Story from Ksav sofer:
There was a woman who immediately upon her husband’s passing, as she had no sons, she asked the rosh yeshivah to arrange for Torah scholars to say kaddish for her husband for the entire eleven months, and also each successive year on the yahrzeit. She also requested that a second kaddish be said each day, having in mind all those souls who have no one saying kaddish for them. This went on for nearly ten years.
In time the window lost all her money but she continued to pay to say Kaddish, she asked Ksav Sofer if the kaddishes were still being said, and he comforted her that they were.
Suddenly the door opened. A distinguished-looking older man entered, turned to the widow, and asked her why she was crying. He told her that he knew of her desperate situation and that he was prepared to help. He then requested of the rosh yeshivah that they all go into his office, and that two scholars of the yeshivah join them. The rosh yeshivah acceded, and summoned two of his five great disciples present that year: his son, Rabbi Shimon Sofer, and Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld.
When they were all assembled, the mysterious guest said, “I know you have five daughters of marriageable age. Let’s figure. Each one needs a thousand kroner for dowry money, and another thousand kroner each for the expenses of the wedding and for buying furniture and setting up a household. So, that is two thousand for each of the five, or ten thousand altogether. Plus, to put your business back on its feet, you need another ten thousand kroner, so that makes twenty thousand altogether.
“All right, then,” he said, “I’ll write you a check.” Whereupon he took a checkbook out of his pocket, tore off a check, wrote the woman’s name on it, inscribed it for twenty thousand kroner and signed it! Before handing it to her, however, he asked the two young scholars to sign on the back as witnesses to the transaction. He also asked them to take out their personal notebooks so he could sign in each a sample of his signature, in case the signature on the check would be challenged. Turning back to the woman, he told her that she should present the check at the government bank when it opened at nine o’clock, and they would honor it. Then he left as suddenly as he had come.
At nine the next morning, the widow was at the bank. The guard at the door directed her to one of the tellers, to whom she showed the check. He looked up the records and told her there was sufficient funds in the account to cover the check, but for such a huge sum he has to first get permission from the manager. He asked her to wait, and went to the administrative section. There he presented the check to the head of the bank, who took one look at it and fainted!
The doctor that was summoned quickly revived the bank manager. As soon as he gained consciousness, the manager asked that the woman who had brought the check be shown in to him. When told she had been locked up by security, he said that he must go to her; a great mistake had been made, to lock up such a righteous woman. He went quickly and, after apologizing, invited her to accompany her into his office.
“Tell me, please,” he opened, after they were seated, “how did you get this check?”
She told him of her difficulties and the sudden appearance of her unknown benefactor. She explained about her deceased husband and his practice of daily maaser, and of the kaddishes she had arranged through the yeshivah for him and for those souls who had no one to say kaddish for them.
He asked her: if she would see her benefactor again, or his picture, would she recognize him? She said yes. She added that two rabbis from the yeshivah were official witnesses to the whole episode, and that their signatures are on the back of the check, and that the man had also signed in their personal notebooks. The manager was excited to hear this, and after looking at their signatures, contacted the yeshivah to ask that Rabbi Sonnenfeld and Rabbi Shimon Sofer come to his office.
They came and confirmed all that the woman had said. The bank manager then told the three of them that he would personally honor the check, as it was drawn on his own family account, but that his wife had to endorse it too. He then sent for his wife with the message that she should come quickly, because people were waiting for her, but first she should collect all the family photographs in the house and bring them with her.
Although the bank manager was a Jew, his wife was not. When she arrived, he asked the widow and the two rabbis to wait in a different room. He told his wife what was going on, and said, “Let’s see if the woman can identify the man who signed the check from among these photographs.” She declared that if it all turned out to be true, she would convert to be Jewish.
The manager then spread out all of the photos on his desk. He asked each of the three to enter separately and see if the man who gave the check appeared in any of them. Each one confidently picked out the same person.
The bank manager called everyone in. “Do you know who is this man who gave the check?” he asked. “It is my father, the manager of the bank before me. But he has been dead for ten years!
“I must confess,” he told them, “that I never said kaddish for him. Last night he appeared to me in a dream. He said that he had been saved from Gehinnom by the kaddishes that she had arranged for the yeshivah scholars to say for those souls for whom kaddish was not being said, and now that she was in difficulty we must help her. He said that he would give her a check for twenty thousand kroner, and that if I didn’t pay it, he would strangle me in my sleep.
When the check was shown to me at the bank, I fainted.
“I woke up, frightened. In the morning I told my wife the dream, and she was disturbed too. When the check was shown to me at the bank, I fainted. I knew then that the dream was true.
“I will pay the twenty thousand my father promised, for it is certainly a deserving cause. Not only that,” he added, turning to the woman, “I will add another twenty thousand of my own, because you fulfilled my obligation for me, and helped my deceased father’s soul with the kaddish-saying you arranged.”
He addressed the three of them again. “I fully regret my lapse from Judaism. I see now that our G‑d is the one true G‑d, and He gives to all their just reward. I resolve that from now on I will fulfill His commandments as revealed in our Torah. My wife, too, has reaffirmed her promise to convert and to live in accordance with Jewish law. Please guide us to understand what we have to do.”