The Daily Strengthening from The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a – “The Tzaddikim would distribute everything to Tzedakah”

“Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse, so that there will be sustenance in My House; and test Me, please, with this,” says Hashem, Master of Legions, “if I will not open for you the windows of Heaven and pour out for you blessing until there is no more need.” (Malachi 3:10)

“Mighty in strength, who do His word” (Tehillim 103:20)

Monday, 8 Elul 5785 – “He came home with only half a kilo of flour.”

These are his holy words:

Just now I heard a question: Why doesn’t it say regarding Tzedakah, “If you give Tzedakah, you will receive tenfold,” the way it says regarding Shemittah—that if you decide not to work, you will receive threefold in the sixth, the seventh, and the eighth?!

A person gives $100 to Tzedakah—he will receive $1,000. Whoever gives Tzedakah regularly sees this with his own eyes. You give Tzedakah—you give away your last $100—how will you go back home?!

You gave $100—and someone comes and gives you exactly $1,000! You gave the $100 that was meant for hachnasas kallah, and they told you the match is being canceled. You gave your last $100. After that, you come home with no food.

Just as the Gemara relates in Ta’anis (24a) about Rabbi Elazar Ish Bartosa (Rabbi Elazar ben Yehudah Ish Bartosa was a Tanna of the third generation. He was a student of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya and a colleague of Rabbi Akiva. Several times Rabbi Akiva disputed teachings transmitted in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua and presented them in a different wording. His statements in the Mishnah and Talmud are few, and about half are in the name of his teacher. Whenever he met charity collectors, he would give them everything he had—so much so that they began avoiding him so he would not give away all his possessions. Once he went with a large sum to buy a dowry for his daughter, and he saw the charity collectors in the marketplace trying to hide from him. He ran after them and made them swear to tell him what they were collecting for this time. When they answered that they were providing hachnasas kallah for an orphan groom and orphan bride, he gave them all his money except for one zuz. With it he bought a small amount of grain and placed it in a storehouse, and a miracle occurred and the storehouse filled with grain. Even so, he refused to benefit from the miracle and told his daughter that she would receive from the grain like any of the poor of the city). He would, as a regular practice, distribute all his money to Tzedakah, and once they gave him a large sum of money to buy things for his daughter’s wedding.

His family told him: There are things you can buy for the wedding. We have a kallah—buy something for the wedding. There’s a henna celebration now—buy something for the henna. Buy something for the Sheva Berachos. In the end he comes home and doesn’t have a penny. He comes home with a bag of flour that he bought for his daughter’s wedding.

A thousand people are coming to the wedding—he needs to bring a ton of flour. But in the end, after he gave all the money to Tzedakah, he was left with a penny, two pennies, and with that he bought a bag of half a kilo of flour. How can he walk into the house with half a kilo? He needs to come with a wagon full of sacks!

A granary is a huge hangar—a massive storehouse that can hold several tons. So he put the half-kilo into the granary and went into the house. The family asked him: You received $1,000—where is what you brought?

He answered: It’s all in the granary! All in the granary?

Then his daughter, the kallah, comes and asks: Did Dad bring something? Her mother answers: Your father is playing with us—he says it’s all in the granary. Go look in the granary. What should we look for in the granary? Dad has nothing—so he tells us, “Look in the granary.”

So the daughter went to open the granary, to see what he brought after all. Maybe he brought a few oranges, a few plums, a few dates—but it’s impossible to open the granary. You can’t open it—someone is standing inside and won’t let it open.

She tries to push the door and it doesn’t work. You can’t—there’s no choice but to break the door, because the granary filled up with wheat. The entire granary filled to the ceiling, and all the wheat is blocking the door. You can’t open the door because of the wheat.

His wife says to him: Moshe, what did you bring? You brought a granary full of wheat!

He said to them: The moment they discovered the granary was full—I vowed that all this wheat must immediately be distributed to Tzedakah. Our daughter has no more than any of the poor.

The Tzaddikim would distribute everything to Tzedakah.

So all of this teaches that the greatest kefirah is in Parshas Behar—the question “What will we eat?” is the greatest kefirah!

What does it mean to ask, “What will we eat?” Hashem says: I will give you oranges in abundance—tomatoes in abundance, eggplants in abundance—and everything will grow and flourish. And you will have even more: you will have abundance until the ninth year—“Until the ninth year, until its produce comes, you shall eat the old.” (Vayikra 25:21). Until the ninth year you will eat from the Shemittah—the Shemittah will give you such abundance that it will suffice for the eighth and also for the ninth.

The Kli Yakar says that Shemittah brings blessing for all six years. It’s not only the ninth—it’s also the tenth, and the eleventh, and the twelfth, and the thirteenth. And for the second Shemittah there is a new abundance: the abundance will suffice for seven years—also for the eighth and also for the ninth, and so on and so on.

A person gives $100 to Tzedakah and doesn’t know how he will go back home—it’s the last $100 he has. His wife told him to do the shopping for Shabbos, but within five minutes someone comes and gives him $1,000. A person can see this with his own eyes: “Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse, so that there will be sustenance in My House; and test Me, please, with this,” says Hashem, Master of Legions, “if I will not open for you the windows of Heaven and pour out for you blessing until there is no more need.” (Malachi 3:10) — ma’aser is the only matter in which it is permitted to test Hashem.

So we asked: Let Hashem say, “If you give Tzedakah, you’ll receive tenfold, twentyfold”—why is it only by Shemittah that they tell us it’s for three years?!

Because the entire matter of Shemittah is the greatest test of all tests!

That is why we always read it before Shavuos. It is written, “Mighty in strength, who do His word” (Tehillim 103:20)—this refers only to Shemittah. These are the farmers who give over their very lives.