Reb Shlomo Yehuda Rechinetz, a well-known philanthropist once flew to Israel and made a stopover in a town in Ireland. He noticed groups of hundreds of American soldiers eating their lunch out of paper bags, so he asked some of them what was going on–and he realized they were being served tasteless, horrible food! He decided something must be done.
Reb Shlomo Yehuda made his way to the commanding officer and asked him, “How many soldiers do you have here?” The commander responded, “About 150.” Reb Shlomo Yehuda said, “Tell each soldier they can each spend 50 dollars on my credit card.”
After convincing them he wasn’t joking, the soldiers were awed by Reb Shlomo Yehuda’s generosity and asked him to share words of inspiration. He thanked the servicemen for their hard work and for keeping him and his family safe and did this to show them hakarot hatov; gratitude.
After Reb Shlomo Yehuda finished speaking, a man approached and told him that most of the soldiers were from Kentucky where there are very few Jews, but that he was Jewish and happens to put on tefillin. He remarked how his fellow soldiers would make fun of him and thought this action was strange, but from then on due to his speech would no longer be thought of as a weirdo. On the other hand, he will be the hero, because they saw what Orthodox Jews are all about.
It is our job to make a kiddush Hashem and sanctify our Creator’s name and make an ordinary Jew into a hero.
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To Be A Hero
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