Shalom Duvid,

This gift is from a childhood friend.  He still thrives, still keeps in
touch.  When he visited me in hospital to do mitzvah he brought God with him
as only he could.  Too often I take too long to say "Thank You."



<<I received this from a rabbi friend ...

  Subject: Funny, Isn't It?!!

      In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning
 disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school
 career, while others can be mainstreamed into conventional schools.

     At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a
 speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.
 After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out,
    "Where is the perfection in my son Shaya?  Everything God does is done
 with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children
do.
 My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do.
     Where is God's perfection?
    The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father's anguish
 and stilled by the piercing query. "I believe," the father answered, "that
 when God brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that he
 seeks is in the way people react to this child."

     He then told the following story about his son Shaya:
    One afternoon,  Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys
 Shaya knew were playing baseball. Shaya asked, "Do you think they will let
 me play?"
    Shaya's  father knew that his son was not at all athletic and that most
 boys would not want him on their team.  But Shaya's father understood that
 if his son was chosen to play it would give him a comfortable sense of
 belonging.  Shaya's father approached one of the boys in the field and
asked
 if Shaya could play.

      The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none,
he
 took matters into his own hands and said "We are losing by six runs and the
 game is in the eighth inning.  I guess he can be on our team and we'll try
 to put him up to bat in the ninth inning."
     Shaya's father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. Shaya was told
to put on a glove and go out to play short center field.
     In the bottom of the eight inning, Shaya's team scored a few runs but
 was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya's team
 scored again and now with two outs and the bases loaded with the potential
 winning run on base.
    Shaya was scheduled to be up.  Would the team actually let Shaya bat at
 this juncture and give away their chance to win the game?
    Suprisingly, Shaya was given the bat.  Everyone knew that it was all
 buimpossible because Shaya didn't even know how to hold the bat properly,
 let alone hit with it.  However as Shaya stepped  up to the plate, the
 pitcher moved a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shaya should at
least
 be able to make contact.
    The first pitch came and  Shaya swung clumsily and missed.
    One of Shaya's team-mates came up to  Shaya and together they held the
 bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch.  The pitcher again
 took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya.  As the
pitch
 cam in, Shaya and his teammate swung at the ball and together they hit a
 slow ground ball to the pitcher.
    The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the
 ball to the first  baseman.  Shaya would have been out and that would have
 ended the game. Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high
 arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman.
    Everyone started yelling, "Shaya, run to first.  Run to first."
    Never in his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline
 wide-eyed and startled.  By the time he reached first base, the right
 fielder had the ball.  He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman
 who would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder
 understood what the pitcher's intentions were, so he threw the ball high
and
 far over the Third baseman's head.
    Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second." Shaya ran towards
second
 base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards
home.
     As Shaya reached second base, the opposing short stop ran to him,
turned
 him in the direction of third base and shouted, "Run to third."
    As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him
 screaming, "Shaya run home."  Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all
 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just
 hit a "grand slam" and won the game for his team.

 "That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face,
 "those 18 boys reached their level of God's perfection."

 Funny how this is so true and shame on us! Funny how simple it is for
people
 to trash different ways of living and believing and then wonder why the
 world is going to hell.

 Funny how you can send a thousand 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread
 like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding life choices,
 people think twice about sharing.

 Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through
 cyberspace, but the public discussion of morality  is suppressed in the
 school and workplace.

 funny isn't it?
 Are you laughing?
 funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it
 To many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe,or
 what they will think of you for sending it to them.

 Funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than
 what I think of me.

 FUNNY ISN'T IT!


In a message dated 05/24/2000 5:39:26 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
MB writes:

I read this and I cried....wish the world could be more like this!!!  xoxo
AMY">>