I learn in kollel. For a supplementary income, I translate documents for clients from English to Hebrew. One day, a Yid from Yerushalayim called and asked me to do several important translations for him. “Please come to my office tomorrow at 9 a.m. and translate some documents for me. It’s very urgent, and I’ll pay you 400 shekels for the job.
Everything suited me – the work, the pay...but not the time. At 9 a.m. I am supposed to begin seder in kollel, not be sitting in some office. I told him, “It doesn’t make sense for me to come to you at this hour. I only work between sedarim, not during kollel hours.”
He was disappointed and looked for a different translator, and I too was disappointed that I had almost been able to make 400 shekels. But I strengthened myself, telling myself that Torah was worth more than anything else, and I had certainly made the right choice.
I stayed in my city – Beit Shemesh – and was zocheh to learn as I usually did. At the end of seder that day, the rosh kollel told me, “A benefactor gave me money to give out to avreichim. I imagine you’ll certainly have what to do with it,” and he placed 400 shekels in my hands.
This was he’aras panim from Shamayim!