I was going to the NBN office today for a seminar on being self-employed in Israel. After I parked (and then moved my car onto a different street that did not have meters) I went looking for the entrance to Beit Ofer, the building housing the Nefesh B’Nefesh offices.

I started down a couple of steps to entrance to an office. There were three men outside, smoking cigarettes. One of them must have taken one look at my face and figured out what I was looking for. He said: “Go up the street, make a right…”

Then the guy in the middle said (in hebrew): “Wait a second. When two Jews meet, the first thing that they are suppossed to do is say hello!”

“Good morning, how are you doing?” I said.

“Thanks to God, may he be blessed.”

“How are you feeling today?”

“Wonderful. Hodu l’Hashem ki Tov, ki L’olam chasdo (Let us give thanks to God, for his kindness is eternal). Every morning we wake up and say Modesh ani lefanecha melech chai vekayam, sheHechezarta bi nishamati b’chemla, rabb emunatecha.”

“So do you know how I could get to Beit Ofer?”

“First door on the right”

“Thank you!”

What makes this even cooler is that on Shabbat I davened mincha in the Gr”a shul in Sha’arei Chessed. Someone had put a sticker on one of the seats that said the following:

“They said about R’ Yochanan Ben Zakai that no one ever preceeded him with a greeting, even a non-Jew in the marketplace”

And what about you?

Apparently we (or at least I) have a long way to go