Communicated: TefillaChillul Tefila Bifarhesia, as well as halachicly challenged verbiage and dress, are external manifestations of a critical lack of personal yiras shomayim which has lethal consequences.
Ching Li was firm. No credit card.
My mind lamely tried to come up with a plan. “Umm… I guess… I’ll go home… and get money… can you leave my clothes here… and I’ll come back soon…” and wait for another half hour… and the place is probably closing soon… and Mommy needs the car… and you need to get ready for yom tov…
I felt like I wanted to cry. After all that waiting… I was unraveling.
The joke-telling man was suddenly trying to get my attention. “I’ll give you the money; don’t worry.”
In a moment he was at the counter, pulling open his wallet. “What’s your name…Reich?” He must have seen the name on the card.
“Thank you… thank you so much…” I was way too grateful to protest. “I’ll pay you back right after yom tov...”
Ching Li accepted the money, handed over a receipt, ka ching! A whisk of plastic, it was all done…
I turned to my rescuer with relief. “Thank you so much…” I had no words.
“No problem,” he assured me with a smile. He gave me his name and stepped back in line. As I left the cleaners I heard him calling my father and telling him that all was fine with the kids. I grinned and stepped out into the beautiful rain.
“You MUST pay with cash.”
“I can’t pay with cash!”
“You MUST pay with cash.”
“I can’t pay with cash!”
“Ill pay the cash,” says a face with a kind smile.
“Why thank you!” she simpers, weak with relief.
Wong Long scowls. “Rats! Foiled again!”
(I sigh in blissful amazement.) “My hero.”
To me, that is a hero. A person who sees someone in need, and stands up, and steps forward, and reaches out a helping hand. To friend, or to stranger. No, he hadn’t known who I was before he saw the card. To be a man, to do what needs to be done… and to do with a smile, and a cheery air…
That is a hero.
About the Author:


You must log in to post a comment.


Florida is famous for sparkling water. We have the beautiful Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico surrounding our coast. We have bays, lakes, canals and, of course, an incredible abundance of swimming pools in homes, resorts, apartment complexes and city parks.

The buzz is back as Camp Gan Israel Florida Overnight gears up for another fantastic summer, CGI Florida style. What makes CGI Florida so different from all the other overnight camps? It’s all in the details.

Leah Katz, a TeenZone camper at Oorah’s TheZone summer camp and an 11th grader at Midwood High School, read her winning essay about how TheZone changed her views on Judaism at the Jewish Heritage Awards Ceremony held at Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’s office in April. The purpose of the Jewish Heritage Essay Contest is to acquaint public school students with Jewish history and customs and to help foster a deeper understanding of Jewish culture. The contest is open to students of all ethnic and religious backgrounds. Leah’s essay is reproduced in full below.
Moshe Sharett, the head of the Jewish Agency’s Political Department, visited Egypt in 1945. In Cairo he met a most remarkable young woman, a beautiful journalist who was the darling of Egyptian high society – from high-ranking military brass, to culture icons and Muslim sheikhs, to the court of King Faruk.
The two proceeded to talk about everyday things and surprisingly her mother-in-law did not find anything else to criticize. This occurred a few more times, with my client changing the topic every time by complimenting her mother-in-law or mentioning something positive about her.
There is always a lot of confusion surrounding sensory processing disorder – mainly because there are many different diagnoses that fall under the catch-all phrase sensory processing disorder (SPD). Among them are three specific subcategories:
The doctor had warned us that even if we did everything right and followed the protocol after the follicle was of the right size, there was no guarantee of success. Fertilization still had to occur, and just like couples do not necessarily become pregnant every month, we had no way to know if we were actually expecting for two full weeks.
The next chapter of the award-winning novel.
Jewish Press columnist Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis, founder and president of Hineni, the international Torah outreach organization, recently addressed an overflowing audience at the Beth Jacob Congregation of Irvine in southern California. Rebbetzin Jungreis’s address theme, “Making a Good Relationship Magical,” was apropos for the evening’s main mission: raising funds for the Irvine community’s mikveh.
.
You have probably been planning your marriage since you were about three. Let’s fast-forward to a big milestone– your twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. (Don’t worry, you don’t look a day over twenty one!) Now, would you appreciate your husband buying you a dozen roses that some florist recommended?
As I mentioned in my earlier articles about our family trip to Israel, our night flight went pretty smooth, thanks to my children’s willingness to sleep throughout the flight. I, on the other hand, didn’t sleep a wink and I wasn’t feeling too great by the time we landed. But we were finally in Israel, and just being in the beautifully renovated Ben Gurion airport and hearing all the Hebrew around us was exciting enough.

The heinous crime that put “Prisoner X” Ben Zygier in an Israel jail where he killed himself was not known until today: He butchered a secret Mossad operation to bring home the remains of 3 soldiers.

The surgery was a complete success, but the surviving twin is still not out of danger.
Last week, police executed a search warrant in the couple’s former home in Dewitt.
“They located the barbecue in a grassy area, ignoring safety guidelines.”
The organizers of a Thursday parade in Rome marking the World War II liberation of Italy prevented a representative from the Jewish Brigade group from speaking at the commemorative ceremony. A group of Jews and others marched under the Israeli flag and a banner of the Jewish Brigade that fought the Nazis in Italy. The [...]
Rabbi Avraham Sherman could be charged with fraud, breach of trust, obstruction of justice, and abuse of office.
Second suspect sought after Watertown explosions, gunfire.
Peter Vallone Jr., the frontrunner in the Queens Borough President’s race this fall, met last week with the editorial board of The Jewish Press at the newspaper’s Boro Park office. Vallone, a city councilman representing Astoria, Queens, touted his strong backgrounds in both public safety and running a small business, as well as his being a longtime supporter of Israel and of more funding and benefits for private schools.
Printed from: http://www.jewishpress.com/sections/magazine/potpourri/my-hero-2/2011/11/12/
Scan this QR code to visit this page online:
No related posts.