In a world where the news most days brings us the latest hate coming out of the mouth of Kanye West, or the ongoing tragedy of the senseless war in Ukraine, or of course the buyout of Twitter, news about simple acts of kindness don't always make the news.
Yet this week, a tiny moment of kindness and human empathy was noticed by someone where it happened in Israel, and it was quickly shared.
The protagonist of the story is Moshe Biton, a bus driver for the 65 Egged bus line, which travels from Pisat Ze’ev to Givat Shaul in Jerusalem.
A Facebook user, Ravit Shalom, wrote the moving story on Facebook: “This morning, on bus 65, an elderly blind woman got on the bus and tearfully told the driver that the day before she waited a very long time for someone to help her cross the street and no one paid any attention to her.”
What did Biton do? When he reached the woman’s bus stop, he stopped the bus along with all of its passengers and patiently escorted the woman across the street.
Yes indeed it may not be as dramatic as the news about the upcoming midterm elections or what the new rules of Twitter might be, but it is simple stories like these which capture the beautiful potential of the human spirit.
As we run around our frenetic lives, from one meeting and job to the next, do we have time to stop and help someone who is struggling to cross the road?
Tomorrow, we will be reading the dramatic story of the floodwaters of Noah, which the Torah described as being a result of the breakdown of society. The Hebrew word "Chamas" which is used, suggests that it was total breakdown of law and order, whereby people stole from one another with impunity and couldn't care less about what happened to their fellow, that was the cause of the unraveling of society.
So yes in the big picture of things, that are big challenges that need to be tackled and dealt with, some are beyond us and some are within reach. Yet if we can slow down and notice the help that someone else needs so that they too can move where they need to go, then indeed we are uplifting, bettering and changing the world one Mitzvah and one Person at a time.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
Yisroel