In the
world at large, people are often looking for creative ways to
expand their businesses and enlarge their profits. In the world
of kindness, people are applying their creativity to finding new
ways of benefiting each other, saving their “customers” more money,
time, and energy.
There
is a nurse living in Jerusalem whose free loan is treating children
who have dislocated their shoulders. And a woman living in Telzstone
who makes over garments so that they comply with a sensible standard
of modest dress. In Safed, there is a free loan of musical instruments
for children. In Bnai Brak, there’s a family that does laundry
loads for people whose washing machine has broken down.
The list
of free loans in community phone books throughout Israel are comprehensive
lists of items that can be borrowed and returned after they are
used — plates and silverware for celebrations, baby cribs, wedding
dresses and veils, vaporizers, blankets, chairs and tables.
Basic
gemachim that exist in most communities are medicines, books and
cassettes, clothing, furniture, and money loans with no interest
charged.
And
then there is the man in London whose home is open for those who
have come from abroad to raise money for yeshivos, or individuals
passing through London from all over the world. He provides comfortable
accommodations and kosher meals as if he were running a hotel.
His kindness “business” is thriving with a guest list, over the
years, that has numbered in the thousands.
At
certain hours of the day, meals are served. The kitchen is always
open and the refrigerator is always stocked with desserts. It
is told that one of the guests was sitting in the kitchen having
cake and coffee. He remarked to the man sitting across the table,
“I feel bad. I’ve been here three weeks already and I haven’t
paid anything.”
The
other man replied, “Don’t feel bad. I’ve been here for years.”
It was the owner himself!
The business
of kindness has limitless opportunities for the interested individual.
Few of us feel capable of opening our homes to a steady stream
of guests, but almost anyone can host a Shabbos guest. Some people
have become so fond of this practice that their Shabbos table
is not complete without the presence of at least one or two guests.
There are many families who invite ten or twenty guests to their
table on a normal Shabbos. The lack of space in their homes doesn’t
stop them from expanding their business; there is always room
for another plate and another chair.
People
who operate in the world of kindness commonly feel that one of
their greatest pleasures is giving and doing for others. The environment
of kindness tends to change a person’s relationships with other
people. The acts of kindness make a bridge between people in a
non-competitive, synergistic atmosphere.
When
Moses Montefiore came to visit Jerusalem about l50 years ago,
he was most impressed by the kind of people he met, not only the
leaders of the community but especially the ordinary people he
met in the street. One morning, he encountered a little boy on
his way to cheder, elementary school. He asked the boy to show
him what his mother had sent in his lunch bag. The boy opened
his bag and took out a piece of bread smeared with olive oil.
Moses
Montefiore, who was a millionaire philanthropist, took the boy’s
hand and led him to a fruit and vegetable stall in the market.
He bought a tomato to add to the boy’s lunch bag. The boy thanked
him and started on his way to cheder. Montefiore watched the boy
go a few steps and then turn in the direction of one of the beggars
who sat by the side of the road. The boy took the tomato out of
his bag and thrust it into the hand of the beggar. Then, with
a smile on his face, he happily ran off to school.
This display
of generosity and selflessness on the part of a little cheder
boy, along with many other similar encounters, turned Montefiore
into a staunch supporter of Jerusalem’s poor and a life-long benefactor
to the religious settlement.
It’s hard
for us to imagine what an added tomato might mean to a poor boy
whose family could not afford such “luxuries.” But the little
cheder boy already knew that the opportunity to do a kindness
is priceless, and it clearly gave him deep satisfaction to pass
on his tomato to someone who needed it more than he did.
There
is no place for pride or feelings of superiority in the world
of kindness because the giver is taking from the infinite storehouse
of kindness that is owned by G-d. The person doing such good knows
that he is a vehicle or a messenger for the delivery of the bountiful
goodness that G-d stores up for humanity.
We are
merely the middlemen in this process of moving goods and services.
And the pleasure comes from holding that delivery in our hands.
What we are giving is from G-d, and as we facilitate the process
of getting it to its rightful owners, we have the pleasure of
a closeness with our Creator. If there is any payment for doing
a kindness, it is this pleasure that we feel as we experience
our proximity to G-d.
Even a
little boy in cheder could understand, or at least intuit, that
his gift from the millionaire philanthropist was a gift far greater
than Moses Montefiore had intended. Montefiore gave that little
boy an opportunity to merit a closeness to G-d by giving charity
to a poor man. All of the main players in this episode have now
passed on to the World of Truth, but the acts of kindness they
did continue to have their impact.
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