ailyn

The Good Deed

So, it was quite hot today. I did some supermarket shopping. Walked home. It’s an under-10 minute walk for me. I was holding a few shopping bags. I was fine.

But a teen approaches me. He shows me on his phone an assignment he has from a teacher to do a hesed, a good deed, and asks if we can walk home together.

I’ll take a picture of him holding my bags, we’ll take a selfie, and he’ll be able to show his teacher that he fulfilled the assignment.

So, it was one of those things where I was heartened by his action but also insulted. I do this all the time, and acknowledging how fast I had been walking, he admitted: “You look fine; I just need to do this assignment. But wait,” he says, “here comes an older woman. She could really use the help.”

So he abandoned me. But I did not abandon him. I did a video showing the woman handing over her bags to the teen; she hugged him. And I continued the video to show them starting to walk in the direction of the woman’s home.

“See, it was good that I spotted you first,” says the teen. “You didn’t need the hesed, but instead you’ve helped with the hesed.”

~ David Jablinowitz