Adapted from: Living with Miracles by Rabbi Binyomin Pruzansky

The Spring Hill Times is a relatively new publication that has inspired many Jews around the world. Most newspapers carry all types of news, from happy and inspiring to sad or even tragic. Rabbi Yitzchok Kaufman of Chestnut Ridge, New York, decided that Klal Yisrael needed a publication that carried only positive, uplifting news. He fills his publication with stories and articles that inspire emunah and bitachon. It provides perfect reading for Shabbos, as it imbues readers with joy and pride in being a Jew.

On Monday morning, Parashas Behar, 2024, Rabbi Kaufman sat looking at the $3,650 bill that sat on his desk awaiting payment. If he wanted to keep the Spring Hill Times running, he had to come up with the money. He decided that as a merit for his father’s neshamah, he would dip into his own savings to cover the bill; certainly, in some way, Hashem would repay him.

That Thursday night, on arriving home, he took in the mail. One envelope was from New York State. On opening it, he found a check. The accompanying letter explained that the money was a bonus the state had granted to playgroups like the one his wife ran. It was worth more than double the amount he had paid out for the newspaper! Rabbi Kaufman knew Hashem would repay him, but so much, so fast? He could hardly believe his eyes.

On Friday, he woke up to find a message on his phone from his brother who lives in Kiryat Sefer:

“I have amazing news to share with you. I just bought a desk for my son, and he wanted to put a picture of a gadol on it. As you know, I have a lot of things in storage that you left behind when you left Eretz Yisrael, and in one of the boxes I knew there was a picture of Rav Malkiel Kotler (rosh yeshivah of Beis Medrash Govoha).

“The only problem was that the frame was the kind that hangs on the wall. My son wanted the kind he could stand on his desk. So, I figured I would get him a new frame. I opened up the frame with Rav Malkiel and you’ll never guess what I found between the picture and the backing. An envelope containing $6,000 in cash! The envelope had your old Israeli phone number written on it. It’s yours!”

After hearing this message, Rabbi Kaufman began to recall what had happened fifteen years ago, before he left Eretz Yisrael. His father had sent him $6,000, and fearing that someone would steal the money, he had hidden the envelope in the picture frame. He gradually forgot all about the hidden envelope and packed the picture away with a variety of items he had left behind in his brother’s storage room. In fact, his brother once came close to giving the picture away.

Now, fifteen years later, the true purpose of the hidden envelope emerged. Hashem knew back then that there would come a time in the future when Rabbi Kaufman would launch a newspaper called the Spring Hill Times. Further, Hashem knew that on the Monday of Parashas Behar, 2024, Rabbi Kaufman would take $3,650 from his own pocket to keep the Spring Hill Times in print, spreading love for Hashem and trust in His goodness. Therefore, Hashem inspired Rabbi Kaufman’s father to send him $6,000. He wiped the memory of the money from Rabbi Kaufman’s mind, ensuring that it would remain untouched. It would lie in a storage box until it was found on Erev Shabbos of that week, repaying Rabbi Kaufman for the sacrifice he had made in his father’s merit.

Within five days of laying out the money, Rabbi Kaufman had received back more than four times what he had spent. Could there have been a clearer message that Hashem was pleased with his avodas hakodesh, and that his father was pleased with his son?

When Rabbi Kaufman was laying out the money to support his publication, he had no idea how he would be repaid. He only knew that when we do something l’sheim Shamayim, Hashem takes care of us. Within days, he saw his amazing reward. In our own lives, we too should remember that when we do our utmost for the sake of Shamayim, we can only benefit.