The Sefer Emunah tells of a story that happened a couple of years ago in Israel. A young family living in a rented apartment had finally saved up enough to make a down payment for a house. The husband whom we will call Eli hid the next incremental payment of $10,000 in a box of cookies in their refrigerator. Meanwhile, the wife whom we will call Miriam decided to clean out the refrigerator for Pesach sooner than her husband expected. She saw an opened box of cookies and threw it out.
When Eli got home, he checked the refrigerator and was horrified to see the box was missing. He had forgotten to tell his wife that he hid the money there. It was too late. The garbage truck had already picked up the garbage and brought it to the dump. Word spread quickly in the neighborhood and forty men showed up to help Eli sift through the garbage to search for the money. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Each man volunteered a third day to find the money and that night they found the money!
Only the Jewish nation would spend their days searching a smelly dump for their neighbor. It is likely that their miraculous find was due to their selfless sacrifice. They truly embodied the spirit of Bnei Yisrael by Har Sinai loving their fellow Jew “as one person with one heart.”
Reprinted from the Parashat Yitro 5786 email of Jack E. Rahmey based on the Torah teachings of Rabbi Amram Sananes.
