A Story of the Wealthy Man Who Merited Tears of Teshuvah in the Rav's Room

A wealthy Jew who donated a massive sum to charity struggled to understand why the Rav immediately passed the money on to someone else. When he arrived in Johannesburg, he merited a tremendous spiritual reward that changed his life.

A certain wealthy Jew, who merited to be close to Rabbi Berland shlit"a, went through a difficult test. On one occasion when the Rav was staying in Holland, this Jew donated a massive sum of money directly into the hands of the tzaddik. Despite the immense emunah (faith) he had in the Rav, it was very difficult for him to watch as the Rav took all of his money and immediately, without any delay, passed it on to another person.

The Meeting in Johannesburg

Time passed, and Rabbi Berland shlit"a arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa. That same wealthy Jew came once again to spend time in the presence of the Rav shlit"a. Then, as a sort of "reward" for the incident that had occurred in Holland, the Rav shlit"a instructed him to enter his private room together with him during the time of Minchah (the afternoon prayer).

The tzaddik stood in his room, and the Jew stood right next to him. That Jew later related that suddenly, without any prior preparation, he was overcome with thoughts of teshuvah (repentance) and a tremendous spiritual awakening the likes of which he had never felt in his life. He testified that even during the High Holy Days, on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, he had never merited to reach such a level of awakening and closeness to Hashem.

Tears of Teshuvah

He stood there and poured out tears like water before Hashem for a long time. Ultimately, he came to a clear and moving conclusion: it was entirely worth it for him to give that massive sum to charity, if only to merit that tremendous and rare spiritual illumination in the presence of the tzaddik.

From Issue 79 — Parashat Tazria

From the series "A Tzaddik Rules in the Fear of God" — "Shapir Amar Nachmani" publications