Returning Things to Their Proper Place, at the Proper Time

Good pre-Shabbos, fellow Jews. I've been meaning to write this blog entry for the entire week, but somehow the time got away from me. It has a way of doing that, ya know??

Anyway, if you are a faithful reader (ahem) and recall, a little while back I posted a blog entry about my saga of getting to a shiur given by Rav Arush, and how I was successful only through the help of what I recognized as divine intervention. I concluded that it proved what I had learned, that if you really want to do a mitzvah, G-d will make sure that you get the opportunity to do so.

Lo and behold, it was proven to me again this past week. I was getting off the bus and saw that someone had left their תיק (knapsack)  at the stop. Ah, the perfect opportunity to do the mitzvah of השבת אבדה (returning lost items to their rightful owners)!

Alas, it was not to be. As I unzipped the knapsack to find some sort of identification, the bus driver screamed at me to get away from it. Bus driver screaming?? Big surprise there! Actually, he was within his rights, since I had completely forgotten that it might be a חפץ חשוד - a bomb risk. (Such is the reality of living in the Middle East with your enemies surrounding you). Naturally I backed off, and the kid who actually owned the knapsack came running back a minute later.

Okay, I thought, at least I tried to do the mitzvah. Well, the next day I was sitting all by my lonesome at another random bus stop, when this Russian lady came by and started talking to me about a bank card she had found on the sidewalk right near the King David Hotel. She told me she didn't speak Hebrew very well, so would I mind handling the returning of the card to its rightful owner?

Heck yes, I would be happy to! And I did, and got to do the mitzvah of having the bank inform Yuri Mikalov (or some similar name) that his bank card was found.

Never once did the thought to go on a spending spree in at all the most fabulous shops in Dubai cross my mind. Not once! Okay, maybe once. Har har.

In any case, I got to do my mitzvah. Which was really nice. Then I went home and rewarded myself with a rugelach. Which was also really nice (although not entirely unexpected).

Shabbat shalom everyone!