Straw for a Poor Man
Tzedakah & chesedRefuah
In the years of their poverty, Akiva and his wife once had nothing but a bundle of straw to sleep on. A poor man came to the door and begged for some straw to make a bed for his sick wife. Akiva at once divided his meager straw with him and said to his wife, “You see, my child, there are people poorer than we are.”
The beggar was none other than Eliyohu HaNovi, who had come to test him.