Judging favorably can turn a "bad" act into a good one, but it can also turn a good act into better one! When someone does you a favor, think: Did he sacrifice in order to help me, or did he simply pull a kind act out of a…

GRAB BAG

My children and I were walking home shortly before sunset carrying four bags of groceries. The two older kids, age seven and nine, were carrying three of the packages. Sheindele, almost four, had had enough walking and was extremely hungry, so I had pity on her - and on the ears of everyone on the street - and picked her up along with the bag of sweets she was holding.

We were about three blocks from home when a man came by, grabbed the two packages my older son was holding and asked which building we lived in. We told him and he took off running. I vacillated between shock and paranoid feelings that he had just run off with our groceries.

We watched him run down the street with our packages. Then he ran back and passed us, running in the direction from which he had come. As he passed he told us he had put the bags next to the elevator, and I thanked him.

And this all occurred just before sunset, when there is a good possibility that the man was in a hurry to go daven mincha (pray the afternoon service) before it was too late to do so.

This truly is Eretz Hakodesh - the Holy Land. A very special place.

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