Reply To: Thank you to Bikur Cholims

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#622911
Feif Un
Participant

I had a mixed experience with Bikur Cholims.

My wife was in Mt. Sinai hospital for a number of weeks, due to a difficult and complicated pregnancy. The bikur cholim gave her daily food, people came to visit, etc. The volunteers were fantastic!

However, not all of them were so great. One day, I drove in to visit my wife. Now, there is on-street parking by the hospital on 5th Avenue, with meters. usually you can find a spot. That day, I circled around for close to 15 minutes. Finally, I saw someone getting into his car to leave. I pulled over behind him. After he pulled out, I put on my turn signal, pulled in front of the spot, and shifted into reverse to back into the spot. Well, a van comes up behind me and blocks me from the spot. I honk, but he doesn’t move. Finally, he tries to pull in head-first. It wasn’t pretty, but he somehow managed to do it, going up onto the sidewalk in the process. Anyway, on my next circle around, I found a spot. It was around the corner, not right in front like the first spot had been.

I walked to the hospital, and when I passed the van, I saw a chassidish man unloading food. the van had “Satmar Bikur Cholim” written on the side. I told the man he stole my parking spot. He replied that he needed to deliver the food, and the spot was too good to pass up, as the food can get heavy. I told him to enjoy the “reward” he’d get for delivering his food that day, as I did not forgive him for stealing my spot.

As I said, most volunteers really were great. They gave my wife food daily, and even provided food for me when I was there for Shabbos. However, some people think that because they’re doing a mitzvah, it gives them the right to do some pretty terrible things.