Rabbi Dovid Vigler, Director of Chabad of Palm Beach Gardens in Florida, shared the following story with his community:
We had the most beautiful trip this past week as we made our way home from the beautiful Catskill mountains. With just 4 kids with us and the other 4 in overnight camp, we knew this would be a breeze!
We carefully planned our travel routes and arranged our overnight stays in Washington, DC and Savannah, Georgia with visits to The Smithsonian National Zoo (to see the newborn baby Panda bear) and a nearly deserted SeaWorld in Orlando.
Everything was going according to plan until we were driving between Savannah and Orlando early Thursday afternoon. We had two huge trucks on either side of us and cars right behind us, when suddenly a metal ladder fell off the truck in front of us.
Having nowhere to turn, we plowed straight into it, thankfully maintaining control of the vehicle as we slowly managed to pull over to the side of the I-95. Dozens of mangled metal pieces were strewn about and our tire was ripped to shreds with some damage to our bumper. Baruch Hashem everyone was safe and sound!
The AAA told us that they’d be there in over an hour. I figured that the donut tire they’d give us would force us to find a car repair shop in Georgia, and our socially distanced SeaWorld reservations would probably be futile. We had no idea how the kids were going to handle this.
It had been barely five minutes since the incident, and we were trying to figure out what to do next. Suddenly, a black pickup truck pulled up in front of us. Out walked a middle-aged Mowahawk Indian who introduced himself as Shawn.
Eyeing the visitor, in blue jeans and shirtless, we weren’t sure what we were in for. He told us that he saw my yarmulke and that he has close friends who are Jewish. He told us that his friends help the Jewish community in Buffalo, NY and Cozumel, Mexico, and he wanted to help us too.
In fact, he had our exact tire on the back of his truck!
Within minutes I was talking Jewish geography with his friend Moshe from Buffalo, chatting with him in Hebrew on the Highway. Meanwhile, Shawn climbed under our car and got to work. He had us back on the road within the hour. We actually had to call AAA to tell them not to come…
WOW! Did we just meet an angel?
Mere weeks before the Jewish New year, the month of Elul is a time during which we reflect on our past and prepare for the future. The Hebrew name of this month–Elul–spells out the correctional therapy for manslaughter–killing someone accidentally. Though most of us are hopefully innocent of this crime, its spiritual counterpart is very real in our lives. Each time we sin, we are desecrating the image of G-d in which we were created, and we are killing the G-dly soul within us. On a spiritual plane, we are indeed all guilty of manslaughter.
In Biblical times, an inadvertent murderer would flee to one of the six “Cities of Refuge,” where he would be safely rehabilitated until he was ready to return back to society. Interestingly, the Cities of Refuge were only located in the Holy Land and not in the Diaspora. Why not? Because the path to reinventing ourselves is far more than merely turning our backs on our past. It’s not enough to leave our homes and move into a City of Refuge. It’s only when we are inside of the Holy Land, surrounded by positive influences, that we can be sure that our sincere commitment for the future will bear long-lasting fruit.
The month of Elul–representing our spiritual rehabilitation–challenges us to prepare for the New Year and the New YOU, through moving out of our comfort zones, and ensuring that we surround ourselves with positive influences to nurture our growth and keep our momentum moving in the right direction.
The Talmud tells us that we are social creatures: Whether we like it or not, we are profoundly influenced by our friends. “Woe to the wicked and woe is to his neighbor” and “Fortunate is he who has a righteous neighbor,” it states. Modern thinkers have concluded that we are the average of our five closest friends. Think deeply about who your five closest friends are and be sure that you’re not messing up your average for no good reason! Associate yourself with people who inspire you, who challenge you to rise higher, and make you better. Don’t waste your time with people who shlep you down; surround yourself with amazing people with amazing energy. Your destiny is too important!
Some of our friends tell us that Shawn the Mohawk Indian was an angel. But we feel that he was sent by Heaven to remind us that we are who our friends are!
BH.