Changing a Tire for a Stranger

Where do you go to find the common thread between a Christian celebrating Easter and a religious Jew celebrating Passover? The side of a highway of course!

After an Easter visit with her parents, Renee K. was driving home to South Carolina when her pickup truck started acting funny. Alert and quick-thinking, a passing motorist waved her over to the shoulder where they notified her of a flat tire. Out of the car stepped Shimon and Meir, two identifiably religious yeshiva students returning from their Passover vacation, who proceeded to help Renee change the tire.

Renee was driving alone, which did not leave her husband Greg feeling at ease. “You have no idea how helpless I felt being a couple hundred miles away and not able to really do anything,” he reflected. He spoke with the guys and again with his wife, at which point he “sensed a calm in Renee’s voice which helped me relax, because I knew she was in good hands.”

And it wasn’t just what they did, but how they did it. Despite being in the stressful space of the side of a highway and not having all the tools they ideally needed, Renee and Greg noted that, “these generous, service-oriented boys were patient, persistent and got the job done. We are so grateful for their positive, persistent, and gracious attitude!”

Renee offered to pay Shimon and Meir but they declined the offer. She insisted she must do something to repay them for their kindness, to which they replied, “Just share on social media that two Jewish boys stopped to help.”

Renee did so, and while she is otherwise a relatively anonymous person on Facebook, this Facebook post garnered over 800 reactions and 325 shares. Amid a backdrop of rising anti-Semitism across the country, it's nice to have some positive publicity to help fight against the influence of negative media characterizations of religious Jews. But Shimon and Meir's primary motivation was to simply do the right thing.

The boys’ actions on the highway were inherently a sanctification of God’s name (Kiddush Hashem), with the subsequent Facebook post amplifying that Kiddush Hashem further. What a noble and selfless request (they insisted their names remain anonymous as well). Renee’s son declared, “I vow to spread a random act of kindness in y’all’s name. Never underestimate the ripple effect you can have on people.”

Someone saw this story and said, “Look, we’re the chosen people for a reason.” But being the chosen people does not automatically make us special. We were chosen to be tasked with the responsibility of bring the Divine Presence into the world by increasing awareness of God through mitzvot, good deeds, and sharing Torah wisdom. When we perform acts of kindness like these two boys, we are worthy of the title.

Let's learn from these two boys and remember that as Jews we are always serving as ambassadors for the Jewish people.