Today’s story teaches us that tzedakah tatzil mi’maves, giving charity can save us from death. Rabbi Akiva had a daughter, and when the daughter was a little girl, the stargazers told Rabbi Akiva: “We can see in the stars that on the day of your daughter’s wedding, she’s going to die.” Wow, that’s scary news. Reb Akiva was worried about this, but he left everything to Hashem.
Well, the story goes that eventually his daughter grew up, and it was the day of her wedding. She was getting dressed, and she was making her hair nice. The caterer was running around, and the band was coming with their instruments. Rabbi Akiva was thinking to himself, I really hope nothing happens. But the wedding went through. Everything was OK. It was a great wedding. Everybody came and danced and sang, and then they wished the bride and groom, the chosson and kallah, a mazel tov, and everybody went home.
The morning after the wedding, everybody woke up and suddenly they heard a loud yell, a scream from the kallah‘s room. They ran into the room and they said, “What’s going on?” She said, “Look!” She had her expensive hairpin with a diamond at the end. And she said, “Last night I took the pin out of my hair, and I didn’t want it to get lost. So I stuck it in a hole in the wall. And now look.” And as she pulled the pin out of the wall, they could see a poisonous snake in the hole that had been killed. When she put the pin into the hole, it must have killed the snake. She had no idea, but she was saved from certain death.
Rebbe Akiva said to his daughter, “What did you do that might have saved your life?” “Well,” Rebbe Akiva’s daughter said, “Last night during the wedding, while everyone was dancing and singing, there was a knock at the door. I opened the door, and there was a beggar, and the beggar was so hungry. He said, ‘Please give me something to eat,’ but everybody was busy with the wedding. I just decided I’m going to give him my food. And I went. I took my portion – the plate that was prepared especially for me – and I gave it to the poor person.”
Reb Akiva said, “Wow, that kindness saved your life!” And from here we learn that tzedakah tatzil mi’maves – doing a kindness, giving tzedakah. You never know, it just might save your life.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 44.