“If in another ten years you have to switch this washing machine,” the salesman in the appliance store had told me, “don’t think you have to check your mezuzos. I’m telling you, a washing machine that lasts eight years is good, and if it holds up for ten, say nishmas in middle of the week.”
He didn’t need to say more. That’s life. A washing machine comes and goes; say thank you that you live longer than it. Baruch Hashem.
But for me – listen well – the machine worked for seventeen years! I’m not saying “b’li ayin hara,” because no harm can come to it anymore, but the day the machine died is an event worthy of publication.
Since our wedding, baruch Hashem, we were careful not to do laundry on Fridays – in all seasons, both winter and summer, both when we were a young couple and even as the family grew and grew, b’chasdei Hashem. I’m not saying that it’s obligatory to do this, but for us it was a hakpadah that we had established in our home. On Friday the machine rested, no matter what. How did we manage? We managed! My wife plans ahead and does all the laundry for the Shabbos clothing at the beginning of the week, and if on Friday she discovers something that hasn’t been washed, we can always find an alternative.
There were times when the machine made noise; there were problems for which we had to call in a technician. They also warned us that it seemed the machine was no longer what it used to be. Some claimed it had gotten old, and some said it was actually dying, but several more years passed after that diagnosis, and the machine continued to launder our clothing five days of the week.
A few weeks ago on a Friday, an article of clothing got dirty. I suspected that if I’d wait until after Shabbos to wash it, the stain would set and we wouldn’t be able to clean it. I told myself that on a long summer Friday it was not so terrible to do a load. To my sorrow, I violated the kabbalah we had taken on ourselves and washed the item on Erev Shabbos.
On Motzaei Shabbos the machine no longer worked. The first time I used the machine on Friday was the last time.
It had lasted for seventeen years, and the message it left us with echoes still...
