Baruch Hashem, I am marrying off a son. This is a tremendous simchah, and I even included Yidden in chutz la’Aretz in the simchah, by traveling to them to enable them to take part in hachnassas kallah . While there, I hooked up with a driver who earns his livelihood by transporting meshulachim from one philanthropist to another.
At one point I joined a group of Yidden, each of whom had come with his own good reason to raise money, and the driver took us to the home of a specific gvir, located somewhere, it seemed, at the ends of the earth.
“You go in last,” the driver said.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone. This gvir, you see – it’s important to him to know that the people got to him on their own, not with the services of a driver. You need to be careful not to mention my name, because that could cause you to lose out.”
I agreed. I did not exactly know what anyone else had said, but each of the people who went in before me left with a few hundred dollars. When my turn came, I went inside. The wealthy Yid asked me how I’d gotten to him, and I did not answer his question. He insisted on knowing, and then I told him, “I came for hachnassas kallah. If you want to contribute to that, brachos will come your way.”
I don’t know what his cheshbon was. My behavior probably did not find favor in his eyes. Maybe he understood that I had come with someone else, and this did not suit his “rules.” Whatever it was — I left not one penny richer than I’d come.
After traveling back to my host, I met a fellow meshulach. He smiled and told me, “I met a friend today. He greeted me nicely, and we spoke about how difficult it is to leave home and go into galus in order to collect money. This friend gave me a large sum of money, and afterward he took out that same sum and said, ‘Give it to another Yid who traveled here in order to collect money.’”
“And so,” my friend took out the money and put a bundle of bills into my hands, “this money is for you.”
This was an uplifting moment. I saw with my own eyes how Hakadosh Baruch Hu was pleased with my honesty. I was happy that my friend remembered me and also acted honestly, by not taking someone else’s gift for himself. Both of us were Yidden in a strange land who were zocheh to he’aras Panim. It was so exciting, and both of us, the “mechutanim” who performed “V’kabtzeinu yachad,” burst into a dance of thanksgiving.
