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Mishpatim

"You shall worship Hashem, your G-d, and He shall bless your bread and your water, and I shall remove illness from your midst. There shall be no woman who loses her young or is infertile in your land; I shall fill the number of your days" (Mishpatim 23:25-26).

Most of Rabbi Zilberstein's stories are excellent, but sometimes you read one that makes you say, "Wow. What a story!" The following, from Borechi Nafshi, is such an account.

Someone opened a new store of baby supplies underneath an apartment building. He sold cribs, baby carriages, playpens etc. In order to advertise his wares to passersby, he placed some of them outside the store. A young Torah scholar lived in one of the apartments in the building, and he was annoyed with the clutter that suddenly greeted him every time he entered or exited the building. He asked the storekeeper if he would kindly keep his merchandise inside his store, since it annoyed the people who lived in the building. The storekeeper firmly refused. He didn't think that it bothered anyone but him.

The young man did what every religious Jew should do when he has a complaint against another Jew. Not summon him to a non-Jewish Court of Law but rather to a Beis Din - a Rabbinic Court of Law which governs according to the rules of the Torah. The Rabbis heard both sides, and even sent someone to observe the area in dispute. Their decision was that the place where the storekeeper displayed his wares was not a place where people walk and so he was not interfering with anyone and had the right to display his merchandise there.

The Torah scholar of course accepted the Torah ruling of the Rabbinic authorities and was about to leave the courtroom when the head of the Court approached him and whispered in his ear, "Who knows? You might need the storekeeper and his products one day."

The young man lived on the fourth floor of the building, together with his young family. One and a half weeks later, his two year old son was playing, unsupervised on the porch. His parents were in the kitchen and didn't realize that he had crept out there all by himself. The curious boy climbed up the fence and looked over it - and in a split second he fell down. The parents heard his cry and came running and were horrified to realize what had happened. They flew down the stairs, totally in shock, expecting the worst.

When they reached the ground floor and walked out of the building, they were amazed to meet the storekeeper coming towards them with their son in his arms - alive and well, baruch Hashem. He explained to them that through amazing Hashgachah Peratis (Divine Providence) the little boy had landed exactly in a crib and the mattresses had broken the fall so that he was not hurt. The doctors who later examined the boy declared that he was not even injured at all.


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