The Zohar HaKadosh (Vayikra ק״ד ) teaches that because Hashem is so loving and merciful, when a harsh decree hangs over a person, Hashem sends him a precious gift that can help annul it. That gift often comes in the form of a mitzvah opportunity. The example the Zohar gives is when a poor person comes asking for charity. If the person seizes the opportunity and gives with generosity and a good heart, he draws upon himself a special protection that can ward off the decree. The Midrash in Vayikra Rabbah teaches: יותר ממה שבעל הבית עושה עם העני — העני עושה עם בעל הבית — more than the giver does for the poor man, the poor man does for the giver. The poor man grants the giver life, livelihood, and success. A giver may feel the poor person is indebted to him, but in truth, it is often the other way around. Rabbi Sneer Guetta related a story he heard from someone who knew it firsthand. It took place about forty years ago in Israel. One day a man named Avi was arranging the bins in front of his vegetable store when he noticed an infant lying in a broken carriage, covered with a dirty blanket, with no adult nearby. He began asking the people around if the baby belonged to them, but they all said no. Avi waited several minutes and still no one came. Finally he saw a woman searching through a garbage pail and went over to ask her. She said the baby was hers and apologized for worrying him. Avi immediately understood that she was in desperate financial straits and told her that he wanted to take upon himself the responsibility of supporting her child. He instructed her to come once a month to pick up an envelope with money, and that whenever she needed, she could simply come to the store and take whatever food the baby required. The woman burst into tears and thanked him from the depths of her heart. And indeed, every month she came for the envelope, and often she came for food. This arrangement continued not for one year, not for two years, but for more than twenty years. Avi never told her "enough already." He never limited what she could take. Then one day he received a call from a young man who told him, "You are an angel sent from Heaven." Avi did not understand what he meant. The young man introduced himself as Shimon and said he was engaged to Emily — the girl Avi had been supporting for the past twenty years. Avi was overjoyed to hear she was engaged. Shimon continued that his own family was well-established and from now on he himself would support Emily, so Avi could stop preparing the monthly envelopes. To Shimon's surprise, Avi pleaded with him to allow him to continue supporting her. Shimon could not understand. She no longer needed the money. Why insist? Avi then told him the story. Twenty years earlier, Avi had become entangled with dangerous criminals. One day they came to his store armed with guns and attempted to kill him. Miraculously he escaped. Shaken, he went to a great rabbi to ask what he should do — whether he should flee the country or change his identity. The rabbi told him he was certain that Hashem operates by the principle of מדה כנגד מדה so that if he would give life to another, Hashem would give life to him. He advised Avi to find someone whose life he could sustain. Avi answered that he did not know of anyone. The rabbi told him to pray that Hashem would send him the opportunity. The very next day Avi found that abandoned baby outside his store. From that day forward, he understood that supporting her was the mission that was sustaining his own life. Now he begged to be allowed to continue. Shimon listened, but he still felt that once Emily no longer needed the support, it would not be proper tzedakah. He asked Avi to hold off on sending the next envelope while he considered the matter. That very week, the criminals returned — and this time they took Avi's life. It was clear that his allotted time had come, and that the twenty years Hashem had granted him through that mitzvah had reached their end. The man who told Rabbi Guetta this story had been at Avi's funeral and personally confirmed the details. Most of the time, the effects of giving are not so dramatic or visible. But the lesson remains the same: whenever we help another person or give charity, we must realize that it is we who are gaining the most.