Rabbi in Israel: "Give Maaser and the Mice Will Go away"!

A man recently approached Rav Chaim Kanievsky with the following dilemma. He explained that his house had been infested with mice, and he had explored every option to get rid of them to no avail. He related that he had engaged expert exterminators to set traps and place poisons, but it had not helped, and the mice kept returning. In fact, the man told Rav Chaim, the situation was so unbearable that he and his family had to move out of their apartment.

Rav Chaim listened to the man’s tale and then asked, “Are you careful about giving maaser (tithes)?”

The man responded that he is scrupulous about giving maaser from all food that is brought into his home.

“Are you also careful about giving maaser kesafim, maaser from the money you or your wife earn?” asked Rav Chaim.

The man answered in the affirmative.

Rav Chaim inquired as to whom the man gives his maaser money. The man said that he uses the maaser money to pay off his debts.

Rav Chaim instructed the man, from then on, to be sure to give his maaser money only to poor people and to no one else. In that merit, he said, his mice problem would go away.

Since he was in such dire financial straits, the man asked Rav Chaim if there was any way he could use his maaser money to pay off monies that he owes. Rav Chaim said that he may do so only if he is exceedingly careful about it and records every single shekel spent, with a plan to pay back the money later on when his financial situation improves.

The man accepted the guidance of Rav Chaim and received his bracha before returning home.