Most people do their shopping in one of the widespread chain stores, where they receive service from different cashiers. I, on the other hand, was zocheh that near my home there is a “real” makolet, with an old-time seller who forges genuine relationships with his loyal customers. Each time I come to the grocery to buy something, I also enjoy his genuine interest and his devar Torah, with a story for dessert, depending, of course, on how much traffic there is in the store.
One day, at the beginning of the war with Iran, I was standing in the grocery and talking to the seller as usual. At the same time, one of the people from the neighborhood came in, took several items, and walked over to the counter to pay. Before paying, he made an interesting proposal: “I have four new packages here of corona masks,” he said. He held up one unopened package with those nostalgic masks and asked, “I don’t have what to do with these. Perhaps you want to buy them from me?”
The seller nodded his head in affirmation. He rang up the man’s purchases and subtracted forty shekels from his total – ten shekels per package. The masks changed hands, the seller put the boxes on the shelf under the counter. After the customer left, he told me, “I don’t make anything on these masks. No one buys them today. Anyone who needs this type of mask goes to the pharmacy, but he’s a steady customer, and that’s why I’m giving him this service.”
We continued our conversation, which had been interrupted. A moment later another customer came in to the store. As soon as he walked in he turned to the seller with a question: “Do you have any corona masks?”
“Yes,” the seller answered simply, bent down to the shelf underneath the counter and put the box, which hadn’t even had the chance to gather any dust on the shelf, into the man’s hands. “Ten shekels,” he said. The man paid, took the box and left.
I was amazed. Just a few seconds before, the masks had arrived, and already there was a demand for them. They were really not meant to be here, the seller should not have agreed to take them, and the man should not have shown up specifically now, and not just five minutes ago, for example. It was a purely a Divine sight.
My curiosity was burning, so I concluded the conversation with the seller, took the products I had purchased, and ran after the buyer. “Excuse me,” I said. “Why do you need corona masks?”
He answered with the innocence of someone who does not recognize his own personal miracle. “They asked me to come to work in a place where there is a lot of dust. I have to wear a mask while working, so now, on the way to work, I stopped in at the makolet and bought masks.” I figured he would be clearing out bomb shelters, a job that had become popular during this time of sirens and missiles. And once again, I was amazed to see how Hakadosh Baruch Hu cares for every Yid, so he would not have to exert himself too much and so he would immediately have what he needs.
