Rav Meir Premishlan was a tremendous tzaddik and an unusually giving person. At his levayah, Rav Shlomo Kluger said in his eulogy that he never saw another human who gave as much of himself away as Rav Meir Premishlan. Rav Meir would give everything he owned away to others. His pockets were a train station; money never remained in his possession for long. His house was empty of all movable contents, and didn’t have much other than a table and chairs, which he might have also given away if not for some restraint from his family members.

Rav Meir liked to quote the Gemara which says that “Rebbi mechabed es haashirim.” We would think that this means that R’ Yehuda Hanasi honored wealthy men, but the Gemara teaches that in this context, the word ‘mechabed’ means ‘sweeping out’. Rebbi would sweep the wealthy men out of his house, because he wanted only the poor present.

Similarly, Rav Meir did not honor wealth at all. Though vast sums of money passed through his hands to tzedakah, he did not take donations from the wealthy since he despised the honor they demanded when offering money to the poor. Instead, he vastly preferred the charity of one struggling man to another struggling more than him, from a pauper to those even more destitute than him. These donations, though miniscule, were priceless in their purity.

Every week, beginning on Sunday, Rav Meir would begin to collect money to distribute to the poor before Shabbos. He had a mission to ensure that every family in town would have meat to eat in honor of Shabbos.

One week, however, there was a large snowfall, which hindered his regular fundraising route. It was difficult to traverse the snow, ice, and subsequent mud to reach the homes of his regular donors, and there was barely anyone in the streets whom he could approach for a donation. Needless to say, although Shabbos was nearing, Rav Meir had collected but a few pennies; not nearly enough to purchase meat for all the paupers of the city.

Late Thursday afternoon, it became clear to Rav Meir that he would not be able to help the poor of his city the way he did each week. Unless…

Unless…

The only thing of value that Rav Meir and his wife owned was a cow. The cow would graze and provide them with milk, which served as a primary source of their sustenance. It was also a small source of income, since Rav Meir’s wife would sell the extra milk from their cow and use the money to purchase the basic necessities they needed.

But now, Rav Meir decided that the time had come to put the cow to a different use. Without any fanfare, he brought the cow to the local shochet to slaughter the cow and salt its meat. The poor of his city would enjoy delicious and bountiful beef over Shabbos.

But when Rav Meir returned home, grateful that he’d merited another week of bringing the splendor of Shabbos into so many poor homes, he found his wife completely frantic.

“Our cow has been stolen!” she cried. “What will we do? Our cow disappeared!”

“I know where our cow is,” Rav Meir replied, so joyously that his wife immediately calmed down. “Our cow is in Shamayim. Most cows live for just a few years, but ours will continue providing us with ‘milk’ forever and ever in Olam Habah.”

Have a Wonderful Shabbos!

This story is taken from tape #TG92