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A QUARTER OF A WATERMELON
My wife and I were shopping last week in one of the large supermarkets in our neighborhood. Since we are only two people this week in our home we decided that we only needed a quarter of a watermelon to satisfy our needs. On the watermelon stand there were only half watermelons and whole watermelons. Realizing that in our blessed society the customer is always right and that governmental clerks and supermarket managers are there to serve the public and their customers, I wandered over to the manager’s counter and sweetly asked if he would ask the temporarily non-existent watermelon counter person to cut the half watermelon itself in half again so that I could have a quarter of a watermelon. I assured him that the store would not lose anything by this magnanimous act, since a friend of ours who was also at the store at this time was more than willing to buy the remaining quarter of a watermelon.
The person at the manger’s desk fixed me with a stare that Israelis reserve to deal with us naïve Americans and proclaimed in a most definitive tone: “We don’t sell quarters of a watermelon. Take a whole one or half of a watermelon or nothing at all.” Shocked by my apparent ignorance of this basic rule of watermelon marketing, I nevertheless persisted and asked him if he could make an exception to this otherwise reasonable rule of marketing and customer service and ask his produce man to cut the half watermelon. He gave me a contemptuous stare and just turned away. I walked away feeling humiliated and hurt over a stupid and petty thing – a quarter of a watermelon!
There was another man sitting behind the manager’s desk at the service counter. Unbeknownst to me, he calmly picked up the produce knife, walked over to the watermelon stand and cut the half watermelon in half again, thus neatly producing two quarters of a watermelon. Our friend who was also interested in a quarter of a watermelon noticed this, took her quarter of a watermelon and graciously brought us the other quarter of a watermelon.
There is a great Torah lesson ensconced in this seemingly farcical incident. Sometimes, dealing with a quarter of watermelon is better than no watermelon – and no customer. The Talmud teaches us that one of the reasons for the failure of Jewish society and of the destruction of the Temple itself in ancient times was the insistence of people to never compromise on what they believed their rights to be. The refusal to accommodate others, to recognize how important it is for the social fabric to be sensitive to others’ needs and wishes, is a death wish for a society.
Our society is very charitable and champions publicly the rights and needs of the underprivileged and unfortunate. But in our daily behavior we are brusque, impatient and insensitive. We exhibit a take it or leave it attitude that at the end harms us as much as those to whom it is directed. This attitude permeates our national life and spills over to our homes, schools and even synagogues. We are rigid when we should be flexible, hard when we should be gentle and almost silly when we should be wise and far seeing.
Many a road accident could be avoided and a failed business venture be revived if only our attitudes and behavior towards others would undergo reasonable modification. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, the famed holy man and founder of the nineteenth century Mussar movement, summed up the matter succinctly: “Fulfilling the other person’s needs in this world is my way of obtaining my rewards in the World to Come.”
Again, this is true in commerce, politics, even diplomacy and governmental policy. A quarter of a watermelon is better than no watermelon at all, not only for the hapless customer but for the all-powerful manager of the supermarket as well. Paying lip service to this ideal in editorial columns and sermons does not equal actual performance on the ground – in the home, the marketplace, the school and on our roads.
Overlooking imagined slights, being careful of others’ needs and desires, struggling to be of service to God and humans, these are the true hallmarks of Jewish living. I hope therefore that after reading this brilliant piece of writing you will never look at a watermelon in the same way. I know that I certainly will view that delicious watermelon differently than I did in the past.
Shabat shalom.
Berel Wein
