An acquaintance came up to me after davening recently and asked me to step outside. I didn't want to have to make another unnecessary bracha on the cup of tea I was holding so I stood at the entrance and he stood outside.
He was like "The Tolna Rebbe ztz"l was SUCH an amazing person. I never knew!! I was just reading about him. Incredible!! etc. etc. What a tzadik can I borrow ten thousand shekels?"
It took me a second or two to grasp the sudden change of topic in the middle of a sentence. Then I got it.
It made me think what I often think: When a stranger approaches me on the street and starts talking to me ["Hi there!!" "How are you today??":-)], I know that he wants one of two things - either directions or money. 100 percent of the time. Nobody [whom I don't know] ever talks to me otherwise. [The only exception is that sometimes in Manhattan a black man sitting on a chair on the sidewalk will see me and call out "SHALOM BROTHU!!" He doesn't know the secret that when we Jews see each other we rarely greet each other with "Shalom" - although we should as per the Gemara Brachos 54A.]
What about Masya Ben Charash's dictum [Avos 4-14] "הוי מקדים שלום לכל אדם" - One must say hello [or better "Shalom" one of the names of Hashem] to EVERY PERSON!
Why don't we keep that???
So I don't mind my friend asking me for a loan. Whether I can give it or not or I will have to hit someone else up for him is a different question [recently I asked the head of a gmach for a loan for a friend and was ... rejected. CRAAAASH!!] It is a ZCHUS to give!!!
But this notion of being friendly to strangers only when one needs something is bothersome. So let us try to be friendly even to people we don't know - KAL VA-CHOMER to people we do know!!:-)
