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In this week’s parasha Teruma , the Jewish People were asked to donate money to build a Mishkan for Hashem. And in turn, Hashem would come and dwell amongst them. Hashem did not need any of their money for the project. After all, He owns all the money in the world. But rather, He was giving them the zechut to give and thereby earn eternal merits from it. The pasuk says, ויקחו לי תרומה – Hashem called their giving taking, because we can’t really give Hashem anything. However, through our self-sacrifice, Hashem considers it like we gave Him something, but in actuality, we are really taking. We are earning the zechut of the mitzvah and the tzedaka that we give is rewarded here as well with Hashem giving us back the money we gave, plus more. We are supposed to feel that it is our greatest privilege to give money to help someone in need or to use in the performance of a mitzvah. Hashem appreciates every bit of self-sacrifice we have when we give money and He is ne'eman to pay it back. A man told me he was called by a yeshiva asking for help. He decided he was going to extend himself being that the yeshiva was in such great need and had so many students learning there. He pledged on the spot to give $400 a month which equaled to $4800 for the year. A couple of days later, his mortgage company contacted him saying that he was overpaying. They sent him a check for $5000 and said, going forward, he will be paying $5000 less per year. Another man told me he received a $14,000 credit towards a large debt that he owed. His rabbi told him he didn’t have to give ma’aser on that but he said he wanted to anyway. He donated $1,400 to a worthy cause. The next day, a credit showed up on his credit card bill for $1,431. He waited the entire week to see if the amount would be deducted from his bank account, but it never was. A rabbi told me, he always makes sure to get an aliyah at the Torah in honor of Rosh Chodesh. A couple of months ago, Rosh Chodesh was on a Friday. He went to a minyan to pray Shacharit where the aliyot usually sold for 5 shekel a piece. He is a Yisrael, but that day somehow, aliyat Yisrael got up to 50 shekel. He thought to himself, there was one more aliyah and he would wait for that one, but the bidding of that aliyah went even higher, it got to 90 shekel. He only had a total of 100 shekel on him. He was planning on using most of that money to buy things for Shabbat, but with mesirut nefesh he bid 100 shekel and he got the aliyah. The gabai asked him for the money right then and there. This meant he would have to drive all the way back to his home to get more money and then come back to this area to get what he needed for Shabbat, but for him it was worth all the efforts to get an aliyah to the Torah. As he pulled away from the shul, at the first traffic light right in front of his car there was a paper that kept circling. He got out of the car to go look at it and he saw it was a 100 shekel bill. He looked around, it didn’t belong to anybody. It just blew from somewhere. He thanked Hashem for showing him how much He appreciated his efforts and he used that money to buy what he needed for Shabbat. One other person told me he found out about a person in great need of help. He himself is a rebbe in a yeshiva and he only had $1600 in his savings account. He and his wife decided the cause was worthy enough for them to give up their savings money for it. Later on, a wealthy man found out about what they did. He reimbursed them for the full $1600 and seeing how pressing that need was, he donated over $10,000 of his own money to help that person in need. When we are motivated l’shem Shamayim , Hashem uses that money to go to the right places. He also gives us the zechut of the mitzvah and, later on, He pays us back the money plus more.