Weekly Chasidic Story #943 (s5776-15 ) 11 Tevet 5776

From the desk of Yerachmiel Tilles editor@ascentofsafed.com

They assumed that they had somehow pulled into the wrong driveway and drove around the block. Alas, it was their address.

How to Explain?

Rabbi Berel Wein was once invited to a meeting with the editor of the Detroit Free Press (a well-known, popular, left-of-center newspaper --Y.T.). After introductions had been made, the editor told him the following story, which the rabbi often repeats in public.

My mother, Mary, had immigrated to America from Ireland as an uneducated, 18-year-old peasant girl. She was hired as a domestic maid by an observant Jewish family. The head of the house was the president of the neighboring Orthodox shul. Mary herself knew nothing about Judaism and had probably never met a Jew before arriving in America.

The family went on vacation during Mary's first December in America, leaving Mary alone in the house. They were scheduled to return on the night of December 24, and Mary realized that there would be no x-mas tree to greet them when they did. This bothered her greatly, and using the money the family had left her, she went out and purchased not only a x-mas tree but all kinds of festive decorations to hang on the front of the house.

When the family returned from vacation, they saw the x-mas tree through the living room window and the rest of the house festooned with holiday lights. They assumed that they had somehow pulled into the wrong driveway and drove around the block. But alas, it was their address.

The head of the family entered the house contemplating how to explain the x-mas tree and lights to the members of the shul, most of whom walked right past his house on their way to shul. Meanwhile, Mary was eagerly anticipating the family's excitement when they realized that they would not be without an x-mas tree.

After entering the house, the head of the family called Mary into his study. He told her, "In my whole life no one has ever done such a thoughtful thing for me as you did." Then he took out a $100 bill - a very large sum in the middle of the Depression - and gave it to her. Only after that did he explain that Jews do not have x-mas trees and asked her to remove it along with the decorations.

When he had finished telling the story, the editor told Rabbi Wein, "And that is why, there has never been an editorial critical of Israel in the Detroit Free Press since I became editor, and never will be as long as I am the editor."

The shul president's reaction to Mary's mistake - sympathy instead of anger - was not because he dreamed that one day her son would the editor of a major metropolitan paper, and thus in a position to aid Israel. (Israel was not yet born.) He acted as he did because he thought it was the right thing to do.

"A true Kiddush Hashem-sanctification of G-d's Name," Rabbi Wein concludes. "It is a goal to which we can all strive."

Source

(Photo received on 12/17/15 from Henchy Held and Sheina Malka)

Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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