A Sacrifice For My Family -

A Sacrifice For My Family - 

I heard a loud bang before. It sounded as if a residential garbage dumpster fell off a two story building. Now everything is quiet. The only thing I can hear is a noise that sounds like a sprinkler just went off. Lately it feels I don’t have much time to process my schedule and goals let alone sleep. But I must do everything I can! I usually drive through-out all times a day driving passengers or delivering food even late or early hours. Anything to make some extra cash for my family. It must be just past 3 am. And I was just on my way home. I was looking straight ahead but it seems to me I’m still flying sideways as highlights make their marks in front of me. And should I be wondering why my right side vision has been minimized?I have many obligations as a young father and must learn quick, but how quick? Then it dawned on me, ohh my gosh, I’m in the process of an accident! Somebody must have hit me. The loud bang was a car crashing into the passenger side of my car, something burst signaling the sprinkler noise deploying the airbags taking my right side’s vicinity vision! And all I want right now is to have my body complete! I have a young wife and ten months baby at home asleep, I must come out of this in a normal way! And as I begin to pray I see my cars destination which is headed into the nearest house as I was still flying leftwards at a fast pace! It was a miracle that I got what I wanted, my body was complete! It was still an unimaginable scene getting out of that battered car and living a dream coming out of the unexpected! But it was only the beginning! The lady who crashed into me has crashed into another car and a street sign has been smashed in the process! The car my wife’s Aunt just helped us finish payments on two weeks ago has been totaled! How will I explain this to them? It was hard before and that just tripled on me! I spent most of my years living in Israel and most of my wife’s family and mine live abroad. For us it has been much more challenging to raise our son as we dreamed and mostly alone as I also did not fully advance yet in my music career. After the accident it was like a movie of its own to remove the car from the street before being fined, dealing with the towing process and now insurance claims of its internal investigation of who’s fault it was. Through all of this it has become much harder as I struggled to pay my house rent on time and other bills that become so much more after not having a car for a few weeks. Until finding a rental scraping my last power to make money for it. What can I sacrifice during my time while it is so difficult for me to make it better for all of us? Every day seems to go by so quickly as I think of my wife, baby, our families and friends and how I wish I could have had more time to spend with them! I wouldn’t want my son to remember I didn’t spend much time with him as a child. 

Our son was born one 6/5/22 which is on the Hebrew calendar Holiday of Shavuot. On this day we read the Torah (Bible) portion which says “You shall tithe the entire crop of your planting”. Devarim 14:22 which the Midrash links to the (Pasuk) verse “If you go left then I will go right, and if you go right I will go left” Bereisit 13’8. The connection between these two pasukim or verses are an allusion to the concept of “Asseir bishevil shetitasheir” - “by giving a tithe one will become rich” - is also found in the verse “kaf achat asarah zahav melei’ah” - One Gold ladle of ten shekels filled”. Which the word Kaf in Hebrew means “palm of the hand” The Torah (Bible) is teaching us that “Kaf” - the palm of the hand - “achat asarah” - which gives away one of ten - will merit in return, “zahav melei’ah - to be filled with Gold. Shavuot is also the day we celebrate receiving the ten commandments, eat diary such as cheesecake, learn from the Torah or Bible as much as we can and for us we will also celebrate the birthday of our little boy. 

I have come on behalf of my wife and son to this platform after recommendation from family and friends to raise money for a new car. Though there are many detailed occurrences or difficulties that have rocked our lives after and even before the incident I can only share the feeling of what I mean to sacrifice through the example of one last story. 

There used to be a switch-man who used to operate the controls for bridge ships and trains would pass by while he would be sitting in a booth on one side of the river. Most of the day the bridge was used allowing trains to pass across the river. One evening when the switch-man was waiting for the last train to come, he stepped onto the controls to lock the bridge sideways for the train but he found the controls were not working. He knew if the bridge was not locked properly then it would cause the train to jump the tracks and wobble causing it to jump the tracks and would then go crashing into the river. The switch-man hurried to the other side of the bridge so that he could manually lock the bridge by holding the lever as tightly as the could while the train crossed. As switch-man heard the sound of the train coming he held the lever as tightly as he could to keep the bridge locked as he knew many lives depended on his strength. Suddenly he heard a sound coming from the other side of the bridge, “Daddy where are you?” Then the switch-man noticed his little son crossing the bridge to look for him. The Switch-man almost left the lever to run and snatch up his son and carry him to safety. But he realized there would not be enough time to save his son and return to the lever in time for the train to pass safely. Either the people on the train or his little son would have to die. It was a long moment but after the train passed safely no-one on board realized that the passing train had thrown the little child into the river. The switch-man was also crying still clinging to the lever even though the train had already passed. The passengers on the train also did not see how the Switch-man walked home slower than he ever did before thinking of how to tell his wife how they had lost their son. The Moral of the story is: “We can never imagine the pain a person has to go through because of the Sacrifice he or she make’s. We must appreciate and be Thankful to those who Silently Sacrifice and endure pain for the sake of others. We appreciate from the bottom of our hearts any Charity or Tsedakah contributed or the sharing of our story. Chag Sameach (Happy Holidays) and Many Blessings! - Sincerely The Gold Family