Rabbi Nosson was very poor. One Friday a student came to see his Rebbi and saw that his Rebbi’s house was bare, there was nothing for Shabbos, nor did his Rebbi have any money to buy food for Shabbos. The student himself was also poor but he had five rubels in his house that he had put aside to buy food for Shabbos. He decided that his Rebbi’s situation was worse than his.
He quickly went home and brought the money to his Rebbi.
A few minutes later Reb Nosson looked out of the window and saw a man walking barefoot in the snow covered street.
Reb Nosson called the man in and asked him why is he walking barefoot?
The man replied that he doesn’t have any boots or money for boots.
Reb Nosson asked him if five rubles was enough, the man replied that it was. Reb Nosson gave the man the five rubles he had just received from his student.
Now the student was very disturbed. Here he had given his last five rubles away that he had put aside for Shabbos in honor of his Rebbi but not for someone’s boots.
Reb Nosson realized that his student was upset. He told him that although neither of them had money to buy food for Shabbos. But this poor man had no shoes and no one else would have given him money. He would have become sick and possibly worse. So it was like a Mes Mitzva (a dead man that has no relatives to take care of his funeral, that it overrides all other Mitzvos) and that’s why he gave him the money.
Rabbi Nosson Sternhartz zt"l
Rabbi Nosson of Breslov
Author: Likutei Halachos
10 Teves 5605
