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A True Anecdote of How Hashem Helps with Yeshivah, Kosher Cell Phones, and Nice People

18/5/2021

7 Comments

 
One of my sons has an 18-year-old friend who, with his stern face & his noisy chartreuse motorcycle, doesn't look particularly God-fearing...but he is.

He refuses to own a cell phone with any kind of Internet, gets angry when his friends try to show him stuff from their cell phones, and insists on attending yeshivah rather than working. And yes, he also wears the customary charedi white shirt & black pants.

He trusts Hashem to take care of his financial needs (motorcycle & all that).

Last week, the kosher fast-food owner named Mustafa realized that sending out his usual Arab delivery guys on their motorcycles to deliver kosher fast food to customers risked their well-being due to the many young Jewish males who've gotten fed up with innocent Jews being randomly & brutally attacked—sometimes to death—by Muslim-Arab males.

(Yes, the same Mustafa of the kosher-for-Pesach Thousand Island dressing fiasco that appeared here: rav-avigdor-miller-on-parshat-shemini-all-about-anger.html. Mustafa is also a Muslim-Arab, but he rejects physical violence. He prefers making money & living an enjoyable life.)

So Mustafa sent the Arab delivery guys back home to Beit Tzafafa (a relatively peaceful & upscale Arab community in the Jerusalem area), then called on his Jewish employees to gather as many of their motorcyclist friends as possible to keep the deliveries going.

The normally frugal Mustafa declared, "Instead of paying them 30 shekels an hour, I will pay them 30 shekels per delivery! Just get them here and keep the business going!"

And that's how my son's motorcyclist friend, who happened to be home from yeshivah that evening, ended up earning over 400 shekels in just a few hours.

The icing on the cake was the last delivery of the night.

The staff forgot to shut down the restaurant's website on time. So when they came to shut it down, they noticed a new meal order from Beit Hakerem.

Realizing how bad it would be for business to ignore the order, the God-fearing yeshivish motorcyclist & his buddy took the order and went to find the customer in an apartment located on the 15th floor somewhere in Beit Hakerem.

Just as they reached the neighborhood, the buddy's Netspark-filtered cell phone with its Waze GPS died.

So they made do with the motorcyclist's little kosher cell phone to contact the woman for directions.

Apparently, it's a complicated area to maneuver, which caused them to get lost. So this older lady insisted on coming out to meet them, which ended up meaning a trek of a couple of blocks and crossing a highway—all at her own insistence.

Upon meeting, they apologized for the cooled-down food.

"No matter—I can easily warm it up in the microwave!" she reassured them.

They informed her that she had the right to a freebie in light of the considerable inconvenience they inadvertently caused her.

But she refused. In fact, she even insisted on tipping them!

"I'm sorry the tip is only 5 shekels," she said. "It's the only change I have in the house, I promise! I would give you more if I could! I'll order again next week and give you a proper tip then."

Of course, the boys didn't want to take her tip in light of the circumstances, but she insisted. She reassured them she realized it wasn't their fault (they already apologized profusely via the kosher cell phone, explaining what happened to the cell phone with Waze), and she only felt bad for them.

People like this older Jewish lady end up increasing compassion in the world because she teaches an example of empathy & how to behave when things don't go your way. She only thought about the delivery boys, not herself.

She refused to get caught up in the principle of the matter (i.e., "If I made a meal order, then I deserve to have it delivered right to my door on time & hot!").

​Instead, she focused on how the delivery boys had done their best. She also focused on their feelings, that it was late at night & maybe they were tired, and that they felt bad about the whole mess. 

​I think the above anecdote also shows that it's possible to prioritize yeshivah over working full-time & also to make do with a simple dinky Internet-free cell phone.

Maybe not everyone can. But it's also not as impossible as some make it out to be.

​Hashem helps.
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7 Comments
elisheva
18/5/2021 13:21:45

Nice story, but what about the story behind the story? Why are Jews not supporting Jewish businesses? It's a mitzvah to give parnasa to other Jews. I always try to find a Jewish worker, whether it's moving home, repairs around the house, whatever the issue, even if it costs a bit more. And if you absolutely can't find a Jew for whatever it is you need, then find a foreign worker. A friend's husband took a Chinese man to help him do some building work in the house. But don't give parnasa to the enemy. If everyone stopped doing this, it may not solve all of our problems, but would cut down on them. Let them look for their parnasa in Arab countries.

And how can frum people trust the kashrut of a non-Jew, even with a non observant Jew it's a problem. Even if they have a hechsher because the mashgiach isn't there all the time.

Reply
elisheva
18/5/2021 13:30:15

http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/israel/avoda-2.htm

עבודה עברית
הראי"ה קוק זצ"ל
אגרת השלוחה אל אחנו היקרים במושבים אה"ק
סוף שנת תר"פ

There is a moked le'avoda ivrit, I can't find the phone no. just now. In any case you ask around til you find a Jew. When I was looking for movers, I asked, "mi hapoalim shelcha"/ who are your workers. And the places that used only Jews immediately understood and assured me of such.

Reply
Myrtle Rising
18/5/2021 14:12:25

Thanks for these are important points, Elisheva. Also, thanks for sharing the information on how to go about actually fulfilling this ideal.

Reply
elisheva
18/5/2021 19:15:36

You're welcome. Just so that it's clear these are mitzvot de'oreita, and should be taken as seriously as any other, including the mitzvot of ve'ahavta lere'echa, tsedaka (giving parnasa is the highest form), in eretz yisrael it is also part of the mitzva of yishuv haaretz, al taamod al dam re'echa and pikuach nefesh, I remember the pigua in Geula carried out by an Arab bezek worker, the attack in the shul in Har Nof by an Arab worker. Everyone has to stop giving these people parnasa and entry to our lives. Unfortunately there are mitzvot that even frum people don't seem to take too seriously, the above, shituf, etc.

Some aveirot a person does in a moment of distraction or weakness, but how hard is it to find a kosher takeout in Yerushalayim? Aren't people afraid of having to give din and heshbon?


Reply
Myrtle Rising
18/5/2021 20:24:00

Just to answer your last question:

It is a kosher takeout with a hechsher & a mashgiach (albeit not all the time, as you noted in your first comment). The chain is owned by a Jew, with this particular branch owned (or perhaps a better word is leased?) by an Arab who, for business reasons, is very knowledgable & committed to the halachot of kashrut, including for Pesach.

People aren't aware of the indivdual ownership/leasing of each branch in a chain. And even if they know, probably most do not care.

elisheva
19/5/2021 02:26:21

I meant a Jewish owned kosher take out. Even if they weren't aware of the business manager/owner they knew that the delivery people were Arabs. That should have been enough for all the reasons above. About kashrut, Rav Anava said that many places with hechsherim, aren't actually kosher. Recently there was a case of a girl with a dairy allergy who died after eating out in a fleishig restaurant. There was dairy in the food. However knowledgable someone is it's a question of their Jewish yirat shamayim and that of their employees, because at the end of the day that is what you're relying on. The mashgiach can't be there 24/7.

As for not caring, these are mitzvot de'oreita that they're not caring about.

True story: years ago the neighbours of a friend's parents were murdered by their Arab workers after a dispute. And there are countless stories of Arab construction workers purposely sabotaging their own work, like throwing a coca cola bottle in the drainage pipes, the fatal snappling "accident" in Gush Etzion and one can go one forever with these examples.

Reply
Myrtle Rising
19/5/2021 09:39:18

Thank you, Elisheva, for taking the time to detail some of the issues involved. It's very helpful.

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