It was early evening and Rabbi and Mrs. Stein, who lived in New York, were on their way back to Jerusalem, where they were staying, after a nice visit with some of their family in the city named Betar Illit, when Rabbi Stein noticed a lone couple waiting at a bus stop on a cool evening. Since the Stein’s had room in their car, as well as warmth in their hearts, he pulled over and offered to take them to their destination. Upon entering the car, the couple introduced themselves as Rabbi and Mrs. Fried and then expressed their whole hearted thanks, as now they would hopefully be able to catch the last bus going to their home in the Northern (Galil) part of Eretz Israel and pick their children up from the babysitter at the time arranged. Throughout the ride they had a congenial conversation which focused on the Fried’s beautiful (shevah brochas) seven days of wedding celebrations for their oldest daughter which they just finished celebrating in this city of Betar.  As they reached the bus stop just in time, the Steins wished them well, said (mazal tov) congratulations again and Rabbi Stein handed Rabbi Fried two hundred shekels to give as a gift to their newlyweds.

            About five years later, Sarah and a few friends were on a bus making its way over the hills of the beautiful upper Galalee heading for the city of Tzaft for Shabbos. As Sarah, an (adel baalas teshuvah) a sweet sincere spiritual searcher from the States, looked out at the constantly changing breathtaking scenery, she began to reflect on how her spiritual journey likewise had taken many amazing twists and turns from the halls of secular academia to an English speaking (kiruv) Jewish seminary for beginners in the Holy  land. 

           Little did Sarah know how much the double holiness of Shabbos and Tzaft would add another wonderful turn in her spiritual metamorphosis! Without knowing them previously Sarah’s hosts, the Stein family, who had recently moved to Tzaft from New York, were very impressed by her sincerity and good (medos) attributes, took her aside privately and spoke with her a few minutes about a possible (shidduch) wedding match with a fine young man named Yosef who had a similar background and excellent medos that had graced their Shabbos table a few weeks earlier. After Shabbos since Sarah sounded interested in hearing more the Steins gathered information from both Yosef and Sarah – the numbers of friends, relatives and (Rabbanin) Rabbis – so that they could try to put together the shidduch. Within a week the Steins were given a “green light” for Yosef and Sarah to meet at their home. It wasn’t too long, with some minor turns and twists, before the Stein’s were being congratulated for helping this lovely couple to become engaged. Over the few days a number of people asked the Stein’s how they merited to be the (shadchans) match makers for this amazing shidduch of this beautiful couple who each came to (Yiddishkit) Orthodox Judaism with such great (merias nefesh) efforts and sacrifice. The Stein’s themselves didn’t have a clue as to how to answer this question, until the day before the (la-chaim) engage party, when Rabbi Stein received a phone call from a man named Rabbi Fried who was the one who originally arranged for Yosef to be a guest at the Stein’s for a Shabbos a number of weeks earlier.

           After exchanging mazal tovs, Rabbi Fried, who was the one who introduced Rabbi Stein to the then( bacor) bachelor Yosef just a few weeks earlier with the intention of helping him find a shidduch, added the following; “You probably don’t remember when and where we first met, so let me tell you so that you can better understand possibly why it was you merited to be the shadchan for this wonderful shidduk. About five years you not only were kind enough to pick up me and my wife up at a bus stop in Betar but you also added the mitzvah of (hachnasas kallah) helping our daughter – the bride. Therefore perhaps that mitzvah with us and our daughter drew with it this mitzvah of (chason) groom and kallah – as the Chazal teach us:  

Mitzvah gorreres mitzvah!!!  A good deed draws with it another good deed

May we all be (zoche) merited to fulfill many mitzvoth

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

            Some people think that the blessings attached to giving sedaka are only wishful thinking, but in truth distributing charity is a guaranteed certified “contract” with the “Treasury Administer” of all spiritual as well as material assets. It is stated in the Talmud (Gemora Baba Basra 9b) that if one pursues opportunities to do charity, the Holy One, Blessed be He, provides him with sufficient funds to achieve that lofty goal. Since man was not created for himself but only to help others as much as he is capable, it is stated in the Rambam that G-d provides some men with more than they need to act as His representatives to distribute their surplus funds to the poor. These people are not only administrators of His charity fund but they are His partners in the sustenance of His universe. (Hilchos Matnos Aniyim).

             The Torah encourages a person to perform kind deeds in order to be rewarded. This is in order to demonstrate publicly to one and all that the bounty one reaps from his kindness is as predictable as the harvest the farmer gathers from his planting. The philanthropist should train himself to feel that there is no loss involved in tithing – it is all guaranteed gain. It is not merely permissible to look forward to riches as a result of charity, it is an obligation! (Sefer Tzedakah Treasury by Rabbi Avrohom Chaim Feuer).          

            The following true story about Yosef which gives a glimmer of just how speedily and efficiently the charity (sedaka) equation can work: Yosef has spent much of his life learning and teaching Torah. Throughout the years of raising a large family, he experienced first hand how helpful other people’s act of kindness (chesed) helped him to continue his learning. Yosef always yearned to be on the giving side of chesed and now these last few years after he received a considerably large inheritance, he was finally able to give sedaka in a much more substantial way.

