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A Yissachar / Zebulun Partnership in Loving Memory of Yishak ben Simcha A"H & Felicia bat Miriam A"H
Rabbi David Sutton

Ahavat Yisrael

A Mezuza on your Car

Lectured by Rabbi David Sutton

Published
August 22, 2022
Duration
03:03

There is a beautiful book by Artscroll called At Any Hour about Rabbi Shlomo Gissinger, who was a great Rabbi that lived in Lakewood.

In the first chapter, it tells the following story:

Rabbi Yosef Abekassis once accompanied Rabbi Gissinger to the Catskills to visit someone who was ill and needed hizuk.

At the end of the visit, Rabbi Gissinger asked Rabbi Abekasis if he had a mezuza on the car.

Rabbi Gissinger then explained that a mezuza is a Shemira- it protects your house. He said that just like your house needs protection, your car needs protection, and the way to give protection to your car is to always try to engage in Mitzvot with it. In that way, it's like you have a mezuza on your car, or for that, for that manner, on anything that you own.

Then he told Rabbi Abekasis that they needed to do a Hessed on their way back from the Catskills to Lakewood. He wondered if there might be someone that needed a lift, that they could take.

However, there was no one around in that area that needed a ride.

So the Rabbi went on to call several camps in the area, explaining that he was in the Catskills, going back to Lakewood, and was more than happy to offer anyone a lift. Finally, they found two boys who needed a ride.

It was a Sunday afternoon, and there was a lot of traffic in the Catskills region, so the driver, Rabbi Abekasis, asked if maybe the boys could come and meet them.

Rabbi Gissinger said, “Absolutely not. We're going to pick them up in their camp,” although it was a considerable distance from where they were at the time. They eventually reached a compromise and met between the two locations. For the entire trip, Rabbi Gissinger interacted with the two boys, 10, 11 years old, discussing topics, as if they were old friends. Rabbi Abekasis said that it was amazing that Rav i Gissinger was extremely busy, and yet, when it came to doing the Hessed for people, he had time, because it's a mezuzah, and there's a lot of time for Mitzvot.

Rabbi Gissinger once said to Rabbi Abekasis, “For me, I have no time. For others, I have all the time in the world.”

His son, Rabbi Binyamin related that it was not uncommon for his father come to his house and ask to borrow their minivan, because he had to go somewhere, and he had lent out all three of the family cars.

His attitude was that anything he had was there to do Hessed with, to lend out to others, and for other people to benefit from.

But sometimes people have possessions that they're not comfortable lending out- like a set of golf clubs, your new sports car or whatever it may be, that you're just not comfortable letting somebody else use. It's only for you.

And someone once told me that If you have something that you're not comfortable lending out to other people, then you shouldn't have it. That beautiful concept comes to mind when I think of Rabbi Gissinger saying everything needs a mezuza on it, and that mezuza is doing acts of hesed.

Have a wonderful day.