The following is the account of Shlomo Mizrahi of Jerusalem:
I live in Jerusalem in an old building built in the 1950s. The state of the building, due to its age, was not good at all. In Israel there is a renovation option called TAMA 38, according to which the owners of any old apartment building that meets the prescribed conditions can update their building and improve it, making it a new one with larger apartments and additional rooms. The plan for TAMA 38 is for the contractor to demolish the building and build a new, taller one in its place. Both parties involved win: the owners of the apartments receive a new, spacious apartment with more bedrooms, while the contractor receives the apartment floors they added to the original building to sell. Of course, receiving a proposal like this would be a blessing and happiness for me, because I would not have to spend money out of my pocket to have a beautiful new larger apartment.
This industry is very lucrative, which is why many contractor companies compete in this field, offering their services to tenants of old buildings, in the midst of fierce competition.
A while ago, several contractor companies started meeting with all the neighbors in our building to offer to make a TAMA 38 deal with us. We felt like the most wanted people in the world! Contractors were constantly coming to our door to offer the most attractive and magical proposals. Thank God, after a period of time and several proposals, we reached a clear agreement and signed a contract with one of the contractors. This seemed to be the best contractor with the best offer, giving tenants the maximum possible. To our joy, there was virtually no limit to our demands.
However, the joy did not last long. From the moment we signed the agreement, the contractor simply ignored us. When we wanted to talk to him about the plans and details of the deals, there was simply no one to talk to. He didn't answer calls at all. We felt that we fell into a trap. On the one hand we had already signed the evacuation agreement, and on the other hand the contractor didn't hear anything related to us. He did everything unilaterally, even in things that damaged our quality of life. This made me very sad, and I called him every day, but there was never an answer from him.
One day, I was already very exhausted from the repeated attempts to see if he might answer me on the phone; I had called him from phone numbers he knew and from phone numbers he didn't know... But nothing helped. There was only silence. There was no one to answer; There was no one to speak. So, I decided to study from the Zera Shimshon book for the sake of the cause, so that I would be treated with the dignity I deserve.
From thought to action; as soon as this idea came to my mind, I sat down in the neighborhood synagogue to study the book Zera Shimshon. I studied it for a long time, after which I prayed and begged the Creator to save me from the problem I was in.
That night I tried once again to call the contractor. And this time he answered the call! He spoke to me in a serious and respectful manner, promising to fulfill my request in the best possible way, after many weeks of not answering any calls.
