Chodesh Tov

It always nice to end the week on a sweet note so here's a quick story from my travels this week.....

I spent some time up north visiting with friends from the States who are here visiting family in Acre/Haifa. Most of their family can be classified as your average, secular, non-religious Israeli family consisting of five children, two sons serving in the IDF, living in a cute but cluttered and tiny apartment that somehow houses 5-6 people on any given night, and a father that's been out of work for quite some time. Money is tight and luxuries are non-existent. Yet within this home there are constant examples of kindness and love from which we can all learn important lessons.

I'll spare the many details of how they eagerly welcome any and all guests into their home, feed them with hearty food, provide sleeping quarters and a shower, rides to and from the bus station, and offers of unlimited future visits. What I really want to share is how impressed I was with the way the children honored their hard-working, dedicated parents.

Mrs. M. was concerned with the impression I would get from seeing their sole bathroom which was small and cluttered and had a shower which had only a slow steady drizzle. She asked her son, a twenty-one year old, two bar soldier in an elite unit of the IDF, if he would be embarrassed if I used their bathroom to shower. His reply: "Ema, I would never be embarrased about even the dust in your home." I was so impressed with this.

Sometime's we forget what true love, honor, and respect for one's parents really means.

As Ben Zoma states in Pirkei Avot, "Who is wise? He who learns from every person."

Shabbat shalom and chodesh tov.

posted by Avi G @ 15:35