'Yose ben Yochanan of Jerusalem says: Let your house be open for relief and let the poor be members of your household.'
While sitting on the balcony and reading the Mishna from Pirkei Avot, children were playing outside, supervised by their mothers. Birds were singing and the sun was shining. Regular post-Pesach Shabbat.
A group of people passed by, it was close to the time of the third Shabbat meal. One of the passing women entered our little jungle and asked for the possibility to use a bathroom. Even though she was pregnant, she apologized saying, that she was on her way from Bait Vegan, and has still a piece of walk in front of her, and... One of the women stood up and took her to her house. Everything was so obvious, so clear. No hesitation.
I decided to share the story, because from what we hear from the news, read on the internet etc. shows the world in the darkest possible colors.
And here I received, in the middle of Shabbat rest, a very nice and compact practical example of what I have just learned in the Mishna.
The one-minute story had an additional comforting dimension: The passers-by were charedi and the women who 'let their house open' were dati-leumi, and that fact was completely irrelevant in that situation - another proof of how blindly we follow the black-and-rarely-white news, reporting on fierce battles and sin'at chinam (baseless hatred) between various Jews. Yes, these battles exist, but there also exist numerous Jews, who, regardless their social profile, 'love peace and pursue peace' (Pirkei Avot 1, 12).
Shavua tov!
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