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The Short Vort- “ Is This Your Talis? “ (1/23/12)

The Short Vort

Good Morning!

 

Today is Tuesday the 29th of Teves 5772 and January 24th 2012

 

Is This Your Talis?

 

I don’t make these stories up! They really happen to me!

Listen to this one!

Last week as I was walking to shul in the morning what do I see lying in gutter?

A talis bag!

I open up the bag and inside is a nice new Talis; alas, there was no name anywhere to be found in or on the bag. I lovingly picked up the Talis from the gutter, wiped off the bag and brought it back to the office.

 

(Lesson Number One: write your name on your talis and tefillin bag)

 

That same morning I noticed one of the boys who live in the house right where I found the Talis and asked him if anyone had lost a Talis.

He looked at me, and shook his head.

I bided my time and waited until I would see the father of the home.

 

(Lesson Number Two: Never give up!)

 

Fast forward to Sunday morning; there is snow on the ground and a brisk chill in the air.

As I move toward the Shul to teach the daily daf, a fellow who has already completed his davening approached me and shows me a cell phone.

“I just found this phone in the snow in front of the Shul.”

After we attempt to identify and locate the owner through the ‘contacts’ – we jointly decide that I will take the phone from the finder as the Shul office is probably a more centralized place to return the phone from.

 

(Lesson Number Three: have an ‘ICE” contact’ so people can contact you or at least a good friend or family member to give back your phone if they find it)

 

No sooner does Daf Yomi end and the phone starts ringing off the hook!

I answer and sure enough a fellow shul goes is calling to get back his lost phone.

I tell him to come to my office and that I will wait for him there.

As the fellow is coming into the shul area near my office, another fellow is about to exit.

Fellow number two is the owner of the home in front of which I found the talis.

I return the lost phone to fellow number one, wish him well and turn toward fellow number two.

“Did anyone in your household lose a talis?”

“I don’t think so; however, maybe a relative who was here lost one.”

I told him to take the Talis ‘just in case’ it was his relative’s and if not he should bring the Talis back to me.

About one hour later fellow number two calls to inform me that indeed it was his relative’s Talis and he has returned it to his owner!

 

If I would not have accepted the lost phone from the fellow in the street I would not have returned the phone which led to my returning the Talis.

 

Big Lesson: Never give up in doing a Mitzvah!

 

Pirkei Avos: 4:2. Ben Azzai would say: Run to pursue a minor mitzvah, and flee from a transgression. For a mitzvah brings another mitzvah, and a transgression brings another transgression. For the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah, and the reward of transgression is transgression.

 

 Ron Yitzchok Eisenman


Author of the book: "The Elephant in the Room"

Available at the address below and at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Elephant-Room-Ron-Yitzchok-Eisenman/dp/1937887006/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Rabbi; Congregation Ahavas Israel

181 Van Houten Ave

Passaic, New Jersey 07055

973.777.5929

Ext. # 1