How to care for each other may seem like small potatoes when thinking about the Redemption, but its so important. After all, what did the Rebbe reply to CNN when asked what is his message to the world? "Moshiach (the Messiah) is ready to come now. It is only from our part to do something additional in the realm of goodness and kindness." Then the Rebbe added, "At least a little more..."
by Tzvia Ehrlich-Klein
THE LITTLE BOY
AND THE BUS DRIVER
Israel is truly the country of miracles
and amazing daily-life situations, if you keep your eyes and ears open. This
true bus story took place a few years ago on the Number 10 bus from Ramat
Shlomo.
Since my friend M. L. lives near the
first bus stop, she was one of the first passengers to get on the bus that day.
She took the seat right behind the bus driver - the perfect seat for seeing and
hearing much of what goes on a bus.
After a few bus stops, a little boy
climbs onto the bus and sits down across the isle from M.L., in easy view of
both my friend and the bus driver. Two or three bus stops later, this little
boy suddenly bursts into tears. And, as the bus is slowly meandering through
the residential streets, he continues to cry and cry and cry.
By the next bus stop, the driver turns
around in his seat and asks the little boy: "Why are you crying so hard?
What's wrong?"
The sobbing little boy answers that he
was given very specific directions by his mother regarding when he should get
off the bus, which way he should walk, and how to get to where he is supposed
to go. However, he has forgotten his mother's directions and what he is
supposed to do.
Without a word to anyone, or a comment
of any kind, the bus driver turns the entire bus around and returns to the
child's house. He opens the bus's doors and tells the little boy to hurry and
ask his mother for directions again and then to hurry back. Meanwhile, the bus
driver again turns his (big) bus around in order to be heading in the right
direction, and explains the whole story to his perplexed passengers.
Of course, since we're living in Israel,
no one complains or protests this disruption in the regular scheduling of
public transportation. Everyone just waits for the little boy to come back to
the bus and climb aboard.
Which he soon does. And then the bus
drives off again, continuing on its regular route.
THE COMFORT
PROJECT AT THE BUS STOP
That's an extraordinary story, but
there are other bus stories, which don't necessarily end in lots of oooh's and
ahhhs. But life in Israel, on the public bus system, can often be entertaining,
and usually an experience.
For example, my friend Shifra was
standing at a busy bus stop the other day waiting for one of the four or five
buses that run on Shimon HaTzadik Street in Jerusalem. An old, very tired
looking lady carrying several large packages walked over to the bus stop, and a
seat was immediately vacated for her. As she sat down, the old woman sighed
deeply, saying:
"Oy, maspik kevar. Ani lo yecholah. Maspik. (Oy, enough already. I
can't anymore.}"
After a few minutes of this, several
people turned to the old woman, saying, "It'll be okay, Savta (Grandma). It'll be
okay:' But the old woman just kept on sighing and repeating, "Oy, Ani lo
yecholah. Maspik."
A young woman wearing pants, who was
standing on the other side of the large bus stop, walked over to the old woman,
and bent down to tell her: "It will be okay. Don't talk like that. You
just need something sweet." Then she squeezed down in the seat between her
and another woman. She proceeded to open her pocketbook and start rummaging
through it.
Finding a candy, the young woman handed
it to the old lady, saying, "Here is something sweet for you. You just
need something sweet,"
At this point, the woman sitting on the
other side of the old lady added: "Yes, take the candy. You'll feel
better. You shouldn't talk like that. Everything will be okay."
After several minutes of this, my
friend Shifra joined the conversation, mentioning to the people standing around
her that the old woman was probably tired of all the things she'd been going
through.
Though everyone probably understood,
yet another woman added her response to the old lady:
"It doesn't matter. You'll see
that everything will be all right (Yehiyeh
tov),"
THE OPPOSITE OF
ROAD RAGE
These stories are quite different from
what I hear has been going on in the States the last few years. It seems that
there, a disease called "Road Rage" proliferates. I had never heard
of it before: It's when someone who is driving a car gets so angry at another
driver that he or she gets out of the car and either shoots or seriously beats
up the other driver. Amazing. Life sure is different in Israel, and here's a
story to prove it.
In Jerusalem, Bentzi and Ashira G. had
a "run in" a few months ago with a big, burley Israeli truck-driver
who was dressed in an undershirt. They were driving along the Beit Shemesh
Highway, but were in a hurry to get back to their home in Telz Stone. Stuck
behind a very slow driver, Bentzi kept trying to switch lanes and pass the car
because they were in such a rush.
Again and again, Bentzi tried to get
around the driver in front of him, but cars kept speeding by in the adjacent
lane. Bentzi just couldn't pass that slow car.
Suddenly, a huge semi-trailer truck
that had been driving behind Bentzi for quite awhile pulled out into the other
lane and then slowed down, keeping even with the back of Bentzi's car. Honking
and trying to get Benz's attention, this truck driver motioned to Bentzi to
pull out and pass the slow car in front of him. The truck driver was blocking
the adjacent lane so that Bentzi could pull out safely and pass the slow car.
Waving his thanks to the truck driver,
Bentzi pulled in front of the slow car, and then noticed that the truck driver
fell back to where he had been before, behind that slow car.
The truck driver hadn't wanted to pass
the slow car. He had just wanted to do Bentzi a favor. Now that's road
behavior!
Tzvia Ehrlich-Klein's books, published by Feldheim, include:
ON CAB DRIVERS. SHOPKEEPERS AND
STRANGERS. ON BUS STOPS. BAKERS AND BEGGERS. and ON BUS DRIVERS, DREIDELS AND
ORANGE JUICE.
