The Human Spirit: Unbridled love

Barbara Sofer
The Human Spirit/JPost
23 July '10

According to tradition, the Holy Temple, the destruction of which we mourned intensively this week on the anniversary of its destruction, Tisha Be’av, was lost to us because of literally unbridled hate. A seminal story records an incorrectly delivered party invitation, a host who humiliated the mistakenly invited guest and leadership who sat silent while the guest was humiliated. This wasn’t an ideological dispute, but a question of basic niceness.

Niceness doesn’t get much press. Hence, I want to pass along a few examples of exemplary behavior in everyday life.

The first comes from a letter from reader Leah Hakimian, who was kind enough to pass along her personal story: “In honor of our 50th wedding anniversary, my husband and I spent Shabbat with our children and grandchildren at an Israeli resort hotel.

Our oldest grandson, a soldier, arrived at the last minute with a duffel bag full of dirty clothes. We had organized the trip well, but hadn’t thought about having to find a laundromat erev Shabbat.

We weren’t at home, so we didn’t know what to do other than to ask at the hotel for information.

We called the hotel reception, and spoke with Mrs. L. She asked if the clothes were for a soldier, and I told her that they were. ‘Then I insist on taking them to my own home and washing them myself,’ she said.

“Of course, we resisted. But she insisted. And so we brought her the clothes. We asked her to accept payment for this wonderful service, but she refused. ‘It’s my way of helping the state. My son will be a soldier next year, I just want to help.’ The next day, when we picked up the clothes, they were beautifully laundered and folded. She had done a perfect job and she still wouldn’t accept any compensation from us. We salute you, Mrs. L.”

(Read full story)

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.
.