A Jew's Donkey

    Eli is a Chassidic teacher of young boys in America. He is entirely religious, follows all the customs of his community, and certainly all the Torah commandments. When I asked him how many people he put tefillin on that day he answered, "On one, on myself."

     "Oy, if I am only for myself what am I?"

      I quoted a well-known saying applying it to the custom of the vast majority of religious Jews who do not see that a fellow Jew's spiritual life is also our responsibility.

    "If you see a Jew's donkey fallen down surely you would run over and help him pick it up...all the more so should you be concerned for his soul."

     He heard what I said and for the first time in his life he put tefillin on someone other than himself. He called it "an uplifting experience."

     You can change a Jew's life in just a few minutes if you help him to do a mitzvah and to open his heart. And when you change another Jew's life Hashem changes your life, too. There is no better way to pick yourself up than to pick up someone else.