, leaving almost nothing for his starving family.
The Haflaah summoned them both. He started by asking the poor brother, “Do you have sufficient income?”
He answered, “Boruch Hashem, G-d takes care of me.” The Haflaah then asked, “If that’s true, why does your wife complain that you give away all your money and leave nothing for her?”
The poor man was ashamed and he said, “Rebbi, the pasuk says (Iyov 2:4): ‘Whatever you have, you should give to him (to the poor).’ Furthermore, Chazal say (Avos 2:1) that one should do teshuva one day before he dies. How can I know which day will be my last? Therefore, I feel like I have to give a lot of tzedakah every day.”
The Haflaah then turned to the wealthy brother and asked, “Hashem made you rich. Why don’t you give some of your money to your poor brother whose family is suffering so much? Doesn’t the Torah say not to ignore your family (Yeshaya 58:7)?”
The rich man answered, “Rebbi, I am not really that rich. My net value is only about half a million marks. My family’s yearly expenses amount to about 10,000 marks. I am now 50 years old. If I live until 120, I still have 70 years left. That means that I don’t have enough money to sustain my family for all those years.”
The Haflaah thought for a moment and then said, “Listen to what you both just said. The poor brother is worried that he will die tomorrow, so he gives away all his money. You have my word that I will daven for you to live long so that you can acquire a lot of mitzvos and good deeds. You don’t have to give away all your money every day. Instead, use it to support your family. The rich brother thinks he’ll live until he’s 120, so he won’t give away any of his money. Don’t worry. If you don’t give tzedakah, you won’t live that long. So you can give some to your poor brother.”
The Wheel That Turns:
Sefer Rav Dovid Hanagid Neched HaRambam z”l relates the following incredible story: There once was a rich man who had a righteous wife who was devoted to him with her entire heart and soul. She made sure that he didn’t lack for anything at home. It was her custom to cook him a stuffed chicken every day with all kinds of spices. She prepared it each day in a different way so that he would be able to eat his fill and enjoy his meal. Unfortunately, however, they had no children.
One day, a poor man knocked on the door of their house at noon, while they were sitting at the table eating. The rich man said to his wife, “Go and see who’s as the door.” She opened the door and saw a poor man standing, asking for a piece of bread to eat. She informed her husband and he said to her, “Tell the poor man that we have none.” And she did as her husband commanded.
However, the poor man refused to budge. He shouted that he was hungry and that they should give him bread and water immediately because he hadn’t eaten a thing for the last 24 hours. He cried that he felt like he was already on the verge of death.
The rich man got up in a rage. He shouted and cursed and threw the poor man out of the house and said to him, “Didn’t I tell you we have no bread for you?” He then returned to his table and continued eating as if nothing had happened. He thought to himself that he had done the right thing, failing to realize that all the wealth he had was given to him by Hashem.
The next day, he went to work as usual, but he was very surprised that business was not as good it was before. His wheel of fortune began to turn against him. This situation continued day after day. Instead of making a profit, he would lose money, and he slowly lost all his wealth until, left with no other choice, he began to sell items from the house so that he could support himself and his wife. Finally, all they had left in the house was the beds they slept on. He then told his wife. “My advice to you would be to accept a divorce from me so that you can go back to your father’s house. That way, you will at least have food to eat. You can clearly see that Hashem wanted this to happen and, if you remain with me, we will both will die of hunger.”
Without a word of protest, she accepted the divorce and went back to her father’s house. Since she was still young, matchmakers came to her father to suggest matches for his divorced daughter, and she ended up marrying a wealthy and honorable man. The woman was also good to her second husband. Just like she did for her first husband, she prepared good food, serving stuffed chicken for lunch every day.”
One day, after the table was set but before they had started eating, a poor man knocked on the door. She told her husband that a poor man was standing outside and he immediately took half a loaf of bread, cut the chicken in two, put it in the half-loaf the bread, and gave it to his wife to give to the poor man. When she returned, her eyes were tearful. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t hold back her tears.
When her husband asked why she was crying, she did not answer. He begged her to tell him and she said, “I remembered something sad, which made me cry.” He asked her to please not hide anything from him and to tell him why she was so sad. When she saw how concerned he was, she couldn’t refuse his request and she told him, “The poor man at the door was my first husband. I know that he was stubborn and sometimes cruel, but I couldn’t stand seeing him like this.”
Her husband then asked her, “Do you know who I am?” “Of course,” she said. “You are my current husband.” He told her, “I am also the poor man who once came to your house and cried out that I was dying of hunger and hadn’t eaten for an entire day. Your husband cursed me and threw me out of the house. But Hashem helped me and I eventually rose to wealth.”
From this story, we learn the great power of tzedakah. If a poor, hungry man asks for food, one is obligated to give it to him. And if one does this, he is not only saving the poor man, he is also saving himself.
Lifting His Feet for Tzedakah:
Rav Yisroel Shimon Kastelonitz zt”l relates that Rav Mordechai of Chernobyl zy”a would go around on his own, raising money for tzedakah. He would travel from city to city collecting money for pidyon shevuyim.
A man once asked him, “Rebbe, don’t you have bitachon?” Of course, the Rebbe answered that he did have bitachon. “If so,” the man asked, “Why do you trouble yourself to lift your feet and trudge around to collect tzedakah. Wouldn’t it be better to stay home and to trust that Hashem will help?”
