I have a car that is for my driving teenagers. The only driver, though, lives in Israel now, so the car hasn’t been driven for a while. It needed an inspection, but it appears that a car needs to be driven a minimum amount of miles, and so my car failed inspection. What to do? I have a friend who drives all over the metro area and to her home in the Hamptons, and I was going to impose on her to stop driving her elegant car, and to please drive my 10 year old paint chipped car for the next month so I could get mileage on it.
I called her and when I told her what my favor was, she said “Suri, my car engine just burned up, it will take over a month to get insurance to determine…AND I NEED A CAR IMMEDIATELY!!! And so…
I got a call this week from the school nurse, and when you have three boys, you always pray theyre calling you because youre missing the necessary forms, BUT NO, not this week. “Your son was in a mishap, he shmashed his leg, can you pick him up?” I was in Mineola, and I would get there about 15 minutes after school ends. When I got to HAFTR high school, instead of finding him sitting alone, he was in a wheel chair, sitting with friends who, instead of racing home to eat dinner, sat with my son so he wouldn’t be alone in his pain.
The next day, late morning, the doorbell rings, two other friends had called my son saying they had a free period could they come visit, and by the way, did he need anything. They took their free period and came by to keep my son company.
Small things, not so small.
On the upcoming holiday of Shavuoth, we read the book of Ruth, which reveals the story of the family of Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, and their sons and their daughters in law. Naomi and Elimelech were wealthy, and a famine hit the land, and Elimelech and his sons, and their wives moved out so people would not impose on them to provide them with food. They were punished, and Elimelech and his sons died, leaving Naomi and her daughters in law, Ruth and Orpah, both Moab Princesses.
Broken, Naomi decides to return to her home and tells Ruth and Orpah to return to their royal families. Orpah agrees, and Ruth clings to her mother in law saying that she wants to remain Jewish, and so the two women return to home. Although Ruth had been a princess, she went to the fields to collect wheat to bring back for her and Naomi.
She “happened” upon the field of Boaz who saw her modest ways and Boaz and Ruth eventually marry and have a child…whose descendant was King David and whose ultimate descendant will be Moshiach/Messiah. The kindness Ruth showed her mother in law by returning to the land with her. The kindness Boaz showed Ruth by permitting her to collect enough wheat from his field to satisfy both Ruth and Naomi.
Ruth was left with nothing in her possession, after her husband died. But she could give kindness, which she did. Naomi was repaid for the years that she and her husband and given to charity, with a daughter in law, who was kind to her.
Rich or poor, we were born in the image of G-d. We just finished the Book of Leviticus which discusses G-d’s holiness and his command that we be G-dlike in our ways.
And so it was, that I was in Variety Connection this week, which is a store that dates back to my early years in the Five Towns when it was C and R Grand Five and Dime store. They had a small bowl near the cash register, and, in the days when pennies mattered, the sign said “Have a penny, give a penny, need a penny, take a penny.” The ability to do kindness even with spare pennies, and pay it forward to a stranger, is core to the Neshama/soul.
It is important for us to be G-dlike especially going into Shavuoth, the holiday where G-d gave us the Torah on Mt. Sinai, and we committed ourselves to Him in marriage. Don’t forget your friends and neighbors who don’t have a place to eat for the holidays. Invite them over and celebrate G-d and the G-dliness in each one of us.
Chag sameach.
-Suri