The Short Vort
Good Morning!
Today is Wednesday the Iyar 23, 5781, and May 5, 2021
The Small Things in Life Which are Really Very Big!
Today after the 7 AM, Shacharis, one of the Mispallelim, came over to me and handed me a box.
I looked down at the box, and it was a box of fountain pens.
I looked at the man, wondering what was going on.
The nice Yid said, “I remember you once mentioned that you liked fountain pens. My office ordered a box of 12, and instead, the company sent 12 boxes of 12. Staples would not take them back, and we don’t need so many, so I brought back a box for you.”
I looked at this man, and I thought, “here is a special person.”
Let’s imagine what happened.
Here is this man sitting at his desk at work.
He happens to see the company has an overabundance of fountain pens, and he realizes that I would enjoy them as I once mentioned that I enjoy writing with a fountain pen.
He takes a box (of course with permission) and brings it home.
He then remembers to bring them to Shul and locate me.
He presents me with the pens.
It may sound minor, but, in truth, it’s major.
He could have gone on with his day and not brought the pens home.
After all, he had to bring them to Shul, and with all the different Minyanim who knows if he will be at the same Minyan as me.
Perhaps he will have to bring them to Shul a few days in a row until he sees me?
And let’s imagine he would not have taken the pens home, I would never have known about them and I would not be any worse off by not having them.
However, he did take them home.
And he did bring them to Shul.
And he did find me at the 7 AM Shacharis today, and he did give them to me with a beautiful smile, and most of all, he did make my day!
It didn’t cost him a dime. Yet, he made me feel like a million dollars.
Why?
Because he thought about me.
And by giving this box of pens to me, he was telling me without saying a word, “I care about you, and if I can make you happy, I will attempt to do so.”
We all want to feel that others think about us and care for us.
You can be a rabbi of a Shul or the president of a large corporation; everyone one of us wants to feel that we matter in the eyes of others and that others care about us.
Sometimes the smallest gestures which don’t cost a penny are the most incredible acts of Chessed.
“If Not Now, then when?”- Hillel
Ron Yitzchok Eisenman
Rabbi
Congregation Ahavas Israel
Passaic, NJ
