The miraculous money collection

THE MIRACULOUS MONEY COLLECTION

The following message was left on the ‘Moked HaYeshua’ (miracle centre) helpline, and appeared in issue 61 of the Knishta Chada newsletter:

“I wanted to inform the community about the following story, which emphasizes the importance of having emunat chachaim (belief in the Sages) and of doing what they say, even when that requires mesirut Nefesh (self-sacrifice).

“Recently, someone came and spoke to the Rav’s gabbay, shlita, about a young yeshiva bochur (student) who suddenly fell into a severe mental malaise, Hashem should have mercy, which meant that he hadn’t eaten or slept for eight days.

The gabbay told the family on behalf of the Rav, shlita, that they should collect from the community the amount needed to do a pidyon nefesh for the young man. We should underline here that the family in question are poor, and don’t have a lot of money. They started trying to collect the money together, but they had no idea how much they’d raise, or who they’d be able to persuade to donate.

But the family were strengthened by the Rav’s words, who told them they should collect the money together within a week, even though they didn’t know who would give or how much etc.

The last night of that week, there was still a shortfall of 3,300 shekels, and the family had run out of people to ask. At that point, one of the local avreichim (Torah learners) who’d volunteered to help the family collect the money together decided to go and sit in the ‘Machane Yisrael’ yeshiva in Jerusalem, and to learn some tehillim (psalms) there.

As he was reading Tehillim 22, which begins: “For the conductor on the ayelet hashachar, a psalm by David. My God, my God! Why have You forsake me? Why so far from saving me? [Why so far] from the words of my roar?” another young man came across to speak to him.

He told him that he’d recently come by a very big sum of money, and he still had 3,300 shekels that he needed to give to tzedakah, and did he know anyone who really needed the money? The avreich motioned to him to wait until he’d finished reciting the verse, and he reported that: “I really had tears in my eyes, as I finished praying.”

The avreich continues: “I took this guy to the mother of the sick student, we stood by her door, and I shouted through the door to ask her how much money she was still lacking for the pidyon. She heard me, and shouted back ‘3,300 shekels, exactly.’

“We went and contacted Rav Berland’s gabbay, completed the payment for the pidyon, and baruch Hashem, a very short time after that the student mental malaise disappeared, and he’s slowly recuperating and returning to normal life.”

Translated from the original Hebrew.