MITZVAH G'DOLA A Big Mitzvah

A big difference between the world I was raised in, America and Jewish Life is our responsibility when we find a lost item. Like many English speaking kids I'd recite:

Finders keepers -- losers weepers

Judaism commands us to make every effort to find the owner of a lost item and return it.

Yesterday, like many Wednesdays I take a bus from Jerusalem to the Shiloh Junction, because there are almost two hours between buses after I finish my classes in Matan. It's not all that difficult, because there are a number of buses that pass Shiloh and can let us off at the junction. I usually take advantage of one of those buses. That's what I did yesterday...

Sometimes I get a ride home within seconds, and sometimes I must wait a lot longer. Most of the cars who offer rides are continuing eastwards at the T-junction about a mile or more from the main junction. Yesterday there were many of us waiting for rides; I may have been the only one trying to get to Shiloh.

While I was waiting yesterday, I noticed two bags on the bus stop bench. As the crowd emptied --others got rides-- nobody picked up the bags or seemed to even notice them, just me. I kept waiting and signaling for a ride, but nobody stopped. Again I glanced at the bags and realized that I needed to do something to try to find the owner, so I took a quick picture. 

Immediately after I took the picture a neighbor stopped to give me a ride. As I was closing the door, I mentioned that there were bags on the bench, one of which looked like a Tefillin bag. He reversed a meter or so, exited the car and examined/opened the bags to look for identification. He found it plus the owner's phone, which needed a code to use. He took them, and we told the soldiers at the security gate that he had the bags and would return with a sign and tape, so the owner would know who had them.

Life in Israel the Jewish country.

Happy Ending With The Help of Social Media and Friends

Happy lost & found story 

When I was sitting in my "Parshat Shavua," Weekly Torah/Bible Portion class, I realized that one of my earrings was missing. Walking back home I tried to remember exactly how I had gone and looked for it. Couldn't find it, nor at home either.

So I sent out notices with a photo to local email and Whatsapp groups. About an hour later a neighbor called. She said that it looked familiar. She thought she had seen it while walking home and even apologized for not picking it up.

I went to where she said she though she had seen it, and there it was.

When I thanked her, I said that obviously I was in need of those extra 200 or so steps.

Baruch Hashem

Pro-Pockets and Fanny Pack

A lot of people recognize me by my silhouette. On weekdays I almost always have a "pouch" or  "Fanny Pack" on. Few women's clothes come designed with pockets, and the pockets are rarely large enough to safely store one's smartphone.

Even when I'm home I buckle up my small Fanny Pack, so I can have my phone cum pedometer on me. And when out of the house, my keys are in a pocket or the pouch. The other day when visiting a  Jerusalem public toilet, I spotted these on a counter.

I hope that the owner rushed back quickly for them. There was no guard or person who could be considered responsible at the building for me to hand them over.

A few years ago, I spotted an expensive ring on the edge of the sink outside of "restroom" at a "food court." I took it to the closest food place and asked the worker where there was a nearby security office. He told me to ask a young religious (Jewish) woman eating at a nearby table if the ring was hers. He guessed correctly. Orthodox Jews ritually wash their hands before eating bread. For this "washing" one must take off rings. Many rings get lost when the owner leaves them by the sink instead of putting in a pocket or mouth.

Searching Out The Owner

The American (and Israeli) media was impressed by the fact that Rabbi Noach Muroff returned the close to one hundred thousand dollars he found in a desk bought via Craig's List.

The desk, purchased for $150 dollars, turned out to be hiding $98,000 stuffed in a ShopRite plastic bag, that had fallen behind the file cabinet.
And Muroff gave it all back.
Muroff bought the desk last September, right before Rosh Hashanah. When it wouldn’t fit through the door, he and his wife had to disassemble it. That’s when they spotted a shopping bag full of a cash inheritance that the previous owner assumed had been lost somewhere in her home.

Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/194400/honest-rabbi-returned-k-and-inspired-us/#ixzz2vuZzA7v9

I thought of it last night at work when a man came in to retrieve a bag of clothes he had inadvertently left in a shopping cart in the Rami Levy, Sha'ar Binyamin parking lot. In our case, when the supermarket worker who had found the bag gave it to kupah rashit, managers office at the entrance/exit of the supermarket, they gave it to the Yafiz check-out counter.  There the receipt was traced and apparently the customer had paid with a credit card which afforded sufficient identification to locate and contact him.  That's one of the reasons it pays to write your name clearly and sign in your phone number when signing the receipt to the store. Not everyone does it. We always make an effort to return such lost bags, which may not happen daily, but each story has a better chance for a happy ending if you do.

The Israeli practice when it comes to a "found" items follows the Jewish Law to return lost item to its owner. A couple of times I've even taken the bag home, so that it would be easier for the owner to pick it up directly from me rather than having to return to Sha'ar Binyamin.  We've all done that.

Over twenty years ago, when I was working in a Jerusalem store, my pocketbook, including wallet, identification etc were stolen at work.  A couple of months later I got a postcard from the "Lost and Found," aka in Israel "Returning Lost Items" department of the Tel Aviv Bus Station that something of mine had been found. I traveled to Tel Aviv and discovered that my pocketbook, identification and change/coins were all there. The thief  had "only" taken the bills.

Yes, Israel is a Jewish Country with Jewish values, B"H.

Admittedly there is still a need for improvement, but we're all supposed to constantly do teshuva, repent and attempt to improve ourselves.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Purim Sameach!

Amazing Little Miracle

About a month and a half ago or more I managed to lose a gold earring at work.  Suddenly I realized that it wasn't in my ear.  I had vague memories of something being stuck in my sweater or neckwarmer and pulling on it, but I couldn't quite remember where that had happened.  I mentioned it to some of the staff at the time.

It was a good earring, which I had for years.  I decided not to allow myself to get upset.  It wasn't a matter of life and death.  It probably happened around the time that Superman Sam lost his battle against leukemia and died. With that on my mind and other issues much more crucial than a gold earring, after doing my best to search for it, I just said Kapora.  May the loss of the earring be instead of the loss of a life.

Davka, I've found and returned many lost objects in the store, Yafiz-Sha'ar Binyamin.  But even though I frequently sweep the store, and it gets cleaned daily, the ring had disappeared.  It's not the first time in my life I've lost an earring. I've lost earrings that were more valuable and mean much more to me than that one. Yes, Kapora.

That's me at work a couple of months ago
wearing the earring.

Last night at work, after spending a lot of time manning our "outside" for awhile, where we have about a third of our stock, I walked in and stepped behind the counter where the cash registers are.  Suddenly I noticed something bright and gold sparkling at me.  Yes, of course, you guessed it.  It was my earring.

"That's mine." 

I said in English. So surprised, I couldn't find the words in Hebrew.

Another staff member told me that a customer had just found it.  When he told me where I was even more surprised, since I've cleaned there many, many times.  And even stranger is the fact that not all that long ago I found someone else's earring in the same basic location.

All I can think of is that the customer who found my earring really needed a mitzvah to do, and G-d decided that it should be to find and return my earring.

Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach

May You Have a Peaceful and Blessed Shabbat