Thinking of Others

I discovered that something very unpleasant happened on Wednesday when the World Zionist Congress came to Shiloh.

The organizer from the Convention had given us the impression that he had carefully worked out an exact schedule, even demanding approval over the speakers at each yishuv they were to visit. Because of that we made sure to be waiting exactly where and when he had instructed for the buses to arrive. Strangely, he didn't answer his cellphone 20 minutes after the promised arrival time. Fifteen minutes after that we finally reached him, and he said that they were just getting into the buses on one of the distant Eli neighborhoods. What it boiled down to was that they were going to be almost a full hour late. Their tour around Eli had taken a full hour longer than planned.

We had a very full hour planned for them, and being as efficient and professional as we could, we did the program in an hour, as not to increase their lateness.

Only afterwards did I discover that there was supposed to be another stop, another visit in the Shiloh area. They had promised to visit the Olive Press in Givat Achiya, a hilltop neighborhood of Shvut Rachel, just to our east. Ronit Shuker had prepared for the much-awaited group in her Visitors Center. Ronit and her husband, Yossi (pray for a refuah shleimah l'Yosef Chaim ben Yehudit,) are modern pioneers having, as a young family, established both Shvut Rachel and Givat Achiya.

On Givat Achiya, Yossi and Ronit established an Olive Press to produce olive oil from olives of the region. Then a terrible tragedy happened when Yossi was caught in one of the presses and has been 100% paralyzed ever since. Ronit and their young children have continued with their work. Since the accident, Ronit succeeded in opening the Visitors Center and there she waited for the eighty (80) delegates from the World Zionist Congress.

Everything was ready, and food cold drinks were on tables. Then, because an extra hour was spent in Eli, instead of welcoming her eighty guests from all over the world, she got a phone call that the visit was cancelled. I felt so awful when I heard, since I would have had gladly cancelled most of our program to give them time in Givat Achiya.

Keeping to a schedule is so important, because when we don't others suffer.