Welcome to the Daily Holy Story. Two wealthy brothers from the Straus family lived in America about 80 years ago and donated a great deal to charity for the people in Eretz Yisrael. One of the brothers was named Nathan Straus, and he donated a lot of money to build the city of Netanya. That city is named after him, Nathan.
The people of the settlements in Eretz Yisrael sent a message to the brothers that the people in Yerushalayim were very, very poor and needed a soup kitchen built to serve food to the poor people in Eretz Yisrael and their families. Nathan Straus felt very pained by the poverty of Yerushalayim. However, his brother did not want to donate money for the soup kitchen. As a result, Nathan Straus himself donated all the money from his own pocket to open it. He told the people of Yerushalayim that he would come to visit when the soup kitchen was finished.
A few months later, they notified Nathan Straus that construction of the soup kitchen was complete and that they were going to inaugurate it. They invited him to Yerushalayim. The two brothers arrived at the soup kitchen in Yerushalayim and saw hundreds and hundreds of poor people eating there. One of the brothers was very happy—of course, Nathan, who had donated money from his own pocket toward this cause. The second brother had not donated any money and was very, very disappointed to see so many poor people coming to eat in the soup kitchen. He did not participate in the suffering of the poor people and was not happy with the soup kitchen.
As they were leaving the soup kitchen, Nathan Straus fell down the steps and broke his ankle. He was taken to the hospital. He had a bad injury and was treated with a small operation. He needed to stay in the hospital. When his brother came to visit him and saw him suffering, he left. He said, “Look, this is the result you got from donating money to a soup kitchen.” Nathan kept quiet and did not answer.
In the meantime, the brothers had very important business matters waiting for them in Europe. The second brother decided to travel until his brother recovered. He went on a ship to Europe. As it exited the port and left Israel, the ship sank, and the brother died. The brother who laughed at the brother who broke his ankle did not know that HaKadosh Baruch Hu made his ankle break so that he would be protected and live because of the tzedakah (charity) he had done. As we know, the Pasuk (verse) says, U'tzedakah tatzil mimavet. Charity saves one from calamities. Thank you for listening and have a lovely, lovely day.