Raphael, a veteran Ezer Mizion volunteer, was in the hospital visiting his sick father, when a nurse recognized him.

"Aren't you an Ezer Mizion volunteer?" she asked.

"Yes," said Raphael.

"I have a mitzvah for you," said the nurse. "There's an old man who just came to the hospital for stitches. He lives by himself, and he needs some help getting home. Could you perhaps go with him?"

Raphael has been helping sick people for years, and he was happy to be of assistance. He accompanied the old man to his home.

The next day, Raphael called Ezer Mizion and asked for Chananya Chollak. "You have to come see how a lonely Jew lives here in Ramat Gan," he told Chananya agitatedly.

When Chananya arrived, he was surprised to see that the house was completely dark - at 10:00 A.M. The man, who introduced himself as Aryeh, was lying in his bed, wearing a raincoat.

Chananya tried to turn on the light, but nothing happened. "There was an electrical short-circuit here," the man explained, "So there's no electricity."

"How long ago was this?" Chananya asked.

"Oh, a few weeks ago," the man answered, offhandedly.

"And why are you wearing a raincoat?" Chananya pressed.

"Look up," the man said. "The rain leaks right in, onto my bed."

If that can be called a bed, Chananya thought. What had once been a mattress had now been reduced to a threadbare collection of fibers. Aryeh's raincoat doubled as a blanket and pillow.

As Chananya's eyes got used to the darkness, he noticed a pile of sand at the other end of the room. "Aryeh, is someone doing repairs here?" he asked.

Aryeh laughed. "Repairs? Only the mice are doing any repairs here. They feel quite at home, and they dig all over the house."

Chananya spoke to Aryeh for a while, and a depressing picture emerged. Aryeh was a Holocaust survivor whose entire family had been wiped out by the Nazis. He literally had no one. Recently, he had developed severe cataracts that had left him almost completely blind. Due to his poor vision, he was afraid to leave the house, and remained closeted at home. Several days ago, however, he had had no choice but to go out and buy some groceries. Sure enough, he tripped on the stairs outside his house and cut open his face. He had been rushed to the hospital for stitches, and that was where Raphael had met him.

Ezer Mizion procured a new bed for Aryeh, and arranged for workers to clean all the dirt and junk out of Aryeh's house, repair the leaky roof, exterminate the mice, and fix the electrical short-circuit. Thanks to Ezer Mizion's intervention, an expert eye surgeon operated on Aryeh's cataracts, and within several weeks Aryeh's vision was fully restored.

When Chananya tells the story, he sighs. "Aryeh was lucky that he happened to cross paths with Ezer Mizion. But what about those people who never make it to us? It's up to each and every one of us to look out for the needs of others and see to it that they are taken care of completely. It is the duty of every person to be an 'Ezer Mizion'."