I am an avreich from Beit Shemesh and a melamed. One day, as I was nearing the Talmud Torah, I realized I had forgotten to bring my breakfast along with me. As a melamed, going hungry is not merely my personal problem; eating is part of my responsibility to the talmidim. In order to teach and be mechaneich properly, one must have yishuv hadaas. I went into the nearby grocery to buy a simple meal of a roll and chocolate milk.
I waited in line, and the Yid ahead of me took out all his purchases and told the cashier, “Add a roll and a bag of chocolate milk to my bill.” Afterward he turned around and told me, “I paid for you too.”
“Why?” I asked, surprised.
“What do you care? I pay, and you make the brachah!” That’s how he divided the jobs between us.
What could I do? I said, “Thank you; tizku l’mitzvos,” and he went out with the products he had bought.
Only afterward did I realize that I truly did not have enough money with me to buy the roll and the chocolate milk, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Who prepares food for all of us, sent this man to pay for my breakfast, a true realization of the passuk, “Before they call out, I will answer them” (Yeshayahu 65:24).
I hold this anecdote in my memory for the times when worry creeps into my heart. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Who helped me so much exactly when I needed it, even without my knowledge, will help me now as well!
