I am married and the father of 6 children, I work hard all week and Shabbat is the day dedicated to the family and the children. I have a custom that I inherited from my parents - to try to invite guests to Shabbat, and indeed there are always guests at the Shabbat table in our home.
One day we decided to build an addition to the house and enlarge it with two more rooms. We talked to all the neighbors and they agreed with a promise that we would keep it quiet and clean and we did start building, we made a little deviation in the construction and one day an inspector came, we talked to him but he said he couldn't ignore it because there was someone complaining. He refused to say who the complainant was, but after clarification we knew who he was, but we also knew we were in serious trouble. He was terrified of the neighborhood. A problematic person who demolished several building additions in the nearby streets, even those that have nothing to do with him. The first instinct is to go and fight and that's what everyone did, but I decided that if everyone did something that didn't work, I should do something else! I just approached him and asked him if the construction was bothering him, he replied that the noise bothered him. I apologized to him while consulting with him on what to do and even offered him compensation. In the meantime, I stopped the construction work completely, but I would come to him every day and talk to him about everything except the construction.
One day I invited him to come up to my house and be treated to a cake that my wife had baked. He went up for two hours, ate and talked and chatted with the children, and when he was about to leave, my wife said to him: "Sir... Maybe you're coming to us for a Friday night meal?" He did agree, and when he left, she said: "We may be hospitable, but only guests we are nice with, maybe it's time for us to invite guests who aren't so nice to us? Maybe that's what they meant when they ordered hospitality"? After a speech like that, I had nothing to say and agreed. He came to the meal, so that it would be nice I invited a few yeshiva guys who sang and sang and the Shabbat table lasted until late, we also invited him to a third meal and at the end of it we went together for the evening prayer, when we came back he asked me: "Why did you stop the construction?" I replied: "It's in your honor, you objected." He said: "And now I am removing my objection, you are a good person and also clever, you managed to buy me..." I went back to building, and during the construction I ordered it a few more times and then the construction was finished and everything fell into place safely.
A few weeks after the construction was finished, I invited him again, he asked, "Why?" I asked him, "What's the point?" "Why are you inviting me?" "I invite you every few weeks when my wife proposes it, what do you remember to ask now?" He said, "You've finished the construction, haven't you?" "And then"? "You have no reason to invite me."Do you think I invited you because of the construction?" "Of course I think so, and you don't?... He looked me in the eye and I decided to admit the truth, "The truth is that at first I invited you because I wanted to get along with you, but out of a lack of Lishma in Lishma, and I have been inviting you for a long time because I really want you to come." He looked happy: "I'll come, of course I will," and another added, "You're a good person, and not stupid at all." A few months passed in which I invite him from time to time, and following that we started inviting people whose definition was people who were not nice to invite, and we felt that we were fulfilling the mitzvah of hospitality.
One Saturday we drove out of town and on Saturday night we went home. There was a separate entrance to our house and when we arrived we found the door open, I realized there had been a break-in, we went into the living room, it looked like a battle zone. I hurried into the place where I usually hide large sums of money, my heart pounded wildly, but even before I entered the hallway I saw a figure lying on the kitchen floor, I walked apprehensively and recognized that this was our neighbor. I immediately called an ambulance and joined him when he was evacuated to the hospital. I called the house and my wife said that nothing had been taken and she added: "Including the clearing"! He woke up a few hours later and began to tell what had happened: "I was sitting on the balcony and saw people with hats and suits walking around your house, at first I thought it was guys you invited but two came, and two went and the house was dark. The whole thing really didn't seem to me and then someone came out with a tzitzit without a kippah and I immediately understood that he couldn't be your guest, I went down and went to your entrance and saw four guys inside. I started screaming and they started responding, I threw chairs at them and they threw back at me and suddenly one of them started hitting me with a chair, I felt like I was about to lose consciousness, I screamed loudly and saw them fleeing for their lives, then I don't remember anything, I understand that the neighbors came and evacuated me to the hospital." "No, because of the rain and the wind, they probably didn't hear you but the thieves didn't know it and ran away before taking anything, you were unconscious for almost a day until we came and found you fainting on the floor." I wholeheartedly believe that this mitzvah of hospitality saved me from losing a lot of money and that it will inspire others to strengthen themselves in the mitzvah of hospitality for its own sake.
