The next morning the woman went to the bank to cash the check but was informed by the teller that due to the large denomination involved, he needed to consult his higher up. As soon as the bank manager saw the check, he crumpled to the floor in a dead faint.
When he regained consciousness, he asked the woman to tell him how she had acquired the draft. The widow related the incident with the old man, upon which the manager produced some photographs and asked her if any were of the man who had given her the check.
The widow handily picked out the photo with the likeness of her benefactor, and the bank manager fainted again. As soon as he came to, he directed his underling to pay the woman the entire amount of the draft.
To his flummoxed employees, the banker later explained that his father who had passed away ten years earlier had come to him in a dream on the previous night and had lamented that ever since his son had abandoned his religion and ceased to say Kaddish for him, his neshama had no peace – until this woman, previously unknown to either of them, arranged for Kaddish to be said for the benefit of his soul.
In the dream, his father had further informed him that this woman would be visiting the bank on the following day and that he was to pay her the full amount on the draft that he (the father) had given the widow to enable her to marry off her two daughters.
As R’ Yosef Chaim Zonenfeld concluded the story, he added that he had been one of the two eyewitnesses to the old man’s signature (the other was R’ Yehuda Greenwald, in later years the Rav of Satmar in Hungary), and that the incredible episode had motivated the Jewish banker to turn his life around and become completely Torah observant.
An incredible story indeed, and most fitting for the time of year that highlights the dominant themes of miracles and gifts for the poor. Oh, and again it was a woman, who with quiet dignity “behind the scenes” was a force to be reckoned with.
