Saturday evening, I go for a stroll.<\/p>\n
An old man calls me over. “Can you do me a big favor?” he asks.<\/p>\n
“What do you need?”<\/p>\n
“I need a mitzvah.”<\/p>\n
“What do you need?”<\/p>\n
“I just had heart surgery. I need you to walk with me. The person who was supposed to walk with me did not show up.”<\/p>\n
“Sure, I’ll walk with you.”<\/p>\n
He takes my arm and we walk slowly down the street.<\/p>\n
“I needed to go for a walk but I had no one. God told me to go down to the street and He would send somebody to me. Two other people passed by but I did not call them over. When I saw you, I saw an arrow pointing at you, this is the one.”<\/p>\n
We walk on.<\/p>\n
He tells me he survived the Holocaust. “I had 120 family members and relatives. I was the only one who survived. I was in five camps including Auschwitz. After the war, I went back to my village in Poland. I waited for three weeks. None of my family returned.<\/p>\n
“My mother was 42 when she was murdered by the Nazis. My father was 45. My zede (grandfather) had a beautiful white beard. When the Nazis entered the ghetto, they asked him, why don’t you shave your beard? Before he could answer, they took out a gun and shot him in the head, splitting his head in half. I can still hear the click of the pistol. I was covered in blood. I just had a nightmare about it last night. Such things, you never forget.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saturday evening, I go for a stroll. An old man calls me over. “Can you do me a big favor?” he asks. “What do you need?” “I need a mitzvah.” “What do you need?” “I just had heart surgery. I … Continue reading