When the plan was presented to Reb Osher though, he nixed it out of hand

Rav Efraim Zalman Sternbuch, a son of the Raavad Rav Moshe Sternbuch and author of the seforim Yissachar U’Zevulun and Avnei Shoham on Shas, was in America to raise funds for his father’s yeshivah in Ramat Beit Shemesh. One of Rav Efraim Zalman’s stops was in the home of Reb Yanky Friedman, head of a chaburah in Beth Medrash Govoha in addition to his business ventures, where Rav Efraim Zalman shared some family history. (In addition to Rav Moshe Sternbuch serving as raavad of Yerushulayim, his sister Yehudis was the wife of Rav Dovid Soloveitchik ztz”l, who passed away earlier this year.)

Rav Efraim Zalman related that when his grandfather Reb Osher Sternbuch — a London merchant who was known for his generous support of yeshivos — became critically ill at just 39 years old, his family poured out their hearts with tefillos, gave money to yeshivos, and also made a “deal” with Hashem: they promised the family’s fortune to be spread among different yeshivos upon his full recovery. When the plan was presented to Reb Osher though, he nixed it out of hand. He explained to them that whatever Hashem does if for the best, even if that included his own demise and leaving behind a family of nine yesomim, the oldest just eighteen and the youngest barely two. To make deals and conditions was anathema to Reb Osher, who passed away just a short while later. It was in the zechus of that rock-solid emunah, that unquestioning and unwavering understanding that all that Hashem does is for our own good, said the Chazon Ish at the time, that Reb Osher would merit children who would become gedolei Yisrael.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 893)