Today is a Jewish fast day, no, not Yom Kippur, that's in September or October.
For more info on it, click here (What is Tisha B'av) Similar to the fast day of Yom Kippur, one cannot eat/drink for 25 hours. Yikes! I know people who don't observe Judaism think it's nuts. To be honest, even raised Jewish, I think it's nuts.There's actually a HILARIOUS Entourage (love that show) episode HBO-Entourage Yom Kippur Episode about the Yom Kippur holiday and shows a lighter side of how some Jews deal with the holiday. Tisha B'av although similar to Yom Kippur in some regards does allows Jews to work and continue about their regular workdays while observing the fast day.
Monkey in going to a Jewish camp this summer had NO camp today. Yup, with most people fasting they felt throwing the kids back at their parents for the day was easier than having to entertain them when your not drinking coffee and chasing it with Red Bull. Ah, what's a Mom to do. NO CAMP.
I joke because I am so used to having both my kids home on my own, it's no problem, but on so little sleep (per my usual) and lack of food/drink, it's a serious challenge. I took the kids in the oddly cool day to the park for some morning fun. While at the park a woman approached me and told me that another Mom had left her keys behind and would for sure return to the park because they seemed like her house keys. I told her no problem and I put them in Froggy's stroller.
After almost 2 hours of playing at the park no one returned for the keys. I felt obligated to find their owner and began my hunt. I explained to Monkey that returning something that someone lost is a big "mitzvah" aka good deed. He completely understood as last week we lost a toy froggy of his brother's and someone found it and tied it to the fence right where we lost it. So our hunt to find this woman began...
Her keys had a bunch of those key chain "preferred card" scanners so I thought we'd call Jewel first. They said, there was no record under the number on that key card so it's possible she did not register it with them.
Our next key card was CVS and they too had no record and said, they issue those "preferred cards" and you don't need to give them your personal info to do so. They offered to throw her keys into a bucket of others in case one day she came in to ask about them. Hello, why would she venture to CVS looking for them, she lost them AT THE PARK. Oy vey!
So off we went, Monkey was getting tired as we were almost a mile from our place and he was being a trooper about walking further and further. I told him that I would be so proud of him if on this fast day he can complete such an important "mitzvah" good deed to return something someone lost. He continued on as we walked to Borders hoping they would be our final stop.
I asked the Customer Service person about helping me find this woman. I handed over her keys and he checked said, her info, plus email was in their system. Hooray for Borders! He took the keys with the promise he'd contact her and let her know her keys were brought in...
Monkey wanted to know where the woman was and I explained how we didn't need to meet her to know we did a good thing. That's one of the most special parts of doing a "mitzvah" good deed. He was so excited and jumped up and down.. I did a "mitzvah", I did a "mitzvah". He stopped jumping and asked me if I was so proud. I gave him a kiss and told him I was...... then he asked if he could get a special treat, like a candy or push-up for doing such a good "mitzvah". I said no, you don't always get a treat for doing something nice. (although, I'd love that philosophy)
"Fine" he said. How about a piggy back ride home. Ah, with my exhausted self, hungry and thirsty..I conceded and told him he deserved it.
Just goes to show you... no good deed goes unpunished. Sadly, I was the one punished.
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