Scribe, ut possis cum voles dicere: dices cum velle debebis (Pl. Ep. 6.29)

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Made Me Cry - Gifts On-Line

At NDS there's an automated system on the Intranet for giving gifts from employee to employee. When there's a happy occasion - marriage, birth etc, an email is distributed with a link to the gifts system, where anyone can ask to deduct any sum from his salary which will go directly to the person celebrating. In the beginning i decided to give only to people in my department and people i know personally. Then one day i was in a generous mood and started giving everyone 10 NIS. After a few days i realized that giving 10 NIS (2.00 $US) to someone i don't even know is quite a silly thing, a fadicha, and so i stopped it.

At least once a day i see a Haredi man in the corridor. Not just a white shirt and a black skullcap Haredi, but complete with the hat, the sidelocks, the coat, everything; i thought that he is a kashruth supervisor. I didn't know his name and we never spoke, but always said hello to one another for some reason.

Today, instead of just saying hello, he thanked me. What for, i asked him. "For the gift", he said. Now this is a true fadicha, i thought. I don't even know his name. So i asked him. Finally. "Avi". He saw my confusion and asked whether it was a mistake. For a Haredi it means more than just a mistake - it means that he commited theft, which is a major transgression. "You are Amir Aharoni, right?" - "Yes yes, that's me." - "Thank you so much. I had a baby girl..." - "Yeah, I gave it. You're welcome. Mazal Tov."

These moments of humanity make me cry.

Now at least i know his name. Apparently he's an engineer.

I love this company.

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