mchemtob, it is very nice of you to put the quarter in, but know that you can get arrested for doing that. It is one of the really nonsensical laws around, but it is against the law to put money in a meter for someone (probably because it prevents the city from collecting the fine for an expired meter). I’m not saying to stop doing this chessed, just be careful. There was a whole story about a woman who was arrested for doing this.
As to a chessed, well I wouldn’t talk about myself, but my husband and I were driving home from Brooklyn one day when someone honked us. We rolled down the window and it was two black ladies who were clearly lost and asking for directions to the VAn Wyck from where we were at that moment. We tried to explain, but it was obvious we were only confusing the poor lady even mroe, so we told her we were going more or less in that direction and to follow us. We would have been home in five minutes, but my husband insisted on leading them all the way to the approach of the Van Wyck, a twenty-five minute drive there, and another twenty or so back. The ladies were very appreciative, and I feel my husband did a great kiddush Hashem, because wearing a kippah, it was obvious an Orthodox Jew had helped them.
The other side of this coin is the middah k’neged middah that Hashem showed my husband just a few months later. He took my son to Yankee Stadium for a ball game, and they got out quite late. My husband was unsure of the road, and couldn’t see any signs for how to get back towards Kennedy Airport. So he started to get really farblunjet in the Bronx, and didn’t see a way of getting back on track. Suddenly a car came by, and it was a couple of black guys. Though he was a little nervous, he honked at them, and then asked them for directions. They started to try to explain to him, when one of them suddenly said – it’s too complicated, just follow us, we’ll get you to the road. And so they did. they drove around twenty minutes leading the way to where my husband was finally familiar with where he had to go. I guess this is an ’emunah” story, too, for the other thread, but it’s nice to see chessed goreir chessed.
oomis1105: I thought this turn of events looked familiar:
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/out-of-the-mailbag-jewish-kindness
YW Moderator-72 :o)