Only in Eretz Yisrael ......a short story with a long and deep historical message

 I read this on the harnof group

the ‘ordinary’ Israeli has more mitzvos to him/her than a pomegranate has seeds

By Alisa Nagrotskaya. 

A friend told me.

*She was at the Jerusalem market and a platoon of army reservists  just arrived there.  Not young, not thin men. They went into a store to buy some food. *What happened then?

 *At first, the whole line started yelling that they would pay for the officers' purchases.  They were yelled at by the store owner, who said that he himself would not take money from them. *The noise attracted visitors and salesmen around. 

Some woman who may have been a hundred years old, began to thrust 20 shekels one of the officers' hand.  He fought back and yelled, “What are you doing??? I won’t take it!”  And she shouted “Take it, I am giving it to you  from  my whole heart!!!” 

*Then surrounding restaurant owners stepped in and offered to feed them all a hot meal. *They were fought off by the store owner, who shouted that he would cook everything for them himself.  And his relatives would bring everything they needed, because they lived near the market. *All this quickly turned into a row, but we don’t know who won.  My girlfriend left.

"*I read, laughed and cried.  And then in the comments on the author’s FB page I saw this very similar story: 

Alex Muchnik. *“Here, I’ll tell you a story that I myself witnessed: an ordinary restaurant, like plenty others in Israel, an ordinary menu, ordinary customers... a soldier comes in... an ordinary soldier, like that: a machine gun on his side, a huge  backpack on his back...  looks at the menu, takes out his wallet... 

and then it begins: the owner of the restaurant, an elderly frum Jew, tells him: *"Sonny, choose anything you want, I don’t take money from soldiers. "*"Avraham, are you nuts? "*A husky shaven-headed guy with a huge gold chain around his neck, who had just been yelling over his cell phone in the range of a landing  F-35, interfered. (I still don’t understand how, he managed to hear the restaurant owner...) 

*“You have 6 children, the seventh's on the way...Bro,”  this is him to the soldier, “take what you want, I’ll treat you... and, Avraham, give the guy a large bottle of cola. "*“Look, everyone: Avi, an old troublemaker, he's  become a tzadik,” another man laughed, “And who will pay alimony to your two wives?  Avraham, serve  the soldier. I'm paying...

"*In short, 5 people argued over who would treat the soldier which looked like he was going to run away from embarrassment... But this is Israel! Friendship won - everyone chipped in for a luxurious dinner, and one of the visitors, a taxi driver, having learned where the soldier needed to go, offered to give him a ride...  free - naturally, because it was on his way.

*When they left, that  husky guy, Avi, lit a cigarette and grinned, *"Yeah, on his way... exactly in the opposite direction."