Baruch Nachshon is an artist who lives in Kiryat Arba - Hebron. Nachshon is an amazing painter, using brilliant colors in his paintings of Eretz Yisrael.
This past Tuesday, Nachshon received a phone call from the head of the local regional council, Malachi Levinger, informing Nachshon that Levinger is on the way to his house with the Finance Minister, Yuval Steinitz.
A few minutes later he receives another call and is told to be ready, as the minister is downstairs and will momentarily be coming in. Nachshon was sure someone was pulling a prank on him.
Sure enough, a couple of moments later, he hears knocking at the door. He opens it to discover the Minister of Finance with his entire entourage. Minister Steinitz walks in and gives Baruch Nachshon a warm hug and asked him how he is..
Nachshon's son, who related the story, said it was a strange situation - Steinitz is acting as if they are best friends, and Nachshon has no idea why or what is going on.
They sit in the salon and Steinitz explains that when he was 15 years old he and a group of friends spent Shabbos with Nachshon. The Nachshon family always hosted a lot of guests for Shabbos, and that is why he didnt remember Steinitz from so long ago. Steinitz related that Friday night before they went to sleep, he was leaving the room and he shut off the lights in the salon. Nachshon reacted saying it is Shabbos Kodesh. Steinitz said when he heard that he immediately turned the lights back on, to which nachshon said that that too isn't allowed.
Steinitz continued that Nachshon had sat with him and explained pleasantly about Shabbos and not doing melacha and also about exile and redemption, and those moments made a deep impression in his heart.
One never knows when and how he is influencing others, and should always try to be pleasant and make a good impression.
Very appropriate, after your previous posting.
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