By Rabbi Amram Sananes
Shlomo Werdiger, a businessman with intense Yirat Shamayim - fear of G-d, relates a time that he was showing a secular family around his office.
Usually, the children would be mesmerized by the design of sports apparel. This family had a son who asked a million questions, but less about sports, and more about how a Jew in the sports apparel business makes it work. He wanted to know if I went to games like the Super Bowl and when I confirmed that I did, he asked if I ate kosher food. Of course, I told him, recalling some of the different venues and events at which our group was accommodated, in terms of kashrut and other relevant halachot. He was fascinated.
A few weeks later, my secretary put through an unfamiliar caller. I took the phone to hear a man saying that I owed him fifty thousand dollars. I wasn’t sure who was speaking and what he meant, so I waited for him to continue. The man identified himself as Jason and explained that his son came by a few weeks ago asking questions about kosher at different stadiums and games, and now, he has a new fixation.
He is becoming a bar mitzvah, and he keeps saying, “Mr. Werdiger had kosher food at the Super Bowl and the World Series and the NBA finals...can’t I at least have a kosher bar mitzvah?”
Jason explained that he had tried to make his son happy, and a kosher caterer had charged him fifty thousand dollars more than the alternative. I wasn’t sure how serious Jason was, so I told him that it would be an honor for my family to have a share in this incredible merit. We would cover the costs of the kosher caterer.
He laughed and explained that he was a wealthy man. The venue alone is costing him over a million dollars. After a short pause, he lowered his voice. “I just wanted you to know that my son is having a kosher bar mitzvah”. Here, the man’s voice cracked, “and it will be the first kosher affair in my family in generations.”
Shlomo’s unwavering devotion to Hashem’s commandments helped inspire a change in a whole generation.
Reprinted from an email of Jack Rahmey.
