The Man Who Didn’t Come to Dinner

When your brother becomes impoverished and loses the ability to support himself in the community you must come to his aid.

(Vayikra 25:35)

Here the Torah teaches us to fulfill the mitzvah of tzedakah.… We know that Chazal teach that in the merit of tzedakah a person is granted wealth and Hashem blesses the work of his hands. David HaMelech added: “Fortunate is he who is wise to the poor; on the day of evil Hashem will rescue him” (Tehillim 41:2). If a bad day comes to someone — he is ill and in danger of dying — in the merit of the tzedakah he has always given Hashem will overturn his illness and he will live. (Rav Shimshon Pincus Tiferes Shimshon)

The young girl sitting across from me didn’t cry but she was trembling. I was simply too shocked to cry. The story of her life was too difficult to hear.

“No one noticed something was wrong a little girl suffering who urgently needed help?”