By: Gil Locks
A religious Israeli man, in his early thirties, walked up to me at the tefillin stand this afternoon. He spoke with great urgency. He beseeched me for something, but he was so intense that I could not understand what he wanted. He was telling me how beautiful his young son was, but that he had a major health problem, and he wanted me to give him something very valuable that would guarantee his recovery. I thought that he wanted some tzedaka (charity), so I reached in my pocket and took out some coins to give him.
He jumped back, insulted. “I don’t want your money!” he said, “I want a genuine blessing from you that will help my son.”
I said, “May Hashem bless your son with all that he needs.”
He leaned forward and said, “I want you to give my son all of the mitzvahs that you did today!”
I said, “Why only from today?” Then I announced, “Your son has a portion in all of the mitzvahs that I have ever done in my entire life!”
He was ecstatic. He jumped back again, this time his eyes were full of a genuine light of love. He took my hand and thanked me profusely, and walked off knowing that surely G-d will have mercy on his son. Please G-d, He will.
But what really happened? In truth, I did not change a thing. Since we are all one people, one body, we all share in each other’s deeds. That father did not understand that his son already shared in all of my deeds, and he shared in all of yours, too.
The pie is not made out of the sliced pieces. Those pieces are made out of the pie. The pieces are separate from each other, but they are not separate from the one. The pie is one. We are one.
To read more wisdom from Gil Locks, visit him at www.thereisone.com or stop by and visit him the next time you are by the Kotel.
