My son became engaged, b’sha’ah tovah. I waited for the mechutan to give me the sum he had committed to giving. I waited and waited.
Finally, in the month of Kislev, I called and politely inquired how he was doing and how were the preparations coming along. I spiced the conversation with a vort or two, and then asked in the most casual, roundabout way when he planned on paying up his part of the apartment.
“In Nissan I am supposed to be getting a large sum,” he responded. “There is also a gemach I signed up for to get a loan with good conditions, but since there’s a long wait, I won’t receive the money for another three months. Don’t worry. With Hashem’s help, before Pesach I’ll deposit the money as I committed to do.”
He sounded truly responsible and serious, but I was not calm. I wanted to see the money. I thought to myself: The mechutan named the gemach he was referring to. I’ll use this information that I now have in order to get things moving.
I went into the gemach office and asked to speak to the most senior person among all the secretaries. I told him: “I have money here to put into the gemach, and I am asking that in exchange, you give priority to Reb Moshe, who is my mechutan.”
We discussed the matter. He claimed that the considerations of the gemach could not be put into the hands of private people. A person who wants to contribute money to the gemach is expressing, through his contribution, his full consent that the owners of the gemach do with the money as they see fit, until the time comes for them to return it to him.
I said, “I am depositing the money here only on condition that you give priority to Reb Moshe; but don’t tell him that I put money here on this condition. Tell him whatever you want to say, but don’t mention my name at all.”
It seemed that the owners of the gemach did not think my request was so difficult to accommodate. Perhaps they had come across stranger requests in the past. The secretary agreed to the condition, thanked me, and reminded me that I was doing a great mitzvah. He bentched me that I be zocheh to do many mitzvos, and he wished me all the best.
I left the gemach pleased with my efforts, feeling like someone who had very good ideas. The mechutan would not dream that I was going to do something with the information he’d inadvertently given me. Today they’d call him from the gemach and tell him that his turn had come earlier than expected, and tomorrow I would receive money for the apartment.
The next day arrived, and I waited for the mechutan to contact me and inform me that he’d deposited the money, but dreams and ideas are nonsense. There was no call informing me of anything, and my money, apparently, could not resolve every situation. I truly did not understand what was going on here. I was sure that the money had been given to my mechutan but that he was keeping it for himself.
To my good fortune, I am connected to the Hashgachahh Pratis phone line, which certainly helped to decrease the feeling that I am in charge of the world. I understood that Hashem put this idea in my head, but the plans of the Creator of the world differed from mine, and I would have to bow my head in submission.
One day, I called the Hashgachahh Pratis phone line and started listening to stories, when suddenly I heard the voice of my mechutan, Reb Moshe! He related emotionally how he had been zocheh to tremendous siyatta dishmaya in the most wondrous of ways. These were his words:
“I desperately needed a large sum of money, and I knew that in a certain gemach I was supposed to get a loan closer to Pesach, but I needed the money now! That very day, I got a call from the gemach informing me that my turn had come earlier than expected and that I would get the loan immediately! All this happened without my making any hishtadlus at all. I did not call or ask – nothing. They simply called on their own. Before I called out to Hashem, He answered me!
I was amazed. I thought I knew what I was doing. I thought there was a connection between my hishtadlus and the result I wanted, but Hashem “sits in Shamayim and laughs.” I merited to do a good deed, an act of chessed, but one that was completely different from what I’d intended.
I’m happy that I was zocheh to be the messenger to help my mechutan.
Regarding the money for the apartment – there was nothing to worry about. If I am relating the story here, it’s a sign that this matter has been worked out to my satisfaction. Baruch Hashem.
