On Wednesday afternoon I received a large sum of money in payment for a job I’d done: 2,000 shekels! The money was in an envelope, and the envelope was on the table. After the meal, we mistakenly wrapped up the plastic tablecloth, along with the envelope, and threw it out.
The kitchen was cleaned very quickly. The dishes and dirt were cleared away, and the garbage bag joined the larger garbage can and then was transported to the large canister outside.
On that day I received another envelope, and in the evening I sat down to calculate the amount of maaser from the two envelopes. We took all the maaser money out of the second envelope, and afterward I asked my family, “Have you seen the first envelope?”
My wife answered what she had assumed to be the case until that moment: “The envelope is in the garbage, but the money is with you.”
“No,” I answered, “the money is in the envelope; and that’s why, if the envelope is in the garbage, the money is there as well.”
We went outside to the large garbage canister, and baruch Hashem, we immediately identified our bag and found the envelope! I saw clearly how the fact that I wanted to take maaser is what enabled me to find the missing money before the garbage truck came the following morning to take it away.