        At first it sounded so easy to just start writing larger checks to those in need and the many wonderful charitable institutions, however Yosef began having second thoughts before writing each check on how much and how often he could afford to give away a portion of his new received resources. He noticed that whenever he would think of an amount that he would like to offer, his mind and emotions would gang up on him with a long list of rational concerns like: Are you sure you can afford so many generous donations after all he had a long list of both foreseen and potentially unexpected needs and wants for his own growing family. In the end Yosef often found himself writing the checks for about half the amount that he would originally think of giving.

                  One day Yosef decided to invest a large sum of money into the stock market. The particular stock which he chose to invest in had depreciated greatly in the last year and Yosef felt that it was now greatly undervalued. With trepidation Yosef bought the huge amount of shares at the end of the trading day. The next morning just after Yosef finished praying (dovening) he noticed a very pious Jew (yid) in the synagogue (schull) who the previous Pesach he had given a sizable check to and therefore Yosef once again decided that since it was less than two weeks before the Jewish Holidays (Yom Tov) and the money would be will spent by such a righteous person he thought of writing this righteous person (tzadik) a very generous size check. In those same moments Yosef saw another (impressive) chashuver yid learning with such a love and earnestness that he once again couldn’t help but feel this fellow Jews sincerity and deep connection with G-d (Hashem) and His Torah and once again thought of writing him a very generous amount, however by now the doubts and compromising starting to descend upon him like a cascading torrential storm, with convincing questions like: Are you sure you can afford it, after all just yesterday you invested so much money and who knows how much it might go down in value?

               This inner conflict of what he could afford lasted for a few minutes until at nine-thirty A.M., at the same time that the stock market begins its new trading day, Yosef  pushed aside his doubts and fears and wrote a very generous check, for the full amount that he had originally thought of, for each of these pious people. After arriving home Yosef decided to check how the large amount of stock that he had purchased the day just before was doing. Well, by now you probably know how the story ended. Yes, the stock had risen so much in that one hour that he had profited many times more than total amount of the large sedaka checks he had just written. Yosef not only helped those righteous yidden with their Pesach needs but he merited a very handsome profit in the process. Now the connection and relationship of the blessings promised for doing sedaka may not always be so obvious, but we can rest assured that our “Financial Manager of the Universe” always fulfills His end of the bargain.               Happy check writing!   

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

      Avraham, at nineteen years of age, received a draft notice informing him of his candidacy for military service. Since he didn’t relish the idea of becoming a foot soldier in the Vietnamese jungles, Avraham immediately enlisted in the Naval Reserve which obligated him to serve two years of active duty followed by four more years of monthly reserve meetings.         

           After a short basic training, Avraham was flown to his new duty station, the USS Reeves, a guided missile destroyer, stationed in Japan, that housed to four hundred plus sailors. After leaving port, heading towards their duty station off the coast of North Vietnam, the ship was engulfed in a raging typhoon which caused it and its hapless crew to bob up and down like a cork, listing and rocking among the surging thirty foot waves. When the storm reached its peak, the Captain reassured all those on board that the ship was virtually unsinkable because it had a stabilizer mechanism.

        After surviving the storm, Avraham, who was raised as a Reform Jew, would often go to the back deck late in the evening and gaze up into the star-filled sky. He was not only awed by its beauty and the sheer magnitude, but more importantly he began to ask himself many penetrating questions such as: What is the purpose of this awesome creation and what is mankind’s role in relationship to it? Since he had until now never received any meaningful answers to these kinds of questions, he decided to pursue this spiritual quest upon his discharge from the Navy. 

           After Avraham had completed one full year in military service, the USS Reeves returned to the United States. By now the unpopular Vietnam war was challenging  Congress  to find new exit strategies, which included huge cutbacks in military spending.  The Navy, in response offered early military discharges to reservists who had served overseas for at least one year and were now back in the United States. Avraham qualified and within a few days walked down the gangplank for the last time, honorable discharge in hand, happily thinking he was forever free from all Naval obligations and as well as typhoons .

         Shortly thereafter Avraham began to fulfill his promise to search for the true purpose in life by putting his back pack and travelling to the Far East. There he attended classes in health and nutrition given by a gifted, highly well educated teacher who was very familiar with diverse cultures and traditions. Astoundingly, in more than one class he expressed his profound respect and admiration for the Divine wisdom of the Torah and its sages. These words stunned Avraham who was relatively uneducated about his own tradition.

            Alone one day on a mountaintop, Avraham having already realized that the Far Eastern culture was not to be his destiny, he turned humbly to G-d asking for help and direction. Almost instantly Avraham began humming a Jewish melody that he hadn’t thought of for many years, along with contemplating the words of praise he had just heard about his Jewish heritage. With tears in his eyes and a yearning heart, Avraham now understood the need to journey to Eretz Yisrael and eventually into one of its first Baal Teshuvah Yeshivas to learn more about his Jewish roots.

                The Gemora tells us: “All beginnings are difficult” and so it was for Avraham as he “set sail” in the “sea” of Torah he encountered a number of “powerful storms” of doubt and “volatile winds” of indecision that pounded fiercely on his small “craft” which was built out of fragile desires to reach the “shores” of truth. A number of times when his Jewish identity seemed ready to “capsize”, Avraham strengthened his resolve by reminding himself of the Captain’s words that “the ship would always re-stabilize”. Fortunately those “storms” subsided and Avraham merited to marry and begin raising a wonderful family whose “voyage” through life has for the last three and one half decades been exclusively in the “waterways” of the Torah.

            May all our Jewish brethren merit to safely reach their souls true “port” of destination soon in our days.

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia