The Other Side of the Story - The Poster

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The Other Side of the Story - Giving People the Benefit of the Doubt

The Posters

Being actively involved in a campaign for studying Sefer Chafetz Chaim, I am constantly putting up signs on notice boards in various places in Jerusalem. One of the most frustrating things about the campaign is that the notices are so often removed or covered over by other notices and I have to make sure that I have a reserve supply of notices.

It is not unusual that when I arrive at a notice board where two hours earlier I had put up a sign, I now see a sign for a computer for sale instead of my sign. My immediate reaction is to rip down the computer sign and put my sign back up - after all, I had my sign up there first!

However, I know that perhaps the person selling his computer didn't pull down my sign at all - perhaps someone else did it or the wind blew it off - and he just innocently came and found an empty space on the board. So I leave his sign alone and find somewhere else to put it or wait until the board is cleared for the week.

Just recently I caught someone red-handed sticking up a notice on a board obscuring about six other notices. I've caught him, I thought to myself. I'll tell him what an inconsiderate person he is, taking away the opportunity from six other people to sell their goods. So I told him! He replied, "This is not my notice. I just took it down for two minutes to photocopy it because I needed some of the information. All I'm doing is putting it back in the same place I found it."

(Submitted by Rabbi Dovid Alexander, Neve Yaakov, Jerusalem)


The Other Side of the Story Archives


Based on "The Other Side of the Story" by Mrs. Yehudis Samet, ArtScroll Series

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