A Karkafta No More Thanks To A Gentile

Wh better to guilt a Jew into putting on Tefillin than a gentile?

Harav Moshe Klein, the famed Sofer on Kingston Ave, has been visiting a nursing home for nineteen and a half years and still has stories to tell.

This week, while doing his regular visit, he came across a new resident at the nursing home who is an 85 years old Jew, but who has never put on Tefillin.

Planning to rectify the situation, Rabbi Klein planned his approach as he was playing a game of pool with a fellow resident who was not Jewish.

First, Klein pulled aside another non-Jewish resident with whom he is especially friendly, telling him that although he was not Jewish, and therefore did not have the mitzvah of tefillin, he could get the zechus by convincing a Jew to put on.

Then, as the game came to an end, Rabbi Klein approached the Jew, asking if he would like to put on Tefillin. At first, the Jew declined.

Them the non-Jew stepped in, telling the Jew “You should be ashamed! You are a Jew, I am a gentile and I am asking you to do this good deed that you don’t want to do.”

In the end, the Jew put on tefillin at 85 years old, and had his Bar Mitzvah.