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The Chocolate Pudding

Tzedakah & chesed

A story ofRav Aryeh Levineהרב אריה בן בנימין ביינוש לויןProfile ›

An educator who later held a senior position in an Israeli school system once told of his childhood in a Yerushalayim institution many decades earlier. The food was meager and he was always hungry. One day chocolate pudding was served. He took his portion, ate it quickly, and went back for more, but the server refused him with a harsh remark. Angry and frustrated, he overturned the pot and spilled the pudding on the ground.

He was beaten, scolded and humiliated in front of everyone, and told that whether he would be expelled would be decided the next day by Reb Aryeh, the institution's mashgiach. He spent the night weeping.

In the morning Reb Aryeh asked him to sit beside him and asked whether he had spilled the pot. The boy admitted it. Reb Aryeh asked if he would ever do it again, and the boy promised he would not. Then Reb Aryeh asked, “Do you like chocolate pudding?” “Yes,” said the boy. “So do I,” said Reb Aryeh. “I have two containers here, so let us sit and eat them together.”

The educator said that in that moment he realized what being a Torah Jew truly means.

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