An avreich from Yerushalayim relates: I live on a mountain, on the first floor, so that the porch of my home meets up with the sidewalk. This never bothered us until now. It’s been four years that we’ve lived in this apartment, and we never had to deal with unwanted invaders such as undesirable animals.
One day I discovered a mouse on my porch. I went to the hardware store, bought a box-trap with a metal spring, put food inside, and waited to see what would happen. Some time passed, and a small mouse got trapped inside, but he wasn’t the only one. Two large mice were outside the trap, trying to free their friend that was inside.
I understood that the mouse was not alone; there was a whole community here, a makkah of mice, and I had no clue how to deal with it. I called a friend to help me. He took the trap and released the mouse far away from my home, into a sewer hole.
I knew the story was not over yet, and so I prepared another trap, with food, to catch all the potential mice. The next day I discovered something amazing: The mice had taken the food and left the trap door open. This happened day after day: I put in food, the mice ate and enjoyed, and didn’t get trapped.
I had to try to understand this. Hakadosh Baruch Hu speaks to us, and we have to examine our deeds. The first thing that came to my mind was the story in the Talmud Yerushalmi about Rabi Pinchas ben Yair, who was once in a city where the people came and asked him to save them from the plague of mice that was affecting their city. Rabi Pinchas called all the mice and asked them to tell him why they were eating the produce of that city. The mice gathered around Rabi Pinchas and squeaked that the inhabitants of the city were not careful to take ma’aser, and therefore they had received permission from on High to take the ma’aser from their fields.
Rabi Pinchas chastised the inhabitants of the city, and once they repaired their ways, the mice disappeared.
I thought to myself: I am careful to take ma’aser from every bit of food that comes into my home, even though the food has an excellent hechsher and was already ma’asered by the kashrus organization. Also, according to the opinion of Rav Chaim Kanievsky zt”l, a lack in the mitzvah of ma’aser kesafim can also cause the appearance of mice. In this matter too I act correctly and take ma’aser tzedakah immediately. If so, where was the problem?
I turned to my wife and asked her if she knew of a food that we eat without taking ma’aser. “I think I know,” she responded. “In my parents’ yard there is a cherry tomato plant, and the children pick from it and eat without taking ma’aser, because they eat the tomatoes in the yard and don’t bring them into the house.”
Indeed, when someone picks a fruit or vegetable in the field, he is not obligated to take ma’aser, but in a private yard the halachah is different. I looked into the matter and realized that the explicit halachah is that we are obligated to take ma’aser from a fruit or vegetable that grew in a private garden. It thus came to light that the tomatoes my children had eaten were tevel vadai!
I was astounded. I called my two small children, and together we did teshuvah. We did azivas hacheit, charatah, vidui, and kabbalah al he’asid.
A week has passed since then, and the makkah of mice has left without leaving behind a trace. They disappeared completely, and for a week, not even the edge of the tail of a mouse has been seen in or around my house. They fulfilled their mission and squeaked about the ma’asros, and once we understood the hint, their job was over.
Just think how the Ribbono shel Olam is occupied with what enters the mouths of small Jewish children! He sends mice especially to arouse us, and he chases them away at the exact moment when the deed is repaired. This incident inspired me to pay attention to all of our deeds, words, and foods.
