He Risked His Job for a Fellow Jew — What Was His Reward?

Rabbi Wasserman from Haifa, who passed away recently, was a deeply religious and warm-hearted Jew who had immigrated from Hungary as a young man. During the shivah, his sons shared a special story about him with an inspiring message for all of us.

Non-kosher meat in a kosher store

As a young man, in order to support his wife and young children, Rabbi Wasserman worked in a large butcher shop owned by a non-observant Jew. The meat sold there was, however, kosher. One day, Rabbi Wasserman noticed the owner bringing boxes of meat into the storage room, with no kosher certification at all. He was alarmed but said nothing while he pondered what to do. A short while later, an observant woman entered to buy meat. He approached her and quietly said, "Today's meat is not kosher; I wouldn't buy here."

The woman thanked him wholeheartedly and left. However, one of the other employees had overheard the exchange and went to inform the manager. Needless to say, Rabbi Wasserman was immediately fired. This was a severe blow, as jobs were scarce and this was his only source of income.

The answer to his prayer

That afternoon, Rabbi Wasserman went to pray Minchah (the afternoon prayer service) at the local synagogue. During his prayers, he cried silent tears, asking Hashem to provide him with a livelihood so he could raise his children in the path of Torah and mitzvot.

After the prayers had finished, a stranger approached him. "I saw you crying throughout the prayers. Is there anything I can help you with?"

Rabbi Wasserman hesitated for a moment, and then replied that what he really wanted was to move to  the suburb of Kiryat Motzkin where there were religious schools for his children, but he simply couldn't afford to buy a home there, especially as he had just been fired.

"I'm a building contractor," the stranger replied. "In fact, right now I'm marketing apartments in Kiryat Motzkin, not far from the religious schools. I'd like to offer you one of the apartments."

The sacrifice and the reward

Rabbi Wasserman thanked the man, but added that a brand-new apartment was certainly way beyond his means.

"So come to my office, and we'll draw up a payment schedule," the contractor replied. "We'll figure something out that you can manage."

Rabbi Wasserman was taken aback by this unusual generosity and asked him why he was doing this. The contractor's answer was an amazing demonstration of Divine providence: "Earlier today, my wife came home from the butcher shop and told me that a pious Jew saved her from buying non-kosher meat. Now I realize that it must have been you. For such a holy person, I want to do whatever I can."

Rabbi Wasserman indeed moved to that apartment in Kiryat Motzkin, and shortly afterward, he found a good job that allowed him to support his family. And so it was that in the merit of risking his livelihood to protect a fellow Jew from inadvertently eating non-kosher food, he gained a home in a religious neighborhood and raised generations of observant Jews.