Monday, March 03, 2008
I Hit the Kid! part 2
Everyone is asking for the end of the story.
Friday afternoon, right before Shabbos the kids ran downstairs to my study to tell me ‘the boy is here - the boy is here’.
I came upstairs to find my smiling little friend supported by crutches eager to meet me in perhaps a less engaging fashion. His father, who was standing beside him, explained that they just wanted to show me that ‘everything was okay - Toda La’El.’ He explained to me that I shouldn’t be alarmed by the crutches, the doctor just wanted to keep the pressure off his knee for a couple of days. He thanked me for the plate of candy I sent over the night before. He told me that they were so thrilled with the gift that they all put on Kipaot and together made a Brochah on the candy. It was a celebration of G-ds kindness to them.
He then shared with me a remarkable thing. He told me that from his window he watched his son run wildly down the steps to the street to catch his bus. As he watched the boy run, for the first time that he could remember, he found himself uttering a prayer. ‘Please Elokim - Shelo Tidros" (G-d! Make sure he doesn’t get hurt by a car!) Seconds later his son got hit by my car!
I told the father that I was so wondering what was happening in the Heavens that this boy merited such a miracle. Was it zchut avot? Was this child a future leader of the Jewish people ? Suddenly I understood. His father uttered a prayer.
Does a story ever end?
Yaacov Haber
Rabbi Haber has been a leading force in Jewish Outreach for the past 25 years. A founding trustee of AJOP, the Association of Jewish Outreach Professionals, he was the founder and director of the Torah Center of Buffalo from 1980-1990 while serving as a community rabbi in Buffalo. From Buffalo he and his family traveled to Melbourne, Australia where as a project of Kollel Bais HaTalmud he founded the Australian Institute of Torah, a national outreach and adult education program. He directed that program from 1990-1995, at which time he was sought out as National Director of Jewish Education for the Orthodox Union in the United States where he created the Internationally acclaimed and highly successful "Pardes Project."
