Many of the mitzvot that we have require us to spend money on them. We must keep in mind that the One who gives us our money is the One who tells us to spend money on the mitzvot . The pasuk says, כי מידך הכל ומידך נתנו לך. Everything we have is from Hashem and it is from what He gives us that we give back to Him. We must also keep in mind what the Midrash says, אין אדם שומע לי ומפסיד – Hashem told us, a person never loses out by following what He wants. One of the mitzvot in the Torah is lending money. The way the halachot are structured, loans in general do get paid back. There is supposed to be a contract drawn up to record the loan and, immediately, when the loan becomes due, the borrower is obligated to repay the money. If the borrower does not have the funds, he must sell his possessions and keep for himself only the most basic necessities. One must even sell a Torah to repay his loan. This having been said, it still may happen that a loan does not get repaid. And in those cases, the lenders may feel cheated. They can rest assured that they will not lose out from the mitzvah that they performed. Hashem has infinite ways of helping them. They may not always see exactly how Hashem restores the funds to them, He acts in discreet ways, but He did tell us איו אדם שומע לי ומפסיד – nobody ever listened to Him and lost as a result. I read a story of a man, who we’ll call Shlomo, who said that one of his friends once came to his house in tears, begging him for help with money. This friend said he was in desperate need of 350,000 shekels to repay a different loan. Shlomo had once mentioned to him that he had some money saved up, and now the friend was asking for it. He assured Shlomo that he would pay back every penny as soon as possible. Shlomo’s sympathy welled up and he gave him the full amount. They set a date for the loan to be repaid by. But when that date arrived, this friend was nowhere to be found. He had vanished as if he never existed, leaving Shlomo with the knowledge that he would never get that money back. Shlomo and his wife were shocked. The pain and anguish they felt was indescribable. Years of savings were gone in an instant. They had to make many changes in their lives as a result, including Shlomo’s wife getting a job. Some time later, they sold their apartment for 1.5 million shekels and signed a contract that gave them six months to find another place. They grew out of their apartment and needed something bigger. They figured they were going to have to move to an undesirable neighborhood to find a place that would fit their budget. However, they were amazed to find a full house close to their current neighborhood for just 1.9 million shekels, far less than they would have expected to pay for such a property. As soon as they saw it, they loved it. It was much more spacious than their current apartment and they would even be able to close off part of the house and turn it into a studio apartment which they could rent out to cover their mortgage. Still, the asking price was too high for them. They tried convincing the owner to come down, but she refused to lower the price under any circumstances. They then started focusing on that 350,000 shekels that their so-called friend took from them. If they had that money, they would have been able to get this house. They knew Hashem was in charge, and in order to evoke extra heavenly mercy, they decided to heroically forgive that friend who took their money. They removed all resentment from their hearts and accepted that it all came from Hashem for their own good. They then prayed hard to find the best house that would suit their needs. A week later, the owner of the house called them and said she decided to be more flexible and sell the house for 1.6 instead. Shlomo and his wife were ecstatic. It seemed so unlikely that this owner would ever lower the price. They truly felt Hashem giving them back the money that they had loaned. Hashem has infinite ways of helping peopl