A Dollar and a Dream
You know, when someone takes out a penny and he gives it to charity, he is doing a very big deed for himself. How big? Well, imagine a man was able to corner the market and he bought all the apartment houses on Ocean Parkway from one end to the other. So now he’s quite a fortunate fellow because the money, the rent payments, would start coming in every day by mail; checks from everywhere. And so, to acquire such property is an achievement — the rewards keep coming.
But you have to know that all that is not as great of an achievement as giving one penny to tzedakah! And I don't even hesitate to make that statement! One penny that you put into the charity box is more valuable than all the other accomplishments in material success.
That’s why a person who is focused on the Next World, he looks forward to seeing a pushke—a charity box is a big opportunity!
Not All Pushkes are Created Equal
But you have to know something; according to what we’re saying now, it depends which charity box. Sometimes it’s a real tragedy what a person does with his dollar. Instead of acquiring a great property, he buys a dud. Don’t we hear stories like that? A man takes his life savings and invests it in what turns out to be a white elephant. And that’s nothing compared to investing your tzedakah in the wrong place — that’s the worst punishment for a person.
You know where we know that from? From Yirmiyah Hanavi. You know, Yirmiyahu suffered because he spoke the Word of Hashem. Not everyone likes to hear criticism, even if it’s a nevuah, and there were people who ridiculed Yirmiyahu. They persecuted him; they spat on him, some of them. Some even endangered his life. He was almost killed; they threw stones at him.
Now, at that time, Yirmiyahu prayed to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and he said like this. פָנ∆יך¿ל יםƒָׁ ל ̆¿מֻכּיו¿הƒי¿ו – “I pray that these people should fall into error; they should stumble before You. בָה∆ם ׂ≈ ה ̆ﬠֲך¿ַפּ‡ ̇≈ﬠ¿ּב – In the time of Your wrath, do something against them” (Yirmiyahu 18:23).
The Angry Curse
Now we understand that whatever stumbling it was that Yirmiyahu wanted to curse his enemies with, it must have been a terrible curse because he understood Hakadosh Baruch Hu would not listen to his entreaty unless it was b’eis apcha, a time of wrath. What was the prayer? What was the terrible thing that should happen to his enemies? Yirmiyah said וּלƒֲ פ‡ָה ָ̃„ ¿ ˆ יןƒׂ ֹׁ̆∆ עו ̆ ָׁ ﬠָה ̆¿ּב – “When they’re giving charity, יםƒָנּ‚הֻ¿מ ≈ ינ ָם‡ׁ∆ ̆ ָ ם„ָ‡ נ≈י¿בƒּב יל ≈םƒׁ ̆¿הַכ – cause them to stumble with unworthy people, ָׂ כָר ̆ ﬠֲ ל≈יה ∆ןּלו¿ַּב ̃ ¿י ‡ֹּׁ∆ ל ̆ ≈ י„ ¿ּכ – so that they won’t get reward” (Bava Kama 16b).
It happens sometimes. A man is giving charity with the intent of helping somebody who needs it, somebody worthy, but he's deceived. The poor fellow actually has a big bank account. He has a lot of cash put away in the vault. He has property too. Only he dresses like a beggar and sometimes he limps — when he enters your block he begins limping. There are people like that.
And when you give him tzedakah, what happens? It's a major misfortune. You see it's a major misfortune because even this great man who suffered for Hashem, he couldn't accomplish this request from Hakadosh Baruch Hu unless in a time when Hakadosh Baruch Hu was angry. That's how terrible it is — it can only happen to a man who has been cursed by Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
The Nickel...
So here is a man who all his life was a tightwad. He refused to give. He never sent in contributions for anything. But once, as he was sitting in the synagogue, so when the sexton was going around with the charity box – ordinarily he was able to turn around and act like he didn't see, but this time the sexton caught him unaware and stuck the box in between his eyes. So he was embarrassed and he dropped in a nickel. What could he do already? It was a holdup.
You have to know that this man has been induced to do one of the biggest things in his life! It’s one of the biggest achievements in his career. It’s so big that he’ll have to come to the Next World to discover what that meant — there’s no reward big enough in this little world to pay him off.
And so we can imagine now when his days are at an end, and he has to go for some vacation in the warm climates in order to cleanse him of all his iniquities. And as he's being treated with all the treatments, he's thinking “This is horrible! This is terrible! When will it come to an end?!”
But finally, he's let out. He’s worse for the wear; he’s limping and he's emaciated now. He doesn't look the same as before, but at least it’s finished now and he looks forward to the happiness of eternity, the eternal joy that he deserves because of that nickel. He’s in the Next World now, so he knows what the nickel means. The truth is he'd like to go back and give a lot more nickels now, but it's too late. He can't go back. But at least he's looking forward. And so as he comes to Gan Eden, now he's ready to live in happiness.
...That Went Lost
So they say, “What claim do you have on us here?” And he says, “I gave a nickel to charity. You remember, in the box?” So they say, “Well, you have to know something about that box. The gabbai who is in charge of that box was a careless man and he didn’t investigate to whom he gave money. And the man who came in subsequently to ask the gabbai for help wasn’t deserving; he was a fellow who carried a yarmulke in his back pocket for collecting’s sake.”
I knew a bum like that. He had a beard by the way; a bum with a beard. He wore a hat too. And he used to collect money, tzedakah money. So one day I was walking on Church Avenue on Shabbos morning and who did I see emerging from a treifeh restaurant? This bum. This bum with his gray beard. And this same fellow, the next day after he wiped the bacon off his lips, he pulled out a yarmulke and stuck it on his head and he walked into the synagogue.
“And so,” the Beis Din shel Maaleh says to that man who’s expecting his reward for that nickel, “when the gabbai gave this fellow some money containing your nickel, you have to know that’s where it went. So we're sorry. Your nickel is lost.”
How to Win the Jackpot
Now, we have to understand this puzzle. Why is it that some people’s tzedakah is frustrated while others hit the jackpot? So you must say that such accidents are not random; it’s a reward that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is giving a person for his virtue.
It means that there was something about Yisro and something about the daughter of Pharaoh that made them worthy of that. Yisro, you have to remember, was an idealist. He had been an avodah zarah priest in Midyan, but as time went on, his mind developed, and he became disgusted with idol worship and threw it away. And he was ostracized by his town because of that, but he kept at it, and so, Hakadosh
