From • Country Yossi • September 2008 • Tishri 5769 • Volume 21, No. 4, #148
- Three Yeshiva-Bochurim are now sitting in jail in Japan. A Heimishe Yid announced that in honor of Reb. Elimelech of Lizensk's Yahrzeit, he was giving away free tickets to Lizensk. He claimed that "he had only 3 tickets left." Of course, a ton of men and Bochurim wanted to get the "three last tickets." One boy was a few weeks before his Chasuna, and he almost got the ticket, but his father didn't allow him to go. These three were the lucky ones to get the tickets to Lizensk. It made sense. Then, at the airport, the Yid showed up and said, "If you take this suitcase of antiques to Japan on the way home, I will give you a few hundred dollars. They thought, why not? They were normal boys from normal families. They went to Lizensk, and then to Japan. In Japan, the authorities are very strict about drugs; they are very sophisticated, and caught it in a second. The Bochurim are today in solitary confinement, in a 4x4 cell. They are being subjected to extremely cruel treatment and do not even get to see the sunlight for a moment at all. All they get to eat there is rice. The situation is extremely serious, as in Japanese law, such an offense can incur life imprisonment, or worse. Hashem Yeracheim!
- A Frum man, holding a few boxes of Matzos, asked a Yid on the plane to help him with his load. He held the package for him and upon arrival at the terminal, he wanted to give back the boxes of Matzos. The man asked him to carry it through customs. He replied that if he can first look inside the box, he'll be willing to carry it through. The man refused, took back the box, and went to look for a different innocent victim.
- A Yungerman sat in jail in France for a year, together with his wife, for doing a Tova for a Heimishe Yid. She had a baby in jail!
- A Chassidishe man asked an elderly woman to take a pair of winter boots to Bnei B'rak. "They're expensive in Israel," the person said, "and warm boots are needed, as it is cold there." She took it. Upon delivering it to the recipient, he cracked off the heel, told her to wait until he counted the diamonds, and sternly told her that she's lucky that the correct number of diamonds were there!
- A Frum man asked a Bochur to take an envelope containing Shtorey Gittin to Rav Meir Brandsdorfer from the Eida Hachareidis. On the plane, the Bochur mentioned it to his friend. The friend exclaimed that the same thing happened to him. They became suspicious. They went to the bathroom on the plane, opened the envelopes, and found that they contained drugs! They flushed the drugs down the airplane toilet. Upon arrival in Israel, the authorities pulled them aside but found nothing. The Bochurim then explained what happened. The police checked the airplane toilet to corroborate their story, found traces of drugs, and let the Bochurim free. What had happened? The drug dealer tipped off the Israeli customs agents about these two Bochurim in order to divert the Israeli police from the big cache that they themselves were bringing in.
- A Yungerman was travelling from London to Israel. His neighbor asked if he could take Nescafe coffee to his relative. He said no problem. As he was putting the jar in his suitcase, it fell and smashed. Out came a handful of diamonds. He was furious. So, without saying anything, he took a brand new unopened jar and gave it to the relative. (After playing dumb for a while, he gave back the diamonds, along with some Mussar.)
- Before Rosh Hashanah, a Yungerman was approached to bring into Israel a few Shofars. He decided to practice blowing from them, but he just couldn’t get a sound out of them. He inspected, and it turned out that they were stuffed with drugs.
- A young man from Antwerp married in the US. After a number of years, he wanted very much to visit his parents in Antwerp for a Shabbos, but wasn’t able to afford the plane ticket. He found out that there was someone willing to pay a ticket if you brought back a "small Pekele" of diamonds. He decided to take the risk. The worst that can happen, if caught, is that the authorities will confiscate the diamonds, he thought. On arrival in the U.S., he was frisked by agents and was shocked when they told him that the "Pekele" contained drugs. He sat in one of the worst prisons, wearing orange prison clothing. Unfortunately, this wasn't the first such case that had come before this judge, and so the young man was deported after a year.
- A famous Machnis Orach in London got a call from one of his guests saying he’d left behind his Tallis bag, and could he send it with someone going to Israel. The Machnis Orach said, "I'm going next week, I'll take it myself.” On arrival at Ben Gurion airport, it was discovered that there were drugs in the Tefillin bag. They wanted to arrest him, so he called his Rav. The Rav said that according to Halacha, he wasn't allowed to give over the name of the perpetrator, but the Machnis Orach could tell the authorities that there was someone waiting outside for the Tefillin bag, who was guilty. He suggested that under the watchful eyes of the agents, the Machnis orach should hand over the tefilin bag to its rightful owner. The agents agreed, but warned him that with any suspicious movement, he'd be shot. He handed over the bag, and his former guest was arrested on the spot.
- An Australian couple took a Chumash that turned out to have drugs hidden inside it. They both were imprisoned. She was due to give birth any day. She almost had that baby in jail, but they let her out, though the husband was in jail for nearly a year.
- When taking medicine to Israel, take the bottle to your pharmacist to check if its contents match what is stated on the bottle.
- Do a Chessed, Pass The Parcel article to your friends, by eMail - not by hand.
- Call your local depot of Reliable Parcel International and let them handle your Pekelech . They are reliable, they charge less than solicitors and they actually deliver your parcel from door to door . . . No begging for favours, No paying for a cab at both destinations, No excuse!
Want to send a parcel?
See:
Have a Kosher, Happy and Safe Pesach at Home!
Menasche Scharf
Amit Agarwal (an Indian, not an Israeli) listed the info below with numbers relating to India. It gives you an idea of the service companies and their comparative costs http://www.labnol.org/internet/package-forwarding/19305/
Which Package Forwarding Should You Use?
There are actually quite a few package forwarding services for you to choose from. The following table will give you a very rough idea of the costs involved - the actual shipping rates will vary depending on your country, the shipping mode (FedEx, USPS, DHL, etc.) that you've picked and, most importantly, on your package’s dimensional weight.
Shipping Rates to India*
Sign-up Fees 1.0 lbs
(0.5 kg) 5.0 lbs
(2.3 kg) Warehouse Location
1. Bongo <https://bongous.com/> $5 (one time) $55 $91 CT
2. MyUS <http://myus2.myus.com/> $10 (one time) $44 $78 FL
3. Shipito <http://www.shipito.com/> $8.50 (per package) $43 $64 CA, OR, NV
4. USGlobalMail <http://www.usglobalmail.com/> $10 (per month) $63 $86 TX
5. USA2Me <http://www.usa2me.com/> $23 (one time) $35 $59 TX
6. VIAddress <http://www.viaddress.com/> - $35 $55 IN
7. ShopAndShip <http://www.shopandship.com/> $35 (one time) $10 $42 NY
Shopping at US Online stores – Things to know
#1. You could be charged based on the size of the package or its actual weight depending on which is greater. Thus, the international shipping charges for importing 5 lbs of cotton would be higher than say 5 lbs of sand even though the physical weight is similar.
#2. The package forwarding services have warehouses in different states and that may be a consideration if your shopping website charges sales tax for certain states.
#3. Some online stores may require that the billing address associated with your credit card / PayPal is also located in the US. Bongo, Shipito and MyUS offer an easy workaround for a fee – if a store doesn’t accept international credit cards, these services can buy the goods on your behalf and also ship it to you.
#4. Aramex’s Shop and Ship and Bongo have warehouses in UK as well thus allowing international shoppers an option to purchase stuff directly from EU based shopping websites.
#5. If you have bought items from multiple stores, you can ask the package forwarding service to club everything in one box so that you have to pay less for international shipping. You may have to pay an additional fee for consolidation.
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