Adam and Judy Levine walked their grandparents to their car. The elderly couple had driven down from Manchester to visit the children and their parents. "And happy birthday to you, my darling Adam." Adam blushed as his grandmother kissed him. She slipped a little envelope into his hand and the car drove away.
"Well," Adam turned to his sister, "I guess it's back to our homework." His sister shrugged "for you maybe, but I have choir practice. Bye." It was only later when Adam was trying to wipe the ink stains off his hand that he remembered the envelope that his grandmother had given him. "Gosh," he exclaimed as he opened the card "thirty dollars! That's nice of them. Wow! I think I'll be able to buy that new computer game that Rafi has. Or maybe I'll get that new book, or maybe..."
The next day, as Adam prepared to leave school, his mind was still busy racing with ideas of what to buy with his birthday money. "Hey Rafi," he called out to his friend; Rafi would give him good advice. As the two boys walked into the local game shop Rafi turned to his friend and asked, "by the way, Adam, did you give a tenth of your birthday money to charity?"
Adam looked at Rafi quizzically. "What are you talking about? I don't know what that is."
Rafi explained, "Remember, in school today, Mr. Greenberg was talking about Jacob?" Adam had a vague memory of the class, but truthfully speaking, his mind had been focusing more on the game of football that had just ended in the previous gym lesson. "What about Jacob?" Adam asked.
"Well, Mr. Greenberg was telling us how Jacob was traveling towards the home of his uncle Laban. On the way he lay down to sleep, and had a dream of a ladder, with angels going up and down".
"Oh, yes, I remember that", said Adam.
"Well, anyway, in the morning Jacob turned to G-d and promised that he would give Him a tenth of everything he would earn. Since then, Jews have given a tenth of their earnings to charity. That means for every pound you get, you give ten pence. Mr. Greenberg said it helps us remember that really the money we get is from G-d."
Adam thought of his grandmother. Was the envelope with thirty dollars from her or from G-d? Maybe G-d gave her the idea to give it to him. Then he said aloud "So a tenth of thirty would be three dollars. Maybe I can give it to the collection they have at school for people hurt in terrorist attacks in Israel. And you can share in the good deed because it was your idea!" The boys nodded at each other and turned to look at the game shelves. Adam had twenty-seven dollars to spend.
