A moving incident

Reader-submitted: My sister, who is a Belzer from Bnei Brak, was on her way last week to Yerushalayim to attend the chasunah of the Belzer Rebbe’s granddaughter.

As she sat in the middle of the packed bus with her 11 year old son, a soldier (chayal) boarded, and seeing that there was no empty seat, he sat on the floor. My sister whispered to her son, “Yankele, would you like to do a mitzvah and honor this chayal who is putting his life on the line now, and every day to help protect us from the terrorist arabs?  Why don’t you offer him your seat and you can stand in the front of the bus with some of the boys.”  Her son replied, “yes, but if he takes my seat next to you, where will you sit?”  She answered, “I will go to the back of the bus with some ladies, and stand there.”

However, the chayal politely declined the offer, he said that us chayalim are accustomed to sit on the floor of buses. My sister persisted;  she told him “for the sake of the proper chinuch of my young son, to learn to show respect and hakaras hatov, would you please allow him to honor you?”  He said, “If that is your intention, I will accept the seat.”

At the end of the ride, the chayal approached my sister and handed her a note which read:

To a dear Mother,

I wish to tell you, that I was deeply moved by your and your son’s gesture on my behalf. The only reason that I agreed to take your spot, was because you had said it was for the sake of your sons’s chinuch. You are praiseworthy, that you have merited to raise your child on the principles of Hakaras Hatov, and love for those who sacrifice themselves for Am Yisroel and Eretz Yisroel.

It should be Hashem’s will that you should merit to bring up your children in the way of Torah, Midos Tovos and Ahavas Chinum.

From the Chayal

(View the letter below.)

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18 COMMENTS

  1. Incidents such as these give me back my faith in humanity.

    This is a true Kiddush Hashem both from the mother the son. And last. It not least, the soldier himself. It seemed from the story that the soldier was really ok with his “seat”, yet, he was sensitive to the important lesson of chinuch.

    This is Kllal Yisroel. Hakoras Hatov is one of the most important midos.

    Politics aside, this was correct all around.

    Hooray.

    And to all those sceptics, don’t worry, in seven years this zeese boy is not going to be in the tzava.

    He will just be a gevaldiger mentsch due to the middos toiviis he learned at home from his mother.

    Thank you TLS

  2. This is a beautiful story. It sis extraordinary.

    But it shouldn’t be. It should be natural, it should be normal, ordinary. it should be…. what EVERYONE does.

    Unfortunately, certain groups among us have decided to live a life of chilul Hashem, so this story is now extraordinary, a kidush Hashem.

    No, do not send this to CNN and MSNBC. They will not understand what is so extraordinary with this story. To them, this would be normal.

  3. Yid, unfortunately, I agree with you. This should be a typical day in Israel. The truth is, I think it is, besides for a group of extremists who didn’t have this mother being mechanech the

  4. Would that lady have thought of giving her son the same lesson in Derech Eretz if that was a Yeshiva Bochur sitting on the floor? She definitely should have! They’re the ones saving Eretz Yisroel from disaster!

    • why make a comment like that? just appreciate the beautiful story… you dont habe to say everthing that comes to your mind

  5. so beautiful. just to add but not to take away….some of your children may be finishing the school year soon and it may be a nice idea to send a nice letter (no need for cash or gifts) to your childs morah or rebbe just to let them know that you appreciate the year your child had. it sends a message to your child and the rebbe/morah will greatly appreciate your kind words

Comments are closed.