I have a friend who tells the following story: when he lived in Washington for Thanksgiving day weekend weather forecast predicted snow. He heard the report but ignored it. Early Friday morning, he went shopping and by the time he was ready to return home, there was about an inch of snow on the ground. Without snow tires, his car was immobilized. A cab driver stopped, shoveled away the snow and finished the job with a throw of salt and sand. He said to my friend, “I want you to go back into the store and buy a shovel and a bag of salt.” My friend pulled out of the cab driver did not go away. My friend put a hand in his pocket to give him a tip. The cab driver refused the money and repeated to my friend, “I want you to go back into the store and buy a shovel and a bag of salt.”
The cab driver still did not depart. My friend began to get nervous. He asked him in desperation, “What do you want for me?” The cab driver replied, “I want you to go back into the store and buy a shovel and a bag of salt and I want you to do it now.” This taxi driver did not want to merely teach my friend how to prepare for the capricious weather, he wanted him to take those precautions at that very moment.
Jewish Life too, consists of more than just knowing facts. It is not a mere intellectual exercise but the commitment of our whole beings to living Jewish lives and doing mitzvot. –Rabbi Elliot Schoenberg
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