Growing up in South Africa, I’d never even heard of the Upper East Side, knew no one living there, and certainly never considered moving there myself.
But about 10 years ago I took a leap of faith and moved here to open the Chabad Israel Center. We had no funding, no start-up money, no nest egg. We simply trusted that our work would be enough to convince people to partner with us in building a thriving Chabad center.
So when a friend suggested I meet Yehezkel*, I set up an appointment to see him at his office.
When I arrived, he was clearly busy. Phones were ringing non-stop, employees were running around and Yehezkel had little patience for our meeting.
“What do you want?” he asked.
I began to explain what Chabad is, what we do and what our mission is, but after less than two minutes he cut me off.
“You’re not answering my question,” he said. “What do you want?”
I did some rapid mental arithmetic, calculating what we needed to continue operating for the next few months, and told him, “I want $25,000 from you.”
He looked at me for about 15 seconds, and I was sure he was astounded by my chutzpah, ready to throw me out of his office. But he simply said, “Ok, yes.”
My relief was palpable.
But Yehezkel wasn’t done with me. “I also want you to start giving a Torah class in my office each week,” he said.
Double jackpot!
I walked out of that meeting with a check for $25k, and a weekly Torah class!
Thus began a beautiful relationship which has only grown and flourished in the ensuing years. We became firm friends and have spent hours in study together. He and his entire family have become very involved in the Chabad center and stronger in their Torah and mitzvah observance.
Recently, we were reminiscing about our relationship and the time we first met. I reminded him of the meeting and explained that I had never asked someone for that kind of money just minutes after meeting them.
But then Yehezkel shared his perspective:
“I remember well,” he said. “For months before that meeting, I had been thinking about contributing to charity, but I wasn’t sure where to give. So I set aside some money in the bank until I could decide. The money set aside was $100,000 and when you walked into my office I had already decided to give it to you. So when you asked for $25k, I thought to myself, ‘This is my lucky day! I just made $75k!”
As I mulled over his words, I realized there was a tremendous lesson to be learned from our encounter. If he had already earmarked the $100k for charity, why didn’t G-d give me that $100k right then and there? Why did He lead me to ask for $25k?
Clearly, G-d knew exactly what I needed at that time. Back then, $25k was a large amount, and I didn’t need more than that. It was enough to maintain our operations for several months, and G-d knew that. He decides how much a person will earn, and there is no way to obtain more than that. So even though Yehezkel had set aside $100,000 for charity, only $25,000 was for me.
Over the last 10 years, I’ve seen this happen multiple times.
I wish you a joyous Chanukah and to be able to see G-d’s loving hand in your life!
Rabbi Uriel Vigler