By Rabbi Baruch Lederman
SAN DIEGO — “I will ordain my blessing for you. the land will yield sufficient crop.” Leviticus 25:21 The Torah promises us that if we observe Hashem’s (G-d) commandment to allow the land of Israel to rest every seven years and do not sow or harvest the land, Hashem will bless us with sufficient crops during the sixth year to sustain us. Similarly, we show our faith and trust in Hashem by not working on the Sabbath as the following true story illustrates:
Lenny Bromberg was a young man who was beginning his family life. He and his wife had a cute toddler and another little one was on the way.
Lenny managed to land a job with a real estate agency in Manhattan. It was the early 1990s and the real estate market in New York was very slow.
Lenny was on the job for a short time, when he already had to ask for time off for Rosh Hashanah. Asking for time off is not exactly a way to ingratiate yourself with your new boss. Nevertheless, this was the situation and Lenny had no choice.
Rosh Hashanah was next Monday. Monday is a very busy day in the real estate business. Most of the viewings are on Sunday so a great deal of follow up needs to be done on Monday. Still, he had heard of Rosh Hashanah, he knew that Lenny wasn’t just making this up to get a day off, so he gave his consent.
“Sure thing, go pray next Monday and we’ll see you bright and early on Tuesday,” he said graciously.
This was a bit awkward but, Lenny replied, “Rosh Hashanah is Monday and Tuesday. I can’t be back till Wednesday.”
The boss said, “My Hallmark calendar says Monday. It doesn’t say anything about Tuesday.”
With pleading eyes, Lenny answered, “Rosh Hashanah is really two days.”
Somehow, the boss okayed it. Lenny returned on Wednesday and worked hard as he always did. The next week Lenny told the boss that he would have to take off Wednesday for Yom Kippur.
The boss exclaimed, “What’s the matter? You didn’t pray enough last week! You had two whole days!” Still, the boss had heard of Yom Kippur so he let Lenny off. “Make sure you don’t turn Yom Kippur into two days on me.” Lenny was back hard at work on Thursday.
The next week, Lenny approached his boss apprehensively, “There is another holiday called Succos and it lasts for two days.”
The boss hit the roof, “What are you? Some kind of religious fanatic!” Only after releasing a tirade that is not printable, did the boss agree to give Lenny the requisite days off.
Exactly one week later, Lenny was back at his at his boss’s desk. He now needed to ask for two days off for Simchas Torah. Lenny was
shaking in his boots. He was in the company for such a short amount of time; he did not yet have a track record of being a valuable reliable worker. He was sure he was going to be fired. He had visions of himself and his young family starving, out on the street. Nonetheless there was no way he could work on Yom Tov so he asked his boss, who by some miracle did not fire him. The boss did however berate him and continued to roast him relentlessly for weeks to come.
A funny thing happened though. After several months on the job, it seemed more and more, that whenever the boss needed someone whom he could trust for a difficult or delicate assignment, he chose Lenny. Evidently, even as the boss was ridiculing him, he was building up a deep respect and esteem for him. He also began to notice other things about Lenny, such as the fact that Lenny never used foul language, never gossiped about people behind their backs, never told lies or made excuses about anything. Lenny did not have the slightest bit of holier-than-thou attitude. He was trained in Yeshiva to conduct himself in this way, and he was simply doing what he thought everyone was supposed to do.
Apparently even this tough nosed boss couldn’t help but appreciate seeing a man of conviction – a man with values and principles who stood by them unwaveringly.
L’zecher Nishmas Shlomo ben Yitzchok. Dedicated memory of Shlomo ben Yitzchok.
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Rabbi Lederman is spiritual leader of Congregation Kehillas Torah in San Diego. He may be contacted at baruch.lederman@sdjewishworld.com