An Extra-Credit Mitzvah, In Memory of The Fogel Family, HaYa"D

Batya Medad
Shilo Musings
14 March '11

http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2011/03/extra-credit-mitzvah-in-memory-of-fogel.html

May this be li'lu'i nishmatam of the murdered members of the Fogel Family.

As I trust you know, we don't have a car and we travel by bus and "tremps," rides from generous people. Some of the people giving us rides we know, and others just open their homes on wheels to help us and many others out.

Recently, I've been working part-time (and a different schedule each week) at the Yafiz Clothing Store (of Rami Levi) in Sha'ar Binyamin. I can take a bus there, since all of our buses are required to stop there if a passenger requests it, but I frequently get rides.

Last week, I got a ride from a neighbor who was taking his daughter to the girls high school in Kochav Ya'akov. He left me off at the gas station bus stop, less than a kilometer from Sha'ar Binyamin. If there had been a sidewalk, I would have gladly walked the distance, but it's a busy highway of sorts. I waited for a ride or bus, but nothing came. Then my neighbor waved as he passed by again on his way back to Shiloh. I waved and continued waiting. Suddenly he returned. He had decided that he ought to finish the chessed mitzvah (good deed) and take me the rest of the way to work.

Yesterday, I got a ride to Ofra, and before I even made it to the bus stop to wait for a bus or ride someone came by and offered me a lift. He, too, was going to Kochav Ya'akov. I said that I'd get off at the gas station. He then asked where I needed to get to. I told him Sha'ar Binyamin. Imagine my surprise when we passed the junction to Kochav Ya'akov and he took me those extra few hundred meters to my destination!

There are wonderful people in this world. We must remember that. There's a very big difference between the values of Jews here and the Holy Land and the neighboring Arabs. We celebrate life and helping others, while the Arabs celebrate barbaric murder.

HaMakom y'nachem... May G-d comfort the mourners...

And may G-d bless our leaders with true wisdom!

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.