What If She Had Been Your Wife?
Parnassah
The Sanzer Rav’s gabbai, Moshe Yehoshua, stood at the Rav’s doorway looking in with wonder. Since when did the Divrei Chaim sit and learn without his housecoat? “Where is the Rav’s chalatel?” the gabbai asked.
The Divrei Chaim patiently explained that a poor widow had just come to ask for a donation. “What should I have done?” he said. “I had no money left, so I gave her my chalatel to pawn for some cash.”
“But Rebbe,” the gabbai persisted, “why did you have to give your own chalatel off your back?”
“You would not ask me that,” the Divrei Chaim answered sternly, “if that poor widow had been your wife.”