He Who Increases Charity Increases Peace

Rav Ovadia Yosef used to illustrate the Mishnah "He who increases charity increases peace" (Avos 2:8) with a story about the Noda B'Yehuda. It is told that one stormy winter night Rav Yechezkel was learning in his room when he heard loud weeping. He hurried outside and found a small non-Jewish boy sitting on a rock in the rain, shivering and crying. "What is the matter?" asked the Rav.

The boy explained that his mother had died and his father, a baker, had married a cruel woman. His stepmother made him sell bread all day and hand over the money every night before he could go home to eat, drink and rest. That night he had sold all the bread, but on the way home he realized he had lost the money. If he went home, he said, she would beat him mercilessly, so he stayed outside, cold and hungry.

The Rav asked how much money he had lost and gave him the full amount, along with a few extra coins to buy food.

About thirty years later, on Shevi'i Shel Pesach, there was a knock on Rav Yechezkel's door. A gentile stood there and said he had a secret about a matter of life and death. "I remember your kindness from many years ago, how you saved me from my wicked stepmother, fed me and cared for me. I have come to repay you by saving your life and the lives of all the Jews of Prague. A wicked priest called all of us bakers together and urged us to poison the bread we bake after the holiday, when the Jews come to buy. He promised us eternal reward and forgiveness of all our sins."

The Noda B'Yehuda thanked him and made a plan. He had a warning proclaimed in all the shuls of Prague that the Rav forbade any Jew in the city to buy bread from the gentile bakers. The Jews of Prague heeded the ruling and were saved.