Responding with Gratitude - R. Yehoshua Zitron - TorahAnytime.com

founder of the Kabad movement Rabner Zaman of Lai was once raising money to ransom Jewish prisoners and he went from city to city he entered a particular city and you know the people the rabbis of the city said listen you know we'll go to particular houses it was one very very nice fancy house the rabbi you know the other rabbi said to you know to reper we you can't go to to this he's a miser it's a waste of time don't even bother with it he gives everybody like a penny it it's it it doesn't make any sense. And the rabbi says, "No, no." He says, "I want to go to that house. Let's start off with that house." So they said, "No, you don't understand." He says, "We've been going in for so many years. The guy, he's a miser. He's extremely wealthy, but he does he's not able to part with his money." So the rabbi says, "No, let's go." Well, the rabbi said to go, "You go." They went uh with uh with, you know, his he went with his entourage with other a few rabbis. They went to they knocked on this big mansion. This wealthy uh the wealthy man's servant opens the door. He says, "Yes, can I help you?" He says, "Yes, we're rabbis. We're collecting or is you know is the owner home and he says, "Give me a second." He goes, he runs. He comes back. He says, "Yes, the owner's here. Please come. Please come." And he brings them into the study. A few minutes uh later, this uh you know, the owner of the house comes in very well-dressed and he says, "Yes, rabbis. Oh, such an honor, such a pleasure. What can I do for you?" And there, you know, RNer Zman of Leai starts explaining. He says, you know, there are Jewish people that are prisoners and, you know, he's coming here to ransom. You know, he needs to ransom. He needs to raise money. And the guy is listening very invested. He's like, yeah, no, I I know that the the the you know, it's so suffering of the Jewish people. I totally get it. You know, I want to help. I'll be able to help. Give me a second. He goes to save. He comes back with a tiny little pouch. He opens up the little coins jiggling and he takes out what's equivalent of like less than a dollar. And he says, "Here you guys go." He says, "Thank you for coming. You have a lot of success in it." And RNer is al go looks at it and he's like, "Wow." He's like, "Thank you so much." And he starts giving him blessings as if this guy just wrote him a million dollar check. And he's like blessing him with that. And then he takes out his, you know, his receipt and he's writing him a receipt. And in the receipt he writes the blessings and he gives them this you know this this tremendous you know like like happy face. Thank you so much for helping the Jewish people. And he gives them the receipt and they slowly walk out. And as they are uh you know walking out the rebi the the rabbi says says to the other to the other people are there he says don't look back don't say a word just walk with me. And he walks slowly out and walking very slow. After about like 10 seconds, the miser, the owner of the house calls and he says, "Rabbi, rabbis." He calls him, says, "Do me a favor. Come back if you don't mind." And they turn around and they come back. Says, "Yes, can I help you?" And the miser is thinking. And he's like, "What how much do you need to raise to get these people out?" And the rabbi responded. He says, "We need to raise 5,000 golden, you know, coins." And he says, "Wow, you know, that's a lie." Says, "Do me a favor. You know, come come in. I want to give you more." They come back in. He sits him down in his office. He runs back down to his safe. He comes back up a few minutes later with a big bag. He says, "This is a thousand gold coins. I want to give this to you to help ransom the, you know, the these Jewish prisoners. [snorts] The other rabbis that were local, their jaws dropped down. They're like, "This guy never gave more than a dollar. Now he's giving a thousand golden coins." you know like there's a tremendous amount of money and takes the money and he says oh thank you so and he gives him the same style blessing as he gave him when he gave him a dollar and he starts bestowing blessing but he takes out a receipt and he writes with all the blessing and he gives it and and he gives it back to this uh to this miser and uh they thank they thank the miser and they start walking away again the rabbi says don't say anything just walk with me and they walk slowly they get uh you know like down the driveway and all of a sudden The owner of the house calls him and says, "Rabbi, rabbis, do do me a favor. If you don't mind, just you know, come back." And uh, you know, they they come back and says, "Yes, you know, what can we do for you?" He says, "Come inside. I I you know, like I want I want to give you more. I really feel for this cause." They come back, they sit back in his office. He runs back to the safe. He comes back with even a bigger bag. And he says, "Here's the entire amount. Here's the remaining. Here's the 4,000 gold coins. You could take it and ransom the Jewish uh, you know, the the Jewish prisoners." And he goes and the rabbi starts giving him the blessings same blessings as they gave with a dollar with a thousand with the 5,000 with the 4,000 gives them all the blessing. They sign the you know gives him a receipt with all the blessing and they uh you know and they and they part ways. The other rabbis of the community they see this they're like you don't understand what type of a miracle this is. This guy never gave a dollar. How did you get him to give? We don't they they couldn't understand that he that he gave the entire sum. And the rabbi respond. He says everybody who he gives a dollar to what they throw in the face. What do they say? You know, like okay, maybe they try to be nicer. Can you give a little bit more? Can you give? Yeah, the miser was wrong. Yeah, he should have given more if he had the ability to, but you could give all the excuses, but that's not our responsibility. our respons. He gave charity. Okay, that's what we and we thank them and we bless them. If the rabbi would have responded in a negative way, be like, "Wait a minute. You live in this beautiful house. You could have or forget about forget about even going there." If the rabbi would have just responded, "Maybe you could do a little bit more." The the the miser wouldn't have given everything anything. The rabbi responded in a positive fashion, in a positive way. And guess what happened? It penetrated it penetrated the you know the the the soul of this person and be like wait a minute I I I want to help like like I want to do I do more meaning that our response to any interaction can change the other person meaning that the other person has the ability to affect you based on their mood but you have the ability to affect the other person on how and how you respond.