By Rabbi Shais Taub

I want to tell you the story of how a complete stranger finished off our campaign for us last year. But first, a little background.

My first Charidy campaign was in 2019—a relatively modest campaign with a goal of $120,000. Little did I know at the time that this campaign would make it possible for SoulWords to continue producing content during the COVID lockdown, when all of my speaking fees, which had until then been SoulWords’ primary source of income, disappeared overnight.

Since then, we have held a Charidy campaign every year, setting a higher goal each time. Eventually, this enabled us to purchase the property that is now the SoulWords House, just half a block from the Ohel, where we have our full video-production studios and host events, classes, farbrengens, and groups visiting the Ohel.

Last year’s campaign was by far our biggest ever because it had to cover not only the operating costs of our staff and video production for the year but also the extensive renovations needed to make the house fit for visitors. The campaign was set to run for two and a half days.

At the end of those two and a half days, we were still only at 50 percent.

People told me, “Campaigns are rough. Move on and try again next time.”

I said no. I was not going to stop.

I knew how much love there was for SoulWords and how many people genuinely valued what we were doing. I also knew that people are busy and that a fundraising campaign can easily get lost in the barrage of constant information that we are all subjected to these days. Someone may feel that they receive real value from SoulWords and genuinely want to support it, but unless the campaign gets in front of that person at just the right moment, he or she may never act. So I knew the support was out there, but we had to get people’s attention.

I decided that I did not care how long it took. We were not stopping the campaign until we reached our goal.

And so I spent the next two months calling and texting people, doing livestreams, going on other people’s podcasts, and promoting the campaign wherever I could. I did not stop, and the money kept trickling in. It was slow but steady. It never stopped.

Little by little, we got closer and closer to the goal each day.

Then, one Friday last August, I went into Shabbos having just calculated how much we still needed. We were $6,414 short in actual donations, since every dollar was being matched. If we could raise that final $6,414, the campaign would be over.

After Shabbos, I made Havdalah and prepared to get right back to the grind. But first, I opened the campaign page to remind myself exactly how much we still needed.

And there it was—the iconic Charidy confetti screen celebrating a completed campaign. We had reached our goal.

But how?
A single donor had made a gift of $6,414, the exact amount we needed to the dollar.

The donor’s name was unfamiliar to me. I checked the records and discovered that he had already contributed once a few days earlier. Now he had returned and donated again—this time giving the exact amount needed to finish the campaign.

Who was this person? How had he found us? And what would make someone I had never met decide that he wanted to be the one to carry SoulWords across the finish line?

I reached out to thank him and learned his story.

First of all, he was not Jewish. He lived in Texas and grew up in a town where there were only two Jewish kids in his entire school. Recently, however, he had begun a spiritual journey and discovered SoulWords online. He started watching our classes and was deeply moved by the way we spoke about spiritual ideas in language that felt relevant and accessible to him. He said it lifted him up at a very dark time in his life.

When he saw that the campaign was nearing its goal, he decided that he wanted to have the honor of being the one to finish it.

I found the entire experience astonishing, but it also clarified something for me.

The world is enormous. And yet it is also remarkably small. Especially with this tool called technology, we have the ability to affect each other’s lives in ways we never could have imagined before.

Like every powerful tool, technology can be used for many purposes. But perhaps its greatest purpose is to bring the light of Chassidus to people who, for whatever reason, would never otherwise encounter it.

The SoulWords “virtual community,” as I like to call it, has brought truth and light to people who would never walk into a Chassidus shiur. Maybe it’s because of where they live. Maybe it’s because they are afraid or have past experiences that hold them back. Baruch Hashem, the SoulWords platform has allowed me to break down these barriers to entry. My greatest “nachas,” of course, is when I receive messages from Jews who had been estranged from Yiddishkeit and something we put out online gave them the feeling that it was safe to start coming back.

We live in a world where people are searching. Most do not even know that the ideas for which they are searching exist. Yet they are looking for clarity. They want language with which to understand their inner lives and the purpose for which they were created. Baruch Hashem, Chassidus gives us that. And today, we can reach these people wherever they may be. There are very few limits anymore to whom and where we can reach.

In some months, SoulWords content reaches as many as 10 million people. Our community now includes 146,000 YouTube subscribers, 711,000 Instagram followers, and hundreds of thousands more across other platforms. We also have a small physical center half a block from the Ohel, where people gather for classes, farbrengens, programs, and meaningful conversations.

Behind all of this is a staff that helps us produce and distribute an enormous amount of content, the vast majority of which remains available completely free.

That model is possible because the virtual SoulWords community basically supports itself, meaning that those who receive value help us continue providing it to others.

This year, our annual campaign has passed 90% of its $400,000 goal and is once again approaching the finish line. Every contribution is currently being matched dollar-for-dollar.

I do not know who will bring us across the finish line this time, if it will be one big donation or a bunch of little ones. But last year reminded me that you never know who is listening or where in the world the final act of partnership will come from.

If you have received value from SoulWords, please help complete this year’s campaign and continue bringing that light to people everywhere.

Every donation is matched 2x: https://www.charidy.com/RST