In the winter of 5763, 2003 married Kollel Students were in dire financial state. Many of them fought valiantly to not enter the work force and stay in learning with great sacrifice. Rabbi Shteinman felt the pain of these Kollel Students and tried every way possible to make life easier for them to overcome this test.
One day a very wealthy man came to visit Rabbi Shteinman who was very generous. He came to Israel specifically to help the Kollel Students. As he knew that Rabbi Shteinman was the address for this he went to visit him. But in spite of his good intentions his ides weren’t suitable…
He was ushered into Rabbi Shteinman’s room sat down and explained his idea. “Honorable Rabbi, I had the idea to make vocational training for Kollel Students who wish to earn an honorable living in the work force.”
As he spoke, this man took out a check for 100 million dollars and passed it to Rabbi Shteinman saying “here’s my donation for this” sure that the Rabbi would accept the exceptionally large donation with gratitude. But Rabbi Shteinman didn’t move a muscle he looked at the check and at the wealthy man and said: “The Torah World needs strengthening, not weakening! We must increase Torah learning and not decrease it. It’s forbidden to touch the world of Torah! Forbidden! Forbidden!”
The wealthy man was shocked and Rabbi Shteinman gently pushed the check back into his hand and said: “If you’re worried about the Torah learners you should know it’s better they live poor than to live wealthy! In every exile the poor were the ones who were steadfast and stayed Jewish!”
“And you may think the poor Kollel students are piteous, I urge you to speak to them about this. They’ll tell you there is no one more fortunate!”
The shocked wealthy man put the check back in his wallet and a warm tear escaped his eyes. The lesson he learned from Rabbi Shteinman about the importance of Torah is something he would remember forever.
