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A young man by the name of Dovi, came to his former Rabbi's house, Rabbi Mishkovsky, to personally deliver his wedding invitation. The Rabbi was so excited. He hugged his student and opened the invitation in front of him. The name of the bride's family looked familiar. He said, "This is a Lubavitch family, right?"
"Yes," said Dovi.
"Do me a favor," the Rabbi asked. Ask your future mother-in-law if she ever received a dollar from the Rebbe."It was the custom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe to distribute one-dollar bills. In Lubavitch circles those bills are considered blessed.
Dovi later reported back and said, "Yes, my mother-in-law told me that she got a dollar bill in Shevat of 5751, which in English is January of 1991." The Rabbi was taken aback. Then he told Dovi, "I have a million dollar story to tell you. Please invite me to one of your Sheva Berachot and I will tell it there."
It was the last Sheva Berachot, and the Rabbi got up to speak. Everybody was excited. The Rabbi said, "After I got married, I was learning in a Yeshiva in Netanya. I got involved in teaching some younger boys on the side. I saw that a lot of teenagers were getting mixed up in the wrong things and getting distanced from Torah. I dedicated a lot of my time to befriending them and organizing classes for them.
Eventually, I opened up a center for them. I took on the financial obligations myself. It ended up taking over my whole life, so much so that my marriage began to suffer from it. My wife felt that I had taken on responsibilities that were way over my head at the expense of my obligations to my family and my Torah learning.
I felt that I was saving lives, so I could not give it up. Time went on, but nothing changed. I was involved in Kiruv at all hours, and my wife was unhappy. We decided one day that we needed to come up with some type of plan going forward because neither of us were budging.
We went out to eat in a park near a waterfall to talk things out. As we were eating I spotted something red tumbling down the falls. It looked like it might have been a child, so I immediately leaped to my feet, jumped into the water, suit, shoes and all, and I lifted out a little girl, coughing and gasping for air.
My wife wrapped her up in a blanket and patted her until she spat out all of the water. We then walked up the road to see where she came from. We saw a large family barbecue happening. The people there did not even realize that the girl fell in. When the mother saw us she screamed and came running to hug her daughter.
She was so thankful. She took out her wallet and wanted to pay us. I said "No, we don't take money." Then, she pulled out what she told me was a very precious possession of hers- the dollar that she once received from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, which had written on it the date, Shevat 5751."
The Rabbi paused, he looked at the crowed, and pulled out that one-dollar bill from his pocket. He said, "I was the one who saved your daughter that day, who is now, Baruch Hashem, a bride".
The story is not over, however.
"My wife told me after that episode, 'It is clear to me that you need to save lives. You have my blessings to continue on in your holy work.' We then moved to Jerusalem where we set up a Yeshiva in the suburbs for boys who needed a different approach- boys who needed more time and love. The groom sitting in front of us here, Dovi, is one of my prized students from that Yeshiva. How fitting it is, that he married the individual responsible for the establishment of that Yeshiva."
The crowd was awestruck. The Rabbi thanked Hashem publicly for meriting being able to see the fruits of his labor.
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