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Only a few days ago we were here in this room on the night of Lag BaOmer, Wednesday night. Every year on Lag BaOmer night we make a big event. Some years we did barbecue, some years different types of things, just to get the guys into it. A beautiful night. For the first hour we learn, and for the second hour we celebrate with the rabbis and the guys. We have a candle-lighting ceremony. We do the whole thing from beginning to end.
This year the guys wanted something extra. They wanted great food from a caterer. Fine, no problem. I asked, what do you want? They said peppers, fries, tchoulent, everything. I said slow down, slow down. We’ll get it.
I called one of the guys who handles the food for the shul. He was going to place an order from one of the neighborhood restaurants. Seventy, eighty guys. A big order. After the candle lighting and Maariv everyone would go outside for the seudah of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on Lag BaOmer.
So I called my guy and said please order the food. He said, Rabbi, I got it.
Sure enough the food came. We did the candle lighting. The guys were dancing and singing. We auctioned the candles — Avraham Avinu, Rabbi Meir Baal Hanes, Yosef HaTzadik, David HaMelech, Rav Ovadia. And the last candle, the fireworks of the night, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. The bids went back and forth — 100, 200, 300. One guy won it. We gave him a berachah that he should get married this year.
We davened Maariv. The guys went outside to eat.
Ladies, I bought enough food for 150 people. We had about 75 guys, but I always tell the restaurant to double it. Under eight minutes you could have licked the trays clean. There was not a morsel left. Even the mice would have gone hungry. The guys wiped it out. Baruch Hashem they ate well and went home happy.
It’s 11:00 at night. I’m cleaning up the shul for Shacharit the next morning. Suddenly a big Israeli guy walks in.
“Are you the rabbi?” he asks.
I start sweating. He sounds like a mafia guy.
“Depends who’s asking,” I say.
“Are you Rabbi Dovi?”
“Yes.”
“I’m from the restaurant that supplied the food tonight.”
“Oh, thank you very much. Hakarat hatov. The food was great.”
“Yes,” he says. “You’re welcome. Two hundred dollars.”
I said, “What?”
“Two hundred dollars. Pay me.”
I stopped. I asked which restaurant he was from. He told me the name. It was not the place I told my guy to order from. We have a monthly bill with one restaurant. At the end of the month they send the invoice. But somehow the order was placed at a different restaurant. So nobody paid him.
Now he’s standing there at 11:00 at night asking for $200. Truthfully, for the amount of food he gave us, it was a good price. But I didn’t have the money on me. I never expected to pay that night.
I looked around to see if I could borrow it. No one left who could help.
So I turned to the candle of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and I said quietly, “We made a seudah for you. We need the money.”
Two minutes later one of my older talmidim, with me for almost 16 years, married with kids, runs into the shul.
“Rabbi, don’t tell me you already sold the candles.”
I said, “It’s 11:00 at night. Of course we sold the candles.”
“You have to sell me one more.”
“For who?”
“Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.”
I said, “We already sold it. That was the big one.”
He said, “You don’t understand. A year ago my wife and I were in Meron on Lag BaOmer. I pushed through the crowds and somehow got into the inner room by the kever of Rabbi Shimon. They give you 30 seconds there. Thirty seconds and they pull you out.
“In those 30 seconds I asked Rabbi Shimon for a yeshuah for my child. And I promised that if the yeshuah comes, next Lag BaOmer I’ll do something special for him.”
He said, “Rabbi, the yeshuah happened. My child got much better. I need that candle.”
I said, “We can’t sell the candle again. But what about sponsoring the seudah?”
He said, “The seudah? That’s even better.”
I said, “How much would you like to give?”
I told him I’m not allowed to suggest a price. Whatever you had in mind when you made the promise, that’s what you should give.
He said, “At the time I was thinking about 500 shekels. That’s about $200.”
I said, “Two hundred dollars? Done.”
He put $200 in my hand.
Ladies, I walked five steps from the candle table to the big Israeli guy still standing there. I handed him the $200 and said thank you very much. The food was excellent. May Rabbi Shimon bless your business with success.
Look at what happened.
Hashem worked this out a year earlier. From last Lag BaOmer in Meron, when this man made his promise. A year later the exact amount was needed for a seudah that unexpectedly required payment. It was already arranged.
Borei Olam says, “Look at Me from behind. My face you cannot see. But when you look back and see how I was always there, how I turned the world upside down to take care of you step by step, you will understand.”
Previous generations lived with emunah and bitachon. They saw Hashem in hindsight.
We should be a generation that moves past incentives and lives in the hands of Borei Olam. Living with emunah every day.
Thank you for listening.