"I just don't believe this", I said to myself, when I saw
that the fridge was not working. I stood helplessly in front
of my thawing freezer. Only the day before, I had stocked up
and filled the freezer with enough frozen food to last a
month. Now I would have to try to accommodate all the food in
neighbors' houses. "Tammy, go upstairs to Miriam and ask her
to put this bag into her freezer, and explain that ours is
broken." Hastily filling another bag, I asked Chaim to go to
a second neighbor, explaining what had happened. One after
the other, my children visited all the neighbors, till my
freezer was empty.
Tonight, I thought, I will have to boil up all the food which
was partially defrosted. But then I saw the silver lining. We
would have it for dinner tonight. Only a fortnight ago, my
washing machine had finally died and I had to scrounge favors
from all the neighbors. A house with several small children
cannot survive without a washing machine, so when the
engineer told me that the cost of a repair was the same as it
would cost for a new machine, we decided that we would get a
new one, but until the new machine was actually delivered, we
would have to rely on the neighbors' benevolence. It is not
particularly pleasant to ask a neighbor to do just one wash
and then to meet her in the evening coming from a different
lady, with my arms full of another load of laundry. I sent
each of them a box of chocolates, with a note of thanks, when
my new machine arrived.
Two days later, my dryer stopped working, and immediately
after that, my iron went on sick leave. This was incredible,
as if all my electrical appliances were in cahoots against
me, or as if they had some infectious disease. Once again, I
had to trouble my next-door neighbor, as I asked to borrow
her iron, adding lamely that my dryer was also on the blink.
Was it my imagination, or was there a hint of derision in her
expression, as she handed me the iron?
Only Tirzah, my upstairs neighbor, reassured me. She, too,
had had a spate of repairs one after the other. First it was
a broken chair, then the leg of a table, a child's bed broke,
and finally the door of a cupboard. "These are the
vicissitudes of life and are sent to try us," she said. "They
come and go."
I thought of her words as I stood on my balcony trying to
find an extra inch of space to hang some more washing. Just
then, the engineer arrived to mend the fridge. He took it to
pieces and announced that the thermostat needed replacing. He
fixed it for a mere 400 shekels. The thing worked till the
next morning, and the engineer promised to be back on Sunday,
but meanwhile I was once again dependent on my kind
neighbors.
My ten year old sailed in from cheder clutching a bag
of popsicles. He had decided to surprise me and get them
early, for Shabbos. Stifling a sigh, I had no choice but to
knock at the neighbor's door once more.
Over Shabbos, we regaled each other with stories from the
olden days, what life must have been like without fridges,
freezers, washing machines, and definitely without any
dryers. Maybe this was a hint to us not to take all our
electrical appliances for granted, and to appreciate them
more? "Just think of the Yerushalmi women who stood in line
to buy ice blocks to put into a cool box, on Erev Pesach."
The children enjoyed the trip into the past, but I was glum,
knowing full well that Shabbos was not a time to be
depressed, yet not relishing the thought of troubling the
neighbor yet again, to take out some milk from her fridge.
To cut a long story short, the engineer came again and found
that the cooler was broken too. "Are you sure that my fridge
is now in working order?" I asked him, after parting with an
even larger sum of money than for the previous repair. He
assured me that I had nothing to worry about.
We did the rounds, collecting all our bags from all the
neighbors. Rina asked me if I had taken my things from Tirza
yet. "Not yet, why?" "I think you should go there next,
because the repeated disturbances, with children traipsing in
and out of her house, really bother her. You know, she is a
yekke and she felt that the popsicles were really the
last straw. One can have one Shabbos without that treat."
Rina spoke without thinking and did not notice me flush with
embarrassment. I retrieved my belongings from Tirza, feeling
full of resentment. Who gave her a right to discuss me behind
my back? Admittedly, yekkes' appliances do not break,
but can they not sympathize with people whose things do?
There was a tap at the door, and to my surprise, as I had
been thinking of her all day, Tirza stood there, holding a
bag. "I just came home from work, and found that my fridge
was not working, either. Could you put these things into
yours, till I get it fixed?"
"With pleasure," I replied. All my irritation disappeared,
the hurt I had felt all day evaporated, and I could not help
feeling a slight satisfaction at the thought that things
broke even for yekkes.
The engineer came that evening and found the fault
immediately. The fridge was unplugged. Indeed, now Tirza
remembered, that in the morning rush, she had looked for
something from the top of the freezer, and must have pulled
the plug out with her groping. She paid for the visit and
said to me, "I was sure that my fridge could not be broken,
since it's fairly new, and I couldn't understand it at
all."
I knew very well why her fridge had to break down just
then.
Editor's note. Is it up to anyone to judge why things happen
to other people?
