       At one time EIiezer, a holy beggar in the city of Rimanov, had to marry
off his daughter. He was one of the sitters of Reb Mendeles Bais Medrash, and he
needed a thousand rubles to marry off his daughter. So he made himself strong
and he got  up his courage and he went to the rich man of the town, and asked
him, "Do me a favor. Can you please give me a loan of a thousand rubles to marry
off my daughter?" The rich man looked at him and said, "If you would be honest,
if you would tell me, 'give me charity, give me a thousand rubles', I would talk to
you straight, but you are coming to me for a loan. Tell me, how would you ever
pay back the thousand rubles? lts the biggest joke, in the world' " Then he said,
"I'll tell you what. If you can bring me the signature of another rich man I'll
gladly give you the loan, but otherwise, no." The whole thing seemed to him
like the biggest joke in the world. Eliezer said, "Give I me a contract and I'll fill
it out." The rich man wrote out a whole contract that someone will take guarantee
that he will pay back the thousand rubles.

       Eliezer went back to the Bais Medrash and he put his head in the holy
ark. And he signed that paper, and this is what he signed.


                            "Li hakesef, Li hazahav, Niume HaShem"


       If you translate it simply it says, 'Mine is the silver, Mine is the gold,
says the L-rd.' But if you really really translate it, it says, 'Mine is the silver,
Mine is the gold. Signed, G-d.' Then he went back to the rich man and brought
him this paper.

    The rich man looked at him and thought, "If this was a joke before, now
it is a mamash a joke." But do you know something, he was so taken by this joke,
because of the naivete of this man, who really thinks G-d is paying back for him.
So, just for the kick of it, he said, "Okay. I'll give you a thousand rubles."

          Four weeks later, someone came to the office of this rich man and left
an envelope, and it said, "This is the thousand rubles paid back for Eliezer the
poor shlepper." According to the Torah, if no time limit is specified, then an
ordinary loan is for thirty days. The rich man came to his office, and the secretary
said, "There was someone here who left an envelope for you paying back the
money for Eliezer, the shlepper." He opened the envelope. In it, one thousand rubles.

     He was mamash ashamed of himself, he felt so low. He took his wagon
and went to Eliezer the poor shlepper and he said, "Eliezer, Im sorry I put you
through all this trouble. Imagine, nebech, you went to someone else to borrow
the money to pay me back but you didn't really have to." Eliezer said, "I don't
know what you are talking about." The rich man showed him the envelope.
"Someone came and brought me back the thousand rubles." This was too much
for both of them. So Eliezer the holy shlepper said, 'Let's go to my holy Rebbe,
Reb Mendele Rimanover, and let's ask him."

          They came to the holy Rimanover. The holy Rimanover looked at the
envelope, he looked at the money, He kissed the envelope and said,
"Don't you know, don't you know, the envelope is from heaven, and the money
is from heaven. When this little Jew signed G-d's name on that paper, there was
a fire in heaven, because he really believed that G-d would pay back for him."
There was a riot in heaven - Everybody wanted to pay for him. Our father Avraham
wanted to go pay for him. Isaac and Moses wanted to, also. But finally the honor
was bestowed on the greatest messenger of all, Eliyahu haNavi, the Prophet Elijah."
Then he told the rich man, "If you only had also believed that G-d would
pay back, you would have had the privilege of seeing Elijah give you the
money in person. But since you thought it was all just a joke, you only got the money,
but you did not see his holy face."
                        
          This rich man was really put to shame. He said, "How call I ever use such
such holy money, money from heaven? How can I ever use it for mysetf?"So, he
left it with Reb Mendele Rimanover. What Reb Mendele did with the money
we don't know. We only know that years later Reb Hershele Rimanover got the
holy envelope as a present from his father, Reb Mendele.
          
      My darling friends, maybe some day you will be walking on the street somewhere
and you will see an empty envelope. Please don't step on it, don't throw it away -
Maybe its the envelope of Eliahu haNovi, and maybe in
that little envelope there is a little note that says, "Li hakesef, Mine is the silver,
Li hazahav, Mine is the gold, Niume Hashem. Signed G-d."