The Rebbe answered, “In truth, you are correct. If I had real bitachon, I could sit at home and trust in Hashem to provide. However, do you know what kind of people would come to me to get me money? It would be people going through hard times who want to give me a pidyon so that I’ll daven for him. It might be someone with a sick family member or who needs parnassah or any other type of problem. So what’s the difference if they come to me or I come to them? On the contrary, it’s better that I should go to them and save them the trip.”
In other words, the Rebbe was saying that by lifting his feet and going to collect money from people, he was taking their pidyon without the need for them to go through any suffering. In the merit of their tzedakah, they were saved from difficulties they otherwise would have needed to endure.
The Holy Nation:
Sefer Otzar Yisroel (Chelek 17, page 23) relates the incredible story of a man who lived in the city of Krakow named R’ Yisroel. R’ Yisroel was very wealthy but he was, unfortunately, childless. He was known as a miser and he never gave any tzedakah. He was derisively referred to as “Yisroel the Goy”.
When he was on his deathbed, he sent for the members of the Chevra Kadisha, and they asked him for a thousand gold coins for his burial expenses. However, he said that only wanted give one or two hundred. When he passed away, the members of the Chevra Kadisha decided to give him the simplest burial, the type usually given to the lowliest people. They handed the body over to the gravedigger, who dug a simple grave and buried him with no fanfare. On his tombstone, they simply inscribed: “Here is buried Yisroel Goy.”
After two weeks, many poor people came to the Rov and begged him for money to buy food for Shabbos. For some reason no one could understand, hundreds of families suddenly had no food.
The Rov looked into the matter and discovered that they had all been supported until now by one source, the late R’ Yisroel. Throughout his life, he had distributed charity secretly, paying one man to give flour free of charge to all the poor, and paying another man to distribute meat to all the poor, and so on with the rest of their needs.
Everyone then realized that they had mistaken about him. They immediately declared a day of fasting and eulogizing for the great disgrace that had been done to this righteous man. They engraved another inscription on his tombstone, adding the word “Kadosh,” so that it now said: “Here is buried Rav Yisroel Goy Kadosh.”
The Yeitzer Hara’s Claim:
It is related that one of the misnagdim of Rav Sholom of Kosov zy”a once came to him and said that he was in great need of money to marry off his daughter. Rav Boruch reached into his drawer and gave him all the money he had. After he left, Rav Sholom’s wife said to him, “We don’t have money for ourselves. How could you give so much to your antagonist?”
He answered her with a smile, “Someone else said the exact thing to me. Do you know who that was?” “What was it?” the Rebbitzen asked. “It was the yeitzer hara,” the Rebbe replied.
Becoming Rich in the Merit of Tzedakah:
Rav Moshe Leib of Sosov zy”a once heard about a man named R’ Mottel who worked hard all day as a peddler. He made a few coins each day, half of which he gave away to the poor and needy, and half of which he used to support his family. Although his family was quite poor, they were happy and satisfied.
One Friday, when R’ Mottel went to the market to buy Shabbos food with the small amount of money he had, he met Rav Moshe Leib, who asked how he was doing. He answered, “I have six coins in my pocket. With two of them, I will buy wine for Kiddush. I will use two of them to buy lechem mishnah, and the last two will be for neiros Shabbos.”
The Rebbe said to him: “If so, you are poor. However, I am poorer than you. Right now, I don’t even have any water and I’m thirsty. Please buy me some hot water for two coins.”
R’ Mottel entered the tavern and bought him hot water for two coins, and thought to himself, “So I won’t make Kiddush on wine. I can use challah.” Then the Rebbe asked him to buy him another cup. R’ Mottel thought to himself, “We can eat dry bread this Shabbos.” But then the Rebbe asked him to buy him another cup of water. R’ Mottel replied sadly, “I can no longer agree to this. I cannot give up the Shabbos candles.”
The Rebbe blessed him and said, “Listen to me. After Shabbos, sell your cow for sixty coins. Don’t accept less than that. Then go to the center of the market, where the house of a local Poritz is being sold at auction, and offer the highest price, and Hashem will be with you.”
R’ Mottel did as he was told. He sold his cow and then went to the center of the market, where he saw the Poritz’s house being sold. He noticed how the wealthy merchants were raising the price one after another, but with full faith in the tzadik’s words, he bid higher than all the others. The merchants looked at him in amazement, but he stood his ground, and the house was sold to him. They asked him for 55 coins as a down payment, which he had from the sale of his cow, and told him that the rest of the payment – which was an enormous sum - had to be paid by the evening.
R’ Mottel did not know how to get such a huge sum of money in such a short time, so he just entered the tavern and bought himself food and drink with the five coins he had left from the sale of the cow.
Late that night, a Christian priest approached him and told him that he wanted to purchase the Poritz’s house for a large sum of money but the law forbade clergymen from doing so. He asked to purchase the house from him for double the amount he had pledged. R’ Mottel agreed and the priest paid him the full price up front. R’ Mottel confirmed in writing that he had sold the house to him and handed him the keys.
As R’ Mottel was walking back to the market, he heard the sound of bells ringing and a great commotion. He found out that a fire had broken out in the nearby church and the entire building burned down with the priest who he had sold the house to being burned and dying inside. Thus, he took possession of the now ownerless mansion and became extremely wealthy.
As he contemplated how Hashem had helped him, he saw the Sosover Rebbe coming towards him. The Rebbe told him, “You merited all this in the zechus of the tzedakah you gave. If you continue to give charity, you will continue to see blessing and success in all you do.”
