A Yid from America relates: I have an Israeli friend who is on the path to coming closer to Torah and mitzvos. He came to a shiur that I give in Kol Aryeh, got a taste of Yiddishkeit, and experienced how good it was. Ever since then, from time to time he calls me and suggests, “Let’s learn Daf Yomi together”; and I hurry to the beis midrash to meet him and learn.
One evening he called asking me to learn with him, and he asked if I wanted ice cream or a milk shake.
“I’m standing here near the store,” he explained, “and I want to buy myself ice cream, but I prefer not to eat alone. Can I get you something as well?”
“Sure,” I answered. “You can get me a milk shake.”
While I was making my way to the beis midrash, my friend was coming from the other direction with the ice cream and milk shake, one in each hand. But the minute I entered the beis midrash he greeted me with a crestfallen, apologetic expression. “I feel so bad,” he explained. “Your milk shake spilled.”
“It’s all min haShamayim,” I told him. “There’s still a quarter of the cup left, and that’s more than enough.” While he went to get paper towels to clean up the area, I held the cup with the milk shake and looked at it for a moment. The cup had the word “Rita” on it – this was the nearby ice cream store. As far as I knew, the hechsher there was not a reliable one.
“Tell me,” I asked him, “is this milk shake chalav Yisrael?”
“I don’t know,” my chavrusa answered. “I’ll call and ask them right now.”
He called, and they told him that if a customer doesn’t specifically ask for chalav Yisrael, they give him chalav nochri.
And I am so careful about this!
How good it is that the milk shake spilled, and I had time to notice and ask about the milk. When a Yid takes on a good kaballah, Hakadosh Baruch Hu helps him keep it.
