One night last week I was having serious car trouble and I pulled off the highway and drove to Union, New Jersey, where I saw two yeshiva bochurim. I asked them for help. They were very helpful and one of them checked the oil level in the car and saw that it was very low, which was the problem. They helped me refill the oil. There was, however, damage to the engine. They invited me to come to their yeshiva where I could stay for the night. At their yeshiva there is a fellow student who is very knowledgeable about cars. I went to their yeshiva, where the knowledgeable young man test drove my car and correctly diagnosed it as good enough to drive back to Lakewood. The students there were very nice and kept offering various help and food and a place to charge my cell phone. Before my phone was charged they lent me a cell phone. A rebbe there offered to lend me his car to be able to go home.
The parsha of that week, Vayeira, opens with the story of Avraham Avinu doing chesed. It is amazing that any time we are having a problem, we can assume that random frum people are ready to be of assistance. Our being gomlei chasadim is something we inherited from Avraham Avinu.
Another thing from the parsha is Avraham Avinu davening for the people of Sodom in the zechut of the 50 tzadikim in the city. These bochurim reminded me of 50 tzadikim in a city that is primarily not Jewish (another area of the city has a small frum community).
May we have no more troubles.
