It’s a scene that can take place just about anywhere one has to pay for goods or services. A woman has made her selections or has finished her haircut or manicure and she comes to the counter to pay the tab. As she fails to locate her wallet in her pocketbook she builds into a frenzy — moving all the assorted items a woman “cannot leave home without” that she carries in her bag — “just in case.” When she fails to locate her wallet she dumps all the contents on the counter to make sure she has not missed the wallet, which “must be there”. Upset at her failure to find the wallet she resigns to the fact that her wallet is lost.
The day it happens is then spent trying to recall all the items that the wallet contained so that credit cards can be cancelled, driver’s license, car registration, other forms of identification can be replaced etc. The cash has been lost forever. It is a stressful situation that could have been avoided.
One day your wallet is lost.
One day you misplace your keys.
One day you get a flat tire.
One day you lock yourself out of the house.
“One day” comes when you can least afford it and that day is always so upsetting because you did not really think it would happen.
Anticipation is the remedy. Expect that you will lose your wallet so while you still have it photocopy its contents and update it periodically. Make a spare set of keys and leave it with a neighbor or a relative. Stock the items needed to repair a flat in your trunk. “Be Prepared” is a Boy Scout slogan but it goes a long way in eliminating the aggravation “one day” can bring. It only takes a little bit of foresight but it will make “one day” very bearable as you overcome the problem and get back on track.
DID YOU KNOW THAT
If one is afraid that the prescribed time for Keriyat Shema will pass before he is able to read it in the sequence of the prayers along with the blessings (Yoser Ohr, Ahabat Olam, etc.), then one should say the Shema without the blessings on a conditional basis as follows: “If I get to read the Shema before the prescribed time frame has passed with the blessings then this reading should be null and void in regards to doing the misvah and should be considered reading Torah –but if I don’t get to read Shema at the proper time then this reading should fulfill my obligation.” [Source Yalkut Yosef, volume 1, page101, paragraph 4]
Raymond J Beyda
www.raymondbeyda.com
Text Copyright © 2004 by Rabbi Raymond Beyda and Torah.org.