Shabbat without a Key

This past Shabbat, we encountered a unique phenomenon that cannot happen in the states in the same way. I locked our apartment on the way out to dinner last night, and then at some point, I lost the key to get back in. We went out to a lovely, slow paced dinner with friends, which went quite late, so by the time we noticed at home, trying to get back into the apartment, it was after 11:00 PM. I checked my pockets