A few years ago on Shabbos morning, I surprised the members of my shul by giving out mezonos after davening. I made Kiddush publicly and thanked Hashem for His kindness and His wonders – not for a baby girl this time, but for another type of chessed.
Fifteen years ago, at the time of our chasunah, we bought an apartment worth about a million shekels, and in order to fund the purchase we took a mortgage of 750,000 shekels. I was young and afraid. I simply could not process the enormity of the sum. I was wondering how I, a young avreich who wanted to sit and learn, would be able to pay such a huge mortgage.
I had no idea how. There was only one possibility – to daven to Hashem for Him to help me. I davened with tears to the One Who fulfills the needs of all of creation – mountains for the mountain goat to hide in and rocks under which hyraxes can hide... I asked Him to give me my own home where I could live easily, and to enable me to pay my mortgage without a problem.
Several years passed, and then I discovered that the value of my apartment had increased greatly. I said to myself: Why have you been complaining over the high mortgage you pay? If you bought the apartment today, you’d have to pay a lot more! You won the lottery! Is that nice? Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives you such a wonderful gift – you have a nice apartment with a relatively small mortgage – and you’re complaining?
No more. I thanked Hashem with all my heart for the apartment He had given me. And thus, in honor of the event, I made a Kiddush in my shul and thanked Hashem for the valuable apartment in which I live.
The mortgage payments continued each month. Nothing extraordinary happened. The bank wasn’t persuaded to decrease the sum as a result of the Kiddush, but in retrospect, I noticed an amazing fact: I succeeded in paying off the entire mortgage and was left with no debt at all!
I saw tangibly the power of tefillah from the depth of one’s heart and thanking Hashem for His goodness. Baruch Hashem, last month I made the final payment, and who would I inform if not the Hashgachah Pratis phone line, to join me in my simchah. I hope that all those among Am Yisrael who are building their own bayis ne’eman will know that even for huge sums, laHashem hayeshuah!
