Where is Ahavas Yisrael?
My Jewish co-worker lives near Boro Park, so over the weekend he went and picked up mezuzahs for our office. He told me how he was relieved that his wife, who is half Chinese, offered to stay outside while he went in, because of the attitudes that he has received in the past. Then he told me a story that just boggled my mind, and really made me mad.
When he was almost 13, he went to Boro Park with his mother to buy a suit for his Bar Mitzvah. He went into the store first while his mom tried to find a parking spot. The store clerk was happy to help him, and was showing him the suits he had. Then his mom walked in. Wearing pants. All of a sudden, the clerk told him that they didn't carry suits in his size. End of story.
What happened to Ahavas Yisrael? Why happened to being a Kiddush Hashem? Why on earth would a suitmaker not want to make a sale, just because a woman came in wearing pants? I think many people lose sight of the big picture.
posted by Shoshana @ 8:22 AM
6 Comments:
I am flabbergasted...how very sad
You are naive, Shani. Because he would alienate many of his regular customers.Not condoning it at all, but if it was your store and you had overhead and bills you would do the same thing..
Sara -
Me too.
semgirl -
I think it's absolutely disgusting that anyone would be alienated by a customer in a store, wearing pants or otherwise. It's not like she walked in wearing a bathing suit.
It is, but thats how it is, would you stand around saying how wrong things are, or do what you got to do, to stay in business..
semgirl -
I'm embarrassed that anyone would accept that as being the way it is, and it goes a long way to confirm my feeling that I could never live in a cloistered neighborhood such as Boro Park, where sinas chinam is spread and the danger of not being rude to our fellow Jew is the cost of one's livelihood. This is NOT Torah.
I personally would not be cowed into treating others horribly based on how they are dressed, and others shouldn't also. These kind of things are only reality because people let them be that way. And that makes me sad.
Oooh, ay-MEN!
Furthermore, if they were loose pants, they probably are better halachically than some of what I've seen on the rare occasion I've had to be in BoroPark.
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