On December 29th, a check for $40,000 arrived at our office. It had no message, no phone number, email, or home address—just a name I didn’t recognize: Sam Trove.*
We deposited it and it cleared, so we ruled out any kind of scam. I asked our team members to do some sleuthing. Google the name. Find this person. Thank them properly. But without success. We were incredibly grateful for their generosity, but the mystery lingered.
Weeks passed, until last week, I was looking at our lists of donors and came across the name in our database. Something clicked and my sleuthing instincts kicked into high gear.
With years of experience hunting down hard-to-find leads, I was able to finally find a phone number for the elusive Sam.
I called him.
“Did you make a donation of $40,000?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said.
Well, I am calling to thank you! We really appreciate your support!
“Well,” he replied, “I thought you would have reached out sooner.
“I didn’t have your phone number or email, and a name like Sam Trove is not so easy to Google,” I explained.
I discovered that Sam is 82 years old and lives somewhere in the Midwest.
“How did you even find out about us?” I wanted to know.
Sam explained that he had seen a story about our work on i24 News. He was so inspired and moved by our work for Israel and its soldiers that he decided to write the check without ever having met or spoken with us. This is true giving—no fanfare, no expectations. Just giving humbly, straight from the heart, without pursuing any kind of recognition.
I asked if he had any plans to visit New York, and it turned out that he did! It was his wife’s birthday, and they were coming for a week.
I said: “I want to meet you.”
And they stopped by my office this week! We sat for hours, talking, laughing, sharing stories. At the end, I asked Sam if he wanted to put on tefillin.
“Of course!” he said, with genuine excitement to revisit something he hadn’t done in many, many years.
And as we wrapped the sacred straps, the holiness in the room was palpable. “What we’re doing right now is so powerful,” I told Sam, “it is literally helping the pilots flying over Teheran and our soldiers fighting for Israel!”
Afterwards, I promised to connect him with his local Chabad rabbi, so that he doesn’t have to wait for the occasional trip to NYC.
When we said goodbye and I went back to my office, I thought about the amount of Divine Providence required to bring about our meeting. The fact that he stumbled across our initiatives on i24. The fact that he was inspired and had the means to send such a large check. The fact that we eventually uncovered his identity and were able to reach out and thank him. And the fact that he had a New York trip planned, and we were able to meet face-to-face. What a series of events!
But the truth is, everything that happens in our lives—the big moments and the small ones too—is orchestrated by Divine Providence. Everything happens because that’s what G-d wants and how He planned it. Is it easier to recognize and appreciate when we see His interventions clearly? Of course. But the challenge—and ultimate reward—is learning to view even the mundane and seemingly negative things in the same light.
When we can do that, we know we’re truly ready for Moshiach and the Final Redemption—may it happen imminently.
*Name changed to protect privacy