Once there was nice religious boy who at age 28 still wasn’t married. For most of Western society that is not a tragedy at all but in this young man’s circle they would get married at 22-24 years old, so he was on the late side watching all his peers raising children already. He was the only one still waiting to find the right one and get on with his life.
When his younger brother reached marriageable age this young man told him: “I want you to know I have no problem with you getting married before me (which sometimes stigmatizes the older one). I bless you wholeheartedly to find your match and build a beautiful home together. His blessing worked and his younger brother quickly found his match and got engaged.
Before the marriage the older brother ran around with his younger brother helping with all the errands shopping and wedding arrangements without one ounce of jealousy or resentment or anything else that could consume a person from inside.
Our young man is now 30 and still single and broken hearted, without a lot of hope for finding the right one. He decided to call up his younger brother and see how he’s doing; they hadn’t spoken for a few weeks. He asked “how are you doing”, and his younger brother could hardly conceal his stress and said: “G-d will help, G-d will help!”
It wasn’t difficult to surmise that his younger brother was under financial stress and in the conversation he managed to figure out that his younger brother was broke and had no food at home for Shabbat and it was already Thursday afternoon. The older brother hopped on a bus from Bnei Brak to the Southern town where his younger brother lived and took the savings he put away for a rainy day (or his wedding). He went to the supermarket and filled up a few carts with food paid and brought it to his brother. He knocked on the door, they answered; they were astounded to see him and even more astounded by the sheer amounts of what he bought for them.
The younger brother originally tried refusing the gift but his older brother hugged him and said “I’m not taking it back to the store!” He left them an envelope with another 2,000 shekel and left back home.
That evening there was a wedding. The younger brother’s wife was supposed to go to this wedding but with the financial stress being what it was she decided she just couldn’t go. That was her original plan. But when the house suddenly filled with food courtesy of her older brother in law, her spirits lifted and she happily went to the wedding. She even made it for the beginning for the ‘Huppa’ (bridal canopy).
During the ‘Huppa’, this woman observed another young woman standing at the side of the canopy praying tearfully. Her lips were mumbling silent prayers for salvation. The Huppa concluded and this woman asked the young woman why she was crying and praying so; perhaps she could also help her with prayers or other assistance.
“I am waiting to get married for many years already but haven’t yet found my match,” the young woman said. “I simply cried out to G-d and asked him to send my groom so we could together build a house of Torah.” The woman spoke to her a bit and saw she would actually be suitable for her older brother in law who was still single. She said: “I actually have a match form you who has a sterling personality…
And the rest is history… from helping his younger brother this man ultimately helped himself and went on to build a beautiful house of Torah filled with love and kindness with his bride he may have never met were it not for his own kindness.
