Rav Shraga Freedman relates a beautiful story. The residents of the Ezras Torah community in Eretz Yisroel were bothered by a stranger who would drive around the neighborhood every Shabbos. Some people began protesting, but Rav Hershel Zaks took a different approach. He got a good look at the license plate number, and he memorized it.
After Shabbos, he was able to use the license plate number to get this man’s address. He then went over to his house and knocked on the door. A little boy opened the door and called over his shoulder, “Some religious people are here!”
His father shouted back, “Give them a Shekel!” However, Rav Zaks said to him, “We’re not here for money. We would like to talk to your father.”
The man came to the door. Rabbi Zaks gently explained how the Jews of Ezras Torah were pained by the car in their streets on Shabbos.
The man replied, “You’re crazy, but you’re right. I won’t drive on your streets any more on Shabbos.”
The Bar Mitzvah Invitation
About a year and a half later, Rabbi Zaks received an invitation to a Bar Mitzvah. At the Simchah, the father of the Bar Mitzvah boy approached him and said, “Rabbi, do you recognize me?”
Rav Zaks was not sure he could remember him, and the man said, “About two years ago, you came to my door and asked me not to drive in Ezras Torah on Shabbos. Because you cared enough to explain and talk to me like I mattered, I decided to find out more about being religious, and I am now Shomer Shabbos. I started sending my child to a religious school, because I want him to learn how to emulate you!”
Reprinted from the Parshas Vayeira 5784 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefilah.
