The gemara in Bava Basra teaches something remarkable about money and tzedakah. Rabbi Yehudah ben Rabbi Shalom said that just as your income for the year is decided on Rosh Hashanah, so too are your losses. If you merit it, those losses become the tzedakah you give. If not, the money gets taken anyway, such as through taxes, unexpected expenses, or things breaking down.
The gemara tells a story. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai saw in a dream that his nephews were going to lose seven hundred dinars in the coming year. He didn’t tell them about the dream. Instead, he kept encouraging them to give tzedakah. Over the course of the year, they gave almost the entire amount. By Erev Rosh Hashanah, they’d given 683 dinars.
Right before Yom Kippur, government agents showed up demanding taxes: exactly seventeen dinars. Rabbi Yochanan told them not to worry. Seventeen dinars was all they’d lose. When they asked how he knew, he told them about the dream. They were upset: “Why didn’t you tell us earlier? We could have given the full amount to tzedakah!” He explained that he wanted them to give l’shma, for the sake of the mitzvah itself.
The Chofetz Chaim shared a similar idea. A wealthy man once came to him, overwhelmed by the constant requests for money. As he walked into the Chofetz Chaim’s room, he overheard him explaining a verse in Tehillim: “May only goodness and kindness pursue me all the days of my life.”
The Chofetz Chaim was saying: No one lives in complete tranquility. Everyone is pursued by something. For some people, G-d forbid, it’s enemies, debt collectors, hardship. Dovid Hamelech is teaching us that a fortunate person is one who is “pursued” by Yidden who need tzedakah. The man left with a whole new way of viewing the constant requests knocking on his door.
Sometimes we feel pressured by all the chesed opportunities pursuing us. Requests for money. Requests for time, wisdom, encouragement.
But here’s another perspective: Ashreinu ma tov chalkeinu! May only goodness and kindness pursue me all the days of my life!
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 76 Pesach.