KI TEITZEI
Making a Difference - Good and Bad Rabbi Andrew Shaw Chief Executive, Mizrachi UK
Normally at the end of Shul in the morning, I put my tefillin away, say a few ‘have a good day’ to people and head out. Today was different. I davened Shacharit at Terenure Shul in Dublin. I am here to visit my uncle who is recovering in hospital. My family has been involved in the Dublin community for over a century and so as I was davening this morning, I was wondering if any of the other people davening in the shul had known my dad? So, at the end of davening, after the shaliach welcomed me, someone came up to me. ‘I knew your dad very well’ he said. ‘He was my leader at Maccabi when I was 10 or 11, he looked after me, made me feel welcome’. He was discussing events that had happened almost 70 years ago, and I could see, by the way he spoke that my dad had made a difference to him. It was a special encounter. You never know the impact one person can have on another and what it can lead to. Both positively and negatively. I remember when I once officiated at a Shiva house where the son, who was then in his 60’s, told me that he married out when he was 11! Intrigued I asked him what he meant, and he told me that he attended Cheder back in the 1950’s. The class were taught by an elderly teacher from Stamford Hill who always rewarded the top 5 Hebrew readers in the class each Sunday.