Dear all,
As I was walking through a garage recently, I noticed two cars parked unusually close. I thought to myself, “The GUY (yes – I assumed it was a guy) in the white car has no scruples, decency, or humility.”
I didn’t realized that the driver of the white car was still inside. When the door opened, I watched as a very old man got out.
I then witnessed something extraordinary. A young women approached the man, showed him the situation, and offered, “Can I help by moving your car to a space that might be easier for you?”
And as the man handed her his keys, I remembered what our rabbis taught: “Do not judge another until you have been in that person‘s place” (Pirkei Avot 2:4).
It’s so easy to draw quick conclusions without understanding the breadth of a circumstance. It takes a second to pre-judge. But it takes a moment in time to give the benefit of the doubt.
With love and shalom,
Rabbi Zach Shapiro
