By Rabbi Joey Haber
The story is told of an observant Jewish woman who needed to undergo serious surgery on her scalp. When she arrived at the hospital for the operation, she was reminded that she needed to wash her hair with a special shampoo before the surgery. The surgery could not be performed without her first washing with this shampoo – but the woman had forgotten to wash before coming to the hospital.
The nurse told her that there was a pharmacy nearby where she might be able to buy the shampoo. If she could go and buy it, the nurse said, then they could perform the surgery that day, but if not, she would have to wait another two months, which could be dangerous, given her condition.
The woman raced to the pharmacy – only to find the staff closing the door. She pleaded with them to let her in so she could buy the shampoo, explaining the gravity of the situation. The cash registers were already closed, but the cashier who was locking up agreed to let the woman take the shampoo.
“If you can, send your husband to pay for it tomorrow,” the employee said. “If not, I’ll take it off my salary.”
The woman thanked her profusely, bought the shampoo, and had the operation. The next day, her husband came to the pharmacy. He found the cashier he needed to speak to, and explained that he was the husband of the woman who was there the previous night to buy the special shampoo. He said he had come to pay.
The cashier called out to her coworker across the room, “Hey Jack, you owe me $50!”
Jack came and saw what happened. The cashier explained to the husband that Jack had bet $50 that the woman’s husband would not come to pay for the shampoo.
“Wait, it’s not fair,” Jack said, pointing to the visibly Orthodox Jewish man by the counter. “If I had known that this woman was one of these people, I would never have made the bet.”
Reprinted from the Parshat Vayeishav 5785 email of iTorah.com
