Once upon a time a man fell into a pit. A stranger walked by, saw his distress, heard his cries for help and threw him a tehillim and said "Here, ask Hashem for help".
A shoemaker then walked by and threw him a pair of shoes and said "That should help you get out."
A mountain climber walked by and threw him a stick and said "Use the stick to help yourself climb out."
A doctor walked by and threw him some medicine and said "That should help your problems."
Then his friend walked by and jumped into the pit. The man said to his friend "Why did you jump in. Now we are both stuck here??!"
The friend answered, "Now that we are together, I can help you and you can help me and together we will get out."
There is a moirrraaaaa-dike teefkeit [tremendous depth] to this story. Very often, when a person is in distress and needs help, people will help him in ways that he is not interested. For example, a boy asks someone to set him up with a girl because he wants to get married. Instead, the person offers dating advice. He didn't ASK for dating advice, he asked for a date.... Another example: A person asks a CEO for a job and the CEO directs him to a website with job offers. Odds are, this person heard of the Internet and knows that such sites exist. He wants a job, not an address. Third example: A person calls up to ask to come for Shabbos. The potential host answers that there is a soup kitchen in town that provides food for Shabbos. He wasn't asking where he could get free food. He wanted an invitation.
In our story, everyone helped in ways they understood and related to. Only the friend jumped in, which says "YOUR PROBLEM IS EQUALLY MY PROBLEM!!!!" That is a real friend. Not someone who detaches himself and says "Not my problem" but someone who says "Oh boy, what are WE going to do".
לע"נ ר' יואל בן ר' פנחס הלוי שבאזכרתו למלאות שלשים יום לפטירתו שמעתי את הסיפור
