“It would be a mitzvah to fill out the check for a million dollars"

In a private talk to those involved in fundraising for the yeshivah, Beth Medrash Govoha Rosh Yeshivah Rav Malkiel Kotler shared the proper perspective on their holy work.

His father, Rav Shneur, was in Los Angeles on behalf of the yeshivah and while there, paid a visit to an elderly nursing home resident. The man was very wealthy, but the Rosh Yeshivah didn’t go for the money — he knew he would receive the same hundred-dollar check that he got every other year. The older man appreciated the visit and conversation, and then signed a check, but said he had no strength to fill it in. The Rosh Yeshivah put the signed check in his pocket and parted from the man — and the next morning, he learned that the man had passed away overnight.

One of the local askanim informed Rav Shneur that there were no beneficiaries to the will and all of the man’s vast holdings would go to the government.

“It would be a mitzvah to fill out the check for a million dollars. That way the Rosh Yeshivah can be mezakeh this Yid, give him merit at a time when he can no longer do it for himself.”

Rav Shneur heard the advice, then filled out the check — for one hundred dollars, just as every other year. “Li hakesef v’li hazahav — all the silver and gold belong to Hashem,” Rav Malkiel quoted the pasuk from the Navi. "The Master of the Universe has many ways to send funds, and a person never has to compromise on his own values to access them."