I wanted to get in to a certain yeshivah.
“You have no chance,” people in the know told me. “It’s a yeshivah for metzuyanim.”
I wanted to be with the good boys in this yeshivah, I wanted that “matzav” in learning, which would obligate me as well, and there were several other things I wanted, which I would find in this yeshivah.
“It’s a yeshivah that accepts only a certain number of boys,” a friend explained. “And you need connections in order to get in there. Listen,” he said, preparing me for the disappointment that would surely come, “it’s not that you’re not successful; it’s simply the hanhalah there. Why insist on something that’s doomed to failure from the start?”
But I insisted. I asked them to allow me to take an entrance exam, even if they had no intention of accepting me. “This is a very difficult test,” I was warned. But I wanted the challenge.
I showed up, and the rebbi who interviewed mebochen asked involved questions about the masechta. Baruch Hashem, I knew how to answer all the questions.
“How many times are Abaye and Rava mentioned in the masechta?” he asked as his final question.
I knew the answer to that question as well – and I was accepted into the yeshivah.
How did I know the material so well? How did I know to answer the question about how many times those Amora’im are mentioned in the masechta? The answer is that not long ago, I was tested in the framework of a certain organization.
We own two adjacent apartments, which we put up for sale, but we had no potential buyers. We did not sell the apartments, not together and not separately, and it seemed the situation would remain that way forever.
I decided to donate to Machon Shaar Habitachon to disseminate emunah. Surprisingly, exactly a month after I made the donation, both apartments were sold! This seems like a real miracle. Now, in gratitude to Hashem, I want to donate
