Rav Moshe Zilberman shlit”a relates:
Several year ago an entire family made aliyah to Eretz Yisrael and settled in Kiryat Sanz in Teveria. Unfortunately, the father passed away, leaving behind a widow and orphans who lacked their most basic necessities. The gabbaim of the tzedakah fund in Teveria became deeply involved, and they are doing everything possible to give the family crucial financial support.
The widow and her family lived in a rented apartment, and the rental money was a heavy burden for them. Upon the advice of one of the askanim from America and of the tzedakah fund in Eretz Yisrael, they concluded that the best solution would be to purchase the apartment. What did this entail? Only raising the sum of 600,000 shekels.
They managed to raise 400,000 shekels, and now they needed another 200,000. One generous sponsor promised to give 50,000, but only if they would get hold of the rest. Where would they get it? The owner of the apartment threatened that if he did not receive his payment by Tuesday of the following week, he would throw the family out of the apartment!
The threat was very serious. Reb Chaim, one of the askanaim of the tzedakah fund, understood that there was no choice but to fly abroad and knock on the doors of potential donors. He already had a list of addresses in hand, had gotten a brachah from his Rav, purchased tickets, and was preparing to fly.
The morning before the flight, Reb Chaim got up early in order to daven with the 6:40 a.m. minyan, and there he saw a young avreich, one of the widow’s sons, walking calmly, holding his tefillin. “How calm you are,” Reb Chaim told him. “The landlord wants to throw your mother out of the apartment, and you look like this has nothing to do with you.”
The avreich stopped short, shocked. “What do you mean?”
Reb Chaim told him about the pressure and poverty that his mother was dealing with, and how the askanim from the tzedakah fund were being moser nefesh in order to help her, and how he was about to fly abroad in order to collect money urgently for her.
“What could I do?” the avreich asked.
“What do you mean, what? Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the Father of orphans and the Judge of widows. Cry out to Him, daven to Him, do something!”
The avreich took these words literally. He davened with all his heart, groaning in pain from the depths of his soul over the situation of his mother and his orphaned siblings, and he anticipated the yeshuah.
That very afternoon a major philanthropist in America called this married son and innocently inquired, “What’s doing with you? How are you managing?”
“Don’t ask,” the avreich responded. “They want to evict my mother from her apartment. We already have 400,000 shekels, and the askanim thought at first they’d be able to get a mortgage for the remaining 200,000. The problem was that my mother has no income, and with all the ideas they tried, they were not successful in getting a mortgage approved, and we need to find the money by Tuesday.”
The man on the other end heard, and after a moment of silence, he said, “Look, within an hour you’ll have 100,000 shekels in your account. How do you want the money? In shekalim or in dollars?”
The avreich contacted Reb Chaim and told him about the surprising developments. Reb Chaim was amazed. He would not need to travel! He could cancel the tickets!
He was excited, and he could not stop thanking the Creator of all worlds, Who hears the sighs of every Jew from the depth of their hearts, and sends His yeshuah speedily, in ways that no one could even dream of. “It is not to be believed, but it’s the truth,” Reb Chaim told his friend in America, where he intended to stay for several days. “If I hadn’t met the son on the way to Shacharis, he would not have known about anything and would have told the philanthropist who called him that everything was okay with his family. Look at the Hand of hashgachah here!”
The friend rejoiced with him, and Reb Chaim continued. “There is only one problem with my cancelling the flight,” he said half-jokingly. “I promised my daughters that I’d buy them dolls in America, and they’re really waiting for them. I think I’ll have to disappoint them.”
“No, you won’t disappoint them,” his friend said. “As part of my business I sent a shipment of dolls to Israel, and there’s an extra carton there. I’ll call right away to have them send the carton over to you!”
This is a true story. It happened in 5784. A genuine sigh from the depth of the heart brought about an incredible yeshuah.
