Life sure is interesting here in Israel. As our Sages say,
"Even the [mundane] conversations of the people who live in
the Land of Israel are Torah" (Vayikra Rabba 34:7).
Every day here in Israel is an education! There really is
never a dull moment, if you keep your eyes and ears open.
Birkat Rachel is a huge discount supermarket that caters to
the religious public. My friend Ruth W. was shopping there
one evening when she noticed a man with a shopping cart
frantically dashing from one cashier's line to another one.
After several trips back and forth to the various lines, the
frazzled man suddenly turned, and pushed his shopping cart to
the main cashier's area.
Standing nearby, Ruth overheard the harried man tell the head
cashier that he lives outside of Jerusalem and therefore has
an out-of-town bus to catch in order to get home. The
problem, he explained, is that this next bus is the last one
out of Jerusalem. And, unfortunately, he hadn't anticipated
that the checkout lines would be so long.
The head cashier looked out over the lines, and then called
out to one of the cashiers, "Stop the line. Let this man go
before your next customer."
Everybody seemed to evaluate the situation correctly. The
many people standing in the line behind their own loaded
shopping carts all waited patiently for their turn, behind
the rushing man who had cut in front of everyone.
Ruth didn't hear even one person mumble or grumble anything,
though everyone was obviously in a hurry to get home.
"It's nice to see that strangers empathize with the concerns
of others," said Ruth. "And on a food-shopping trip yet!"
*
My friend Arleen H. had a pleasant "run in" with a real
estate manager some years ago.
Arleen is constantly involved in doing and organizing
chessed projects. And sometimes, some of them lead to
the unexpected. In order to successfully complete one of her
newest projects, Arleen needed to get a key from a real
estate agent who was the managing representative for a
particular client's apartment.
Why did she need the key and the real estate agent?
Because Arleen had done some research and found out that, for
the next few days, a particular apartment near her home,
though usually rented out, would not have a tenant for a few
days. And, since she needed a "place" for a few hours for a
day or two, she hoped that she could get approval to use that
very apartment between occupants.
Well, Arleen being Arleen, tracked down the owner of the
apartment who lived in a different country, and got his
approval to use his empty apartment for a day or two.
Now, why did Arleen need this apartment for a day or two?
Because she had arranged to give out eggs to over forty poor,
religious families before the holiday. And, with an average
family size of ten to twelve children — i.e., twelve to
fourteen people per family — we are speaking about a
lot of eggs!
Having arranged for a person from each of these forty
families to come between 4 PM and 6 PM during the next two
days to get their eggs, Arleen now simply had to pick up the
key to the apartment from the real estate agent who managed
the property in the owner's absence.
Quite understandably, Arleen was instructed to leave a sum of
money as a deposit with the agent, guaranteeing that she
would return the key within two days. (Please remember that
neither the agent nor the absentee landlord even knew
Arleen!)
Well, Arleen got someone who owned a car to give her a ride
that morning to the real estate office so that she could pick
up the key. The real estate office was located on the other
side of town, in a building that had no elevator. After
climbing many, many, many stairs, an out-of-breath Arleen
finally reached the correct floor, and the real estate agent
handed her the key.
Which was when she realized that she had forgotten the
collateral money at home in an envelope on her dining room
table.
There was no way that Arleen could travel all the way back to
her apartment, pick up the envelope, and then return to the
real estate office (remember, someone was doing her a favor
by driving her by car). In fact, she really did not even have
enough time left to do it (she still had to pick up the eggs,
bring them into the apartment, and get set up for the over
forty people who would soon be coming in to get their eggs).
In fact, Arleen didn't even have the strength left to go up
and down all of those steps again!
So Arleen had no choice but to explain the problem to the
young real estate agent.
His very kind response was, "I'll give you the key if you can
give me something else that is of value."
Arleen opened up her pocketbook and saw that she didn't have
her checkbook with her, and that she only had a small amount
of change in her wallet. But there was absolutely no way that
she could possibly postpone this whole project! She had
invested so much time and effort, finding a vacant place to
give out the eggs, arranging with so many poor people to come
at the predetermined time, and on top of it all, because of
the fragile nature of the product being disseminated, the
distribution had to be completed by the deadline time of
being able to use the apartment. There was no way she could
begin shlepping cartons of eggs to different venues!!
At a loss as to what to do, yet knowing that it was urgent
that she get the key right now, Arleen noticed her book of
Tehillim in her pocketbook. Looking up at the young, bare-
headed man, Arlene asked if he would take her book of
Tehillim as a guarantee. The real estate agent looked at her
in amazement and asked, "Is that book of Tehillim really so
valuable?"
Arlene answered, "Of course it's valuable. I say several
chapters every day for various people. Each one is marked off
so that I can easily find it, and the names of the different
people I'm praying for are written next to each individual
chapter. I can't live without this book, because I can't
finish the day without saying all of these Tehillim from this
book. It's the most valuable possession I have in my
purse."
So the young, bare-headed real estate man who had never met
Arleen before agreed to give her the key to the apartment for
which he was completely professionally and financially
liable, and in return he took her well-worn book of Tehillim
as a guarantee.
A few hours later, before sunset of that same day, a
different neighbor who had been sent by Arleen showed up at
the real estate agent's office with the money, and Arleen got
back her Tehillim.
