A Gentle Hint, or Mussar From the Bus Driver

Since I stayed in the Heritage House in the Old City of Yerushalayim, years back, I've been getting their weekly email. Sometimes I even read it. This one contained a fun story that's worth sharing:

It happened a few months ago, on a Jerusalem bus. It was late afternoon, and the bus was packed with people.

You could tell that everyone was tired after a hard day of work/school/shopping, because there was little talking or laughing heard during the ride. The entire bus was particularly quiet, with everyone just calmly sitting or standing, waiting to get to their bus stop and to get home.

At each stop, several people got off the bus, and several people got on, so the bus remained full.

At a certain bus stop, a pregnant woman was one of the several people who boarded.

Perhaps everyone was so tired that they didn't notice her. Or perhaps everyone was so tired that they just decided to "skip it" this time.

But no one on the bus gave the pregnant woman a seat.

As the bus continued on its way, the bus driver noticed that the pregnant woman was still standing up, and had not been given a seat.

Bringing his bus to a halt on the side of the road, the bus driver stood up and said in a voice that was loud enough so that all of the passengers on the bus could hear: "Please, geveret [ma'am], take my seat!"

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Excerpted with permission from "ON CAB DRIVERS, SHOPKEEPERS AND STRANGERS." Published by Feldheim Publishers