JERUSALEM (VINnews) — An amazing story of self-sacrifice for Shabbos by a person who calls himself ‘secular’ was published in the Hashgacha Pratis magazine.
The story was told by a secretary at an insurance company who received a call from a Jew who said that he maintains a secular lifestyle but does keep Shabbos. The man said that on Shabbos morning police came knocking on his door and said that a tree near his house was about to collapse and needed to immediately be cut down. “What does this have to do with me?”, the bewildered man asked.
“Your car is parked near the tree and we need you to move your car before the tree falls on it. “Today is Shabbos,” he answered, “And on Shabbos I don’t move the car.” The policeman said “No problem, give us the keys and we’ll move your car.”
The man looked at them and thought, they are Jews like me so why should I let them desecrate Shabbos. He said that “I don’t know if this is permitted, I’m going to ask my rabbi.”
The rabbi said that this was not a life-threatening emergency and if the tree was so weak they could put reinforcement around it and cut it after Shabbos.
The policemen however were adamant and said that it was his choice whether to move the car but they had to cut down the tree. In the end the man watched helplessly as the policemen desecrated Shabbos and chopped the tree down directly on his car.
The man told the insurance that the car was worth 25,000 NIS “But I was happy like never before as I had paid for Shabbos 25,000 NIS.” When his grandchildren came to visit, they couldn’t understand why he was so happy, so he took them to the window and explained why he hadn’t given the keys and how Shabbos is so important that it is worth losing money to keep it.
The man concluded his story and asked the secretary at the insurance company if he could receive damages for his car. The company said that there was no coverage for such damage but recommended that he sue the municipality. The case is currently pending but the story teaches how even a secular Jew will risk heavy loss to keep the Shabbos
2 comments:
Yasher Koach! Beautiful story.
Why is he considered secular? If he already observes the Shabbat, I would presumably think that he is observant of kashrut, and other things.
Shows us how important the SHABBAT is (Beautiful gift from Hashem to Am Yisrael).
Not sure about the other halachos.
Seems he only observes Shabbat, but not clear if he does both.
Could be he’s new to this, and his Rabbi is leading him slowly.
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