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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Seize the opportunities for chesed (acts of kindness) that come your way, even when they are inconvenient or costly, because they open channels of blessing. The story, told by Rabbi Fischel Schachter, follows Label, who gives a stranded man a ride home at great personal cost, and later the man's prayer for a child is answered. The central takeaway is that mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice) in kindness brings blessings in ways we cannot predict.
Key Points
- Label's mother, paralyzed by ALS and able to communicate only by blinking, spelled out "challah," which her family realized meant she wanted to bake and pray for others as she used to every Thursday.
- Her children's grandchildren-style playgroup baked challah together, and the daughter guided her mother's hand so she could make the blessing and answer "amen" with her eyes, bringing her tears of joy.
- On their mother's birthday, the children decided each would take upon themselves to perform a chesed for another Jew as her birthday gift.
- Label, who was stranded by a storm on the Garden State Parkway, stopped to help a man whose car had broken down, drove him to Lakewood, and later lent him his own car at night.
- A year later, Label received a call that the man and his wife had just had a baby boy, after Label asked his mother to pray for the man.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: The story itself offers no step-by-step method. The actionable takeaways are to commit to acts of kindness with full seriousness (mesirus nefesh), to give practical help even when it is inconvenient, and to ask someone who is praying, such as a parent, to daven for a specific need.
- The car lent to the stranded man overheated and its engine burned out. A tow-truck mechanic quoted about $3,000 for a new engine; Label refused to pay, but the borrower's rabbinic authority (dayan) ruled he was a shoel (responsible borrower) rather than a shomer, because he kept driving after the warning light came on, so he paid for the repair himself.
- Label's wife objected to lending the car to a man he had just met, but Label said Hashem had put them together and lent it anyway; the story presents the outcome as a sign of divine providence.
- The story is presented as a religious teaching, and the outcomes described are the speaker's account, not verified facts.
Bottom Line
Generosity that costs you something is the kind that the story presents as opening room for blessing, even when the immediate result looks like a loss.
