Meir was very excited. He just got off the phone. Someone needed a taxi from Brooklyn all the way to Lakefront, Florida, and then on to Miami, and they needed to leave right this second. This was the kind of trip taxi drivers dream about.
Meir ran outside, smiling from ear to ear, what a great day! But when he got there, his smile disappeared. Another taxi zoomed in, cut him off, and took away his customer. Just like that. Meir couldn’t believe it.
He honked and yelled, but the other driver didn’t care. He drove away with the passengers and Meir’s "big trip".
Meir was very angry and hurt, saying under his breath, "unreal!" But he was a frum Yid, so he said, "This too is for the good!" Even if he didn’t feel it right now.
He started driving home, trying not to think about it when all of a sudden, he saw someone waving on the side of the road. Meir slowed down. He couldn't believe it.
The taxi driver who stole his customer was stuck on the road. His car was dead.
The taxi driver ran over to Meir and said, "Please, help me? I need a jump start. My passenger is in a very big rush!"
Meir just sat there and couldn't believe what he was hearing. A few minutes ago, this man stole his "big trip," and now he had the guts to ask him for help for "his" passenger?
Now Meir had a choice. Drive away... or maybe he was obligated to help him?
Who To Ask?
Of course to R' Yitzchak Zilberstein Shlita! Who makes Torah Learning so sweet & geshmak!!!
- A person who takes away someone's parnassah, his ability to bring home money, is called a wicked person, a rasha. The gemara already says this (kiddushin 59a), "if a person is just about to acquire a cookie (or anything else) and another person quickly takes it first... he is called a wicked man." The taxi driver who drove off with this passenger is for sure included in the above gemara; he grabbed away this passenger.
- But according to halacha, the taxi driver can't be told that he is obligated to give back the passenger; he may be called wicked but doesn't have to give the passenger back (see Pischei Teshuvah, Choshen Mishpat 237:2).
- Usually, we say it's a mitzvah to help someone who needs help— "the mitzvah of helping someone carry a heavy package." But in this case, Meir is not obligated to help because he doesn't have to help someone who is attacking him.
- Even if Meir were to decide drive away because he was hurt, this wouldn't be considered revenge. Because in this case, the other driver grabbed his passenger and he doesn't need to help a person who is hurting him. (Even though it wasn't officially stealing, and he isn't considered a thief, only called wicked.)
- If Meir chooses to help the taxi driver anyway, that would be doing extra — doing the mitzvah of helping someone carry a burden in a beautiful way, because he would be helping someone who attacked him. But he doesn't have to.
- It is also a good thing for Meir to remember what Chazal say (Yoma 38b): "A person cannot touch what is another person's." What a person earns is decided on Rosh Hashanah and is in Hashem's hands. If he lost the job, then this is what Hashem decreed, and he must strengthen his emunah and accept it with love.
