L'ilui Nishmat Avraham ben Ester Z'L.
This story was taken verbatim from Rav Ovadya Yosef shlit'a's Halacha Yomit email. Today's email included Halachot pertaining to Tzedaka so this story was added to the email.
Enjoy:
There was once an incident in the United States approximately twenty-five years ago where, the luminary of the generation, Hagaon Harav Moshe Feinstein zt”l needed to travel in order to fundraise for his yeshiva which had become entangled in severe financial hardships. A well-known philanthropist belonging to one of the Sephardic communities there organized a dinner for Harav Feinstein in his home where several other philanthropists from a certain community would be present. The rabbi spoke words of Torah before the guests and explained to them the dire straits the yeshiva found itself in with hopes that they would donate handsomely to support the yeshiva. After the rabbi finished his speech, envelopes were distributed among the evening’s participants in order for those present to place however much they could for this holy cause.
The host noticed that his affluent friends were not being as generous as they could be possibly because the sums of money were being placed in sealed envelopes without any fanfare. He immediately requested that the envelopes be collected and informed all the guests that he would henceforth be speaking in Arabic, a language that the rabbi would surely not understand. As the rabbi sat baffled by a language he could not decipher, the host began lovingly rebuking his friends by telling them, “Are you not ashamed that when the leader of the generation who has dedicated his entire life to the Torah and must now humiliate himself by coming before us and asking for handouts and you give him sums that will barely solve his financial plight when you and I both know that you can all do much better than that! We shall therefore now conduct a public appeal and everyone will announce out loud how much he is donating.” Clearly, the result was much better the second time around and a respectable sum of money was collected which saved the yeshiva from drowning in debt much to the satisfaction of the venerable Rosh Yeshiva.
If one is unable to give much Tzedakah but he convinces his wealthy family and friends to donate and they donate as a result of his efforts, besides for the fact that his reward is great for bringing merit to others, our Sages say that his level is so great that it is considered that he has given Tzedakah on his own, for “one who causes another to perform a Mitzvah is greater than the one who actually performs it,” as the verse states, “And one who causes righteousness (Tzedakah) shall have peace” as opposes to just “And righteousness shall bring about peace.”
Besides for the unreal ending of this true story, this shows the strength a single person has in regards to influencing others to do Mitzvot and glue themselves to The Borah (Creator, Hashem). This shows us that we can all help all of Am Yisrael take a step further in our journey to the time of The Mashiah and The Third Bet HaMikdash BB'A. What can we do? If we our leaving our home/apt we can grab a pocket sized Tehillim and read a Perek or two throughout the day. If we are walking with our friends to go eat somewhere suggest the Kosher restuarant. If you're going to Shul share a story with your friend that made you stronger and put you on the right path. Have an extra Kippah in your pocket, make sure you are smiling.
Have warm and upbeat music to express your love of being Jewish and go spread that happiness. We are holy because we push ourselves to stay happy. As we see in the Torah, only once Yaakov learned of his son, Yosef's existence after 22 years of thinking he is dead he then had the Divine Presence rest upon him. Happiness is the key to motivation, success and the overall quality of life. Happiness is rooted from the Torah, Happiness is directly linked to Kedusha (holiness, or watching over one's Brit Milah).
Smile, cuz Hashem loves you.
Judaism=Think.
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