Dear Mrs. Bluth,
I know I have no right to complain, being a young man with a good job that pays well and no family to support yet, so why do I write to you? Because over the last few years, I have taken notice of how hard it is for many of our people to celebrate the chaggim in a manner that is expected, particularly those with large families and modest incomes or no income at all and the elderly. Why should this be so? Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, weeks before any holiday, stores hike up their prices on nearly everything and then as soon as the holiday is over those same celebratory items go down in price to almost nothing, they give it away! This Pesach, in particular, touched my heart. I don’t know why. Perhaps because I put myself in the shoes of those I saw, struggling to purchase the staples mandatory for Pesach.
I pushed my wagon filling up nicely with groceries and pastries for the Pesach Seder. I was hosting my parents as my mom broke her wrist and couldn’t use her hands this year, I offered to have them come and spend yom tov with me. As I passed the aisle with all the different shmurah matzohs, I was confused as to which to purchase, square ones, round hand-made ones, so many choices. Then I saw the price per pound and did a double take, was this really what people bought for $38.00 a pound? That comes to somewhat more than $100.00 for three pounds!! Just then, an elderly gentleman caught my eye as he gently picked up a box of matzohs as if it were filled with gold. He held it longingly and then returned it to the shelf. After a few seconds he again picked up the precious box and held it for a while during which time I saw the joy and the heartache cross his face as he, again, returned it to its place on the shelf. I felt his pain and thought, he could be my zeidie, who passed away three years before and always looked forward with reverie in picking out the most perfect, unblemished round matzohs to put in his matzoh tash at the Seder. Before I knew what I was doing I reached into my pocket and crumpled up a $100.00 bill and dropped it near him on the floor. I called out to him and said “….excuse me Reb Yid, but you dropped some money on the floor!” The shock on his face as it lit up with joy was something I will always remember. But he wouldn’t take the money saying it belonged to someone else who will be heart-broken when they find they lost it.
I had to tell him I would give it to the store manager in case the “party who lost it” would return to claim it. What to do? So I went to the manager, with whom I had gone to yeshiva and knew him well, and pointed out the old man to him and told him to add three pounds of the shmurah matzohs he had chosen and put back and I would pay for his entire order as well. My friend was happy to do this and had me wait at a certain spot so as to see that my wishes were carried out. When the elderly man went to check out fifteen minutes later, my friend was standing at the ready and as he put his modest purchases on the counter, my friend broke out in song so that all could hear, and announced that the elderly gentleman had won a free shopping spree in the store along with matzohs and anything he had not gotten he could go back for. The joy that spread over the old man’s face was beyond description as he followed my friend who had gotten another wagon and placed fish and meat and anything else to ensure that this gentleman and his wife would have a Chag Kosher v’Sameach!
There was clapping and good cheer from all the customers and the mood in the store was festive and joyous and the old man made his way out with his abundant purchases and his precious three pounds of hand-made shmurah matzohs.
My friend came over to me after the man had departed and slapped me on the back. When I asked him how much I owed the store for his entire order, my friend said “$100.00 and I should thank YOU for allowing me to be part of the mitzvah. In fact, I think we will do this every yom tov, to help out the needy families in the community!” There’s no way to describe the joy that carried me through the entire chag, just knowing that my friend would not only do this for the needy who shopped in his store but he also would try to price his goods to make them more affordable for everyone, even if he stood to lose money over yom tov. Now, why can’t every vender do this for the struggling and needy in their neighborhoods? What a great act of chessed and tzedakah this would be! In fact, I am looking forward to the next yom tov, when I can see this actually become a reality. I just want to take this opportunity to thank my friend for partnering in such a great mitzvah done with dignity, so that the happiness and joy is pure and without shame to anyone.
By the way, word spread about the ‘winner’ in the grocery store my friend manages and he called to tell me his customer base has tripled and that he had to order more shopping carts and help! So, I thought I’d share with you something good in place of all the tza’ar and problems you get. I hope it will provide an incentive for anyone and everyone to go out and hunt down a mitzvah, they’re everywhere if you really want to find one. It has changed my life for the better and I know it will do the same for any mitzvah we take on, big or small.
Dear Friend,
I am sitting here smiling through my tears and actually feeling your sense of joy and true happiness. I get that feeling when someone who desperately wants a little happiness in their lives writes in and lets me know that I’ve helped them get past the painful time. However, what you did is absolutely pure genius! In your selfless act of giving you shared this mitzvah with others you enlisted by initiating your great act of kindness! If there was such a thing as an “Anshei Chayil” award, you would be the first to get the ‘Golden Heart of Kindness” award!
It is truly hard to watch those who try to celebrate yom tov, even Shabbos, because they have so little. My father, a”h, was a ‘mattan b’sayser,’ he would leave an envelope with some money and slip it under a door of a family he knew was in need. I often thought it gave him more joy than those who received it. It was not very much, because we had so little ourselves, but the glow he wore on his persona was a life-lesson for me to this day. To share what we have in order to lighten someone else’s burden, no matter how small the amount, is priceless. That small gesture may be the very thing that reawakens hope in the heart of someone who has lost hope and makes that moment a bit easier than before. It is a win/win act for the giver and the receiver of an act of kindness.
May you be blessed with all that is good and beautiful in this life for your great, good heart and may HaKodosh Boruch Hu send you your bashert in the not too distant future. She will have to be someone really special to get a chosson like you and together make many joyous simchos!.. That’s one wedding I wouldn’t miss for anything!