The Babysitter - R. Shlomo Landau - TorahAnytime.com

There was a woman who had a babysitting service in her home as is common in many communities in Claius. She started this babysitting service 3540 years ago and right away became the babysitter service of the town. She did great care and the thing that people love most about the little area that she used the back of her house for babysitting was it was always magnificently clean. It was sp and span. could eat off the floor. And people loved bringing their children to a clean, bright, good, good smelling environment. She was a great babysitter. And she happened to hire early on an assistant, a woman that was quite a bunch of years older than her, 30 years older, who was looking for some employment. And this woman became her assistant. And she was the assistant was really responsible for the cleanliness. She'd clean up and she'd mop and she'd buff and she'd shine and she'd spray. And she was the one on some level that brought a lot of customers because the beautiful attractive space where the babysitting happened was because of this assistant who was a really fine woman. The babysitter, the assistant got along beautifully. They were closer than family. They worked together over 30 years. After 30 years, one day the babysitter turns to the assistant and says to her, "You're already 70 years old. You put in a lot of years. It was a good run and I think it's time for you to find something else. You can go retire. you have social security. I know you have a pension from your previous job. Money won't be an issue. And I'm going to find somebody who has more than you. And the assistant says, "No, I this is my life. I don't even know how I would live without this. I I want to stay." And she says, "I I you know, I know you and I know your situation and for your benefit, you can't stay. It's not right." And a little bit of a spat ensues between the two of them. And she says, "I'm not leaving. And you can't make me leave by law. age discrimination. So, she contacts someone in the local Bureau of Labor and whatever work and labor department and she finds out her rights and they tell her, "Of course you can ask her to leave. She's 70 years old. She has to be the right fit. She's not the right fit." and she fires her. And thus begins one of the worst chapters in the Jewish community in that particular name because she shared with other people or people saw was the optics that she was let go and people took her side, the assistant side. How could you let her go? Keep her on. She's wonderful with the children and everything. You have the beautiful and span uh environment that until today is still gleaming and shining is because of this woman and you just let her go when she doesn't want to go. And people slowly but surely begin badmouthing her how she's a person who doesn't care. And if you're a babysitter that doesn't care, no one wants to send their kids to you. And slowly but surely, people start taking their kids out until she has to close the babysitter service. To add deep insult to injury, a few months after she lets the 70-year-old woman go, the 70-year-old woman passes and the town is up in arms. Not only is she nasty, but she's a murderer. She for sure died [snorts] from heartache. No one wants to talk to this woman. And the woman feels isolated. And the woman feels shunned by the community. Ostracized. When the show was over, signs go up around the town. It's the son of the deceased woman, the 70-year-old assistant. And he asks that people come together as a at Sarah Zikarn, as a remembrance, a gathering of remembrance. But he puts large letters at the bottom. Very important reveal. Please come. I'm going to share something that everyone need no one knows and everyone needs to know. And that pies people's curiosity. And when they do this, it's the whole community is there. The rabban, the leaders, everyone's there. and he gets up there and he begins to cry bitter and he says look what happened in our community and I wasn't aware myself of this he says my mother never shared this with me but about five years ago my mother was diagnosed with a very serious heart condition the doctor told her she was not allowed to strain herself and she should stop working my mother couldn't bring it within herself to stop working she shared this with the babysitter and the babysitter said don't worry you'll come and I'll take the load off your hands And from that day on, the babysitter's own daughters or herself were the ones that clean, not my mother. For five years, they put out a front. So, everyone should continue assuming, thinking that it was this assistant that was the one that was responsible for the beautiful environment. And after five years, when her heart situation had deteriorated substantially, son says, "I knew, but I didn't realize how bad." The doctor said, "The woman can't even come to work anymore. I want you to share that with me with with the babysitter." The babysitter said, "We need to follow the doctor's direct. We need to I'm not leading. And then she did the very difficult thing and she fired her for her benefit. The fellow says a few months ago, a few seven one week ago, he says seven days ago, my mother passed away from a heart condition. Not heartache, from a heart condition that was pre-existing. The doctors didn't give her a long time, five years. Is I want you to know something. The babysitter wasn't a wicked person. She was a good person. She was trying to save my mother's life. And look what happened to her. She lost her livelihood. She lost her friends. She lost her reputation. She lost her standing in this community because nobody judged her favorably. So I want you to know last night my mother came to me in a dream and she said to me, "I'm standing at the entrance to Ganedan and I can't get in because of I was responsible on some level for this woman. Please tell people the backstory. let them ask her for and then they'll let me go to where I need to go to my final resting place. And this fellow with tears in his eyes begged and beseeched the crowd that was there, please make the babysitter whole again. It's hard to rewind the clock. It's difficult to undo, but try. It's an obligation on our community to make sure that we make this woman right. My friends, Das is so important. It helps the person that we are judging favorably be a better person. It helps us because Hashem judges us favorably. It gives us a perspective on like that's more positive. It makes sure that we don't speak lush and har there's so much goodness in the mitzvah. Let's make sure that from when you're seeing this the next 24 hours we try to find opportunities to look at the world around us in a positive way to justify the situation if we see something that seems negative and that will bring tremendous and blessing into our lives. Have a wonderful, amazing, beautiful shabas.