In a moving and uplifting gathering during the days leading up to Pesach, Rav Moshe Sternbuch personally handed out kimcha d’Pischa envelopes to 180 yungeleit of his Teshuvos V’Hanhagos kollel, as part of a broad effort he leads each year to support thousands of families ahead of Yom Tov.

This distribution was only the opening stage of a much larger system of assistance that Rav Sternbuch oversees annually. The initiative includes support for hundreds of kollel yungeleit, additional aid for rabbanim and dayanim affiliated with the Eidah Hachareidis, assistance for rabbanim connected to his yeshiva in Beit Shemesh, and extensive support for many tzedakah funds both in Eretz Yisroel and abroad.

Despite the massive scope of this operation, Rav Sternbuch made a point of personally distributing the envelopes to the yungeleit, whom he regards with the closeness of children, following a halachic shiur he delivered at the end of the zman.

Those present wondered why, given the heavy burden on his time—including ongoing correspondence with major supporters of the olam haTorah—he chose not to delegate the task. In response, Rav Sternbuch shared a powerful and deeply stirring story he had heard decades earlier from Rav Yechezkel Abramsky, a story that sheds light on the depth of every act of tzedakah.

He recounted that Rav Abramsky once described an incident recorded in the ledger of the chevra kadisha in Vilna. It told of the wife of the Vilna Gaon, who would go together with a friend to collect funds for the poor of the city. At one point, they made an agreement that whichever of them would pass away first would appear to the other in a dream and reveal what takes place in the Olam HaEmes.

Years later, the friend passed away first. After some time, she appeared in a dream to the wife of the Vilna Gaon and said that it is impossible to describe how every small action is calculated in Shamayim. She explained that she had no permission to reveal what occurs there, except for one detail due to their agreement.

She reminded her of a specific incident: they had once seen a poor man across the street, and instead of going over to him, she motioned for him to come. Although he came and gladly received the money, she was later held accountable for not making the effort to go to him herself. That small lack of effort was viewed as a diminishment in the value of the mitzvah, and the level of judgment was described as profound.

The next morning, shaken, the wife of the Vilna Gaon told the Gaon about the dream. He instructed that the members of the chevra kadisha be gathered to hear it and record it for future generations, so that people would understand the depth of judgment in matters of mitzvos.

Rav Abramsky added that from then on, whenever he would send money to a poor person or institution by mail, he would not send a messenger, as was common at the time. Instead, he would personally go and place it in the mailbox, so as not to lose the merit of physically exerting himself for the mitzvah of tzedakah.

The message Rav Sternbuch conveyed was clear: when it comes to tzedakah, there is no substitute for personal effort. Every small act is counted. For him, personally distributing the funds was not just a practical step—it was an opportunity to fulfill the mitzvah fully, with personal involvement, dignity, and care.