The Maharsha and the Secret Cornerstone Donor

After the ceremony, the Maharsha called the gabbai and made the following request: “Please ask the donor if he would be agreeable for you to divulge his identity to me alone.” When the donor heard that the Maharsha himself wants to know his identity, he immediately consented as long as it remained a secret to everyone else.

The Maharsha summoned the donor into his study. The donor did not appear to be a man of means. He explained to the Maharsha that, in fact, he was not a wealthy man, and that the 500 rubles he had paid for the cornerstone laying constituted nearly his entire net worth. He had prayed incessantly to be blessed with children and was not yet answered. He thought that perhaps in the merit of donating so much tzedakah secretly, Hashem would bless him with children.

The Maharsha was touched by the donor’s words and blessed him that he would have a son who would study in the new yeshiva. Within a year, the donor’s wife gave birth to a boy. When the child reached bar mitzvah age, his father brought him to the Maharsha’s yeshiva. The gabbai, however, rejected him on the grounds that he was too young for yeshiva gedola. The father introduced himself and his son to the Maharsha. The Maharsha immediately accepted the boy into his yeshiva.