There is a garbage collector in Yerushalayim. Along with the other two men on his truck, he makes the daily rounds, keeping the Holy City clean.
Last Elul, a Yid was walking to shul. He saw the garbage truck and thought how dedicated these men are, doing their job in the hot summer and the rainy winter. And he thought: “I will give them something for Rosh Hashanah to buoy their spirits.”
Shortly before Rosh Hashanah, during Shacharis, he heard the sound of the garbage truck outside the shul. So he grabbed the cardboard box he had prepared and ran outside. Inside the box were three nice bottles of wine and some sweet mezonos. When he reached the street, the garbage truck was pulling away. He called out, but the men thought the box was garbage, so they shouted, “Throw it in the dumpster!”
“No, it’s for you!”
But they were gone in a cloud of dust. So he ran, with his tallis and tefillin up the big hill to the next stop, carrying his box of wine and mezonos. When they saw him, they couldn’t believe it.
“What are you doing?”
When he reached them, perspiration running down his face, he yelled out, “It’s for you! L’Shana Tova!” and he ran up to the garbage man and gave him a kiss on his forehead.
The man shouted, “No! I’m covered with garbage!” He couldn’t believe that this Yid in tallis and tefillin wanted to kiss him. But the Yid yelled out, “You are a holy man! That is holy garbage! Shana tova!”
Many months have passed. Now it is Chodesh Tammuz. The garbage men still make their daily rounds. Recently, someone from the minyan happened to walk outside during davening. He needed a little air. The garbage truck was passing, and the garbage collector ran up to this Yid and said, “Where is the tzaddik who gave us the wine? We haven’t seen him in months!”
My friends, do you understand what one act of chessed can do?
It can change the world.
In this week’s Parsha we read about how one man, Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon ha Kohain, “turned back [the wrath of Hashem] from upon the Children of Israel.”
One man saved Klal Yisroel!
We don’t know who the heroes are. They may be garbage collectors in the Holy City of Yerushalayim who feel unworthy because of their menial task.
The Gemora tells of Rav Yosef, the son of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, who slipped into a coma. When he regained consciousness, his father asked him, “What did you see in the next world?” He answered, “I saw an upside-down world. The uppermost in this world are below in the World to Come and the lowly in this world are above.” His father said to him, “My son, you have seen a clear world.” (Pesachim 50a)
One man can save a world. We don’t know who are the tzaddikim. Moshiach may be the garbage collector. Amidst the upheavals, we will b’ezras Hashem survive.
I read this week about how global warming is changing the earth. Abnormal weather, violent storms, melting ice caps and glaciers are changing the pressure on the surface of the earth, causing upheavals miles below the surface, increasing volcanic activity and earthquakes. The entire world is under intense pressure. On every level, political, social, military, even geological, pressure is building. We are nearing the point at which there could be a global convulsion of unprecedented intensity. The result will be a spiritual revolution in which the domination of Edom and Yishmoel will be overturned and Hashem will rescue His beloved children.
The Mashgiach, Reb Yechezkel Levenstein, z’tl, used to give a vaad to his students. On one occasion, he related that he had heard that the Chofetz Chaim said that there will be a Second World War which will cause the First War to appear like child’s play. There will then be a Third War, which will make the Second War appear like child’s play. The Mashgiach added that, in the final war, all the Jews who fear Hashem will survive. Hashem will say to them, “All those who are removed from the secular, worldly culture … you are Mine!” (Redemption Unfolding)
The Novi says about the days before Moshiach: “Then those who fear Hashem spoke to one another and Hashem listened and heard and a Book of Remembrance was written before Him for those who fear Hashem and …. give thought to His Name. They will be a precious treasure for Me, says Hashem, Master of Legions, on the day which I bring about …. For behold the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the wicked people and … evildoers will be like straw … but a sun of righteousness will shine for you who fear My Name, with healing in its rays.” (Malachi 3:16ff)
May we see it soon in our days!
The Holy Garbage Man
Volcanic eruption
GLOSSARY
B’ezras Hashem: with the help of G-d
Chessed: kindness
Chodesh Tammuz: the Month of Tammuz in the Jewish calendar
Elul: the Jewish month preceding Rosh Hashanah
Klal Yisroel: the nation of Israel
Mashgiach: spiritual advisor to the students in a yeshiva
Mezonos: pastries
Novi: prophet
Shacharis: morning prayers
Tzaddik: holy person
No comments:
Post a Comment