Don’t Cancel People
A person was driving down the road when he noticed a car pulled over on the side of the road. This person, an observant Jew, pulls over to help. He asks the man, a secular Jew, what the problem was, to which the secular Jew says, “I ran out of gas. My car broke down.” The observant Jew responds, “No problem. There’s a gas station a little further up the road. I’ll go get some gas and fill it up.” The secular Jew, surprised, says, “Really? You can help me with that? I’ve been waiting for hours. No one’s stopping. Thank you.” The observant Jew fills up one of those little jugs and returns. As he’s filling up the car, he notices a little sticker on the side of the car that says, ” דרוס כל דוס,” which, translated from Hebrew is “run over every religious person.” Ignoring this, the religious Jew continues to help. When he’s done, the secular Jew turns to the him and asks, “How much do I owe you?” The observant Jew replies, “No, no, no, you don’t owe me anything.
Fast forward a couple of days to Friday afternoon, the observant Jew calls the secular Jew and says, “maybe I can share an idea about a story from this week’s Torah portion that you can share with your kids.” The secular Jew agrees out of gratitude. The observant Jew tells him a story, wishes him Shabbat Shalom, and hangs up the phone. A week later, he calls again and says, “Hey, it’s me. Remember?” The secular Jew, surprised, says, “Yes, I remember.” The observant Jew asks if he can share another story. The next week, he does it again, and every Friday, he calls him, and by now he’s expecting the call and eager to hear about the Torah portion and a good story to tell his kids.
After some time, the secular Jew is speaking to him on a Friday and says, “I have a question. What do you do on Shabbat? I mean, it sounds boring. You don’t use your phone, you don’t drive your car, you don’t do anything. Isn’t it just boring?” The religious Jew replies, “It’s amazing. Why don’t you come for Shabbat Simchat Torah?” The secular Jew explains, “I usually go to my father’s for Simchat Torah as we have a rotation among my siblings.” The observant Jew invites them both and they have a beautiful time that shabbat, until the morning when they start hearing sirens.
The observant Jew lives in Bnei Brak. The secular Jew lives in Be’eri, and his father lived in Sderot, right across the street from the now infamous police station. The secular Jew’s home in Be’eri was burned down, but he and his family were safe in Bnei Brak, a place they are still living in many months later.
What I found extraordinary in this story was that the observant Jew saw the “run over every religious person” sticker but differentiated between the person and the sticker. Regardless of what was written on the sticker or the way this person seemed to feel towards religious people, it did not deter him from showing kindness.
We often judge a person’s character based on a single thing they say whether current or from the past. We are constantly evolving over time, but how quick are we to cancel someone over a single issue? When reading this weeks and previous few weeks parshiot, the Jewish nation (that we are direct descendants of) made mistake after mistake, yet they were never canceled.
Be kind
Be welcoming.
Know that people do change, usually for the better.
Save lives.
Shabbat Shalom!
—
Editor’s note: Thank you R’ Gav Friedman for the story