A Fan Of The Jews

Those of you who have the privilege to study Torah in Jerusalem know that in the summer months it can get really hot. I study in a yeshiva in Jerusalem which until a few years ago had no air conditioning. They had two fans, one at each end of the beis midrash (study hall) and one ceiling fan in the center of the room. I sat with my chavrusa (study partner) right under the ceiling fan. This fan was old and hardly worked, but right under it you felt some breeze. Every morning in our beis midrash there sat an elderly man who always wore his hat and jacket, even on the hottest of days. One day he walks in, of course with his hat and jacket, sits down next to my table and starts to study. One minute later he gets up, goes to the switch of the ceiling fan and shuts it off. I began to fume inside and said to myself "What chutzpa! He's not even part of our yeshiva and on such a hot day he shuts off the fan?" One minute later he gets up and turns it on again, and only then was it clear to me what had happened:

Like I said before, it was an old and slow working fan. He mistakenly thought that it was on the lowest setting and thought that he was turning it higher. One minute later, when he realized that he had turned it off, he went and turned it on again. I learned from this story that either be dan le'kaf zchus (judge favorably) or stay quiet and wait to see what will happen. But chas v'shalom, don't blow a fit and embarrass another person.

(Submitted by Avromi M., Jerusalem)

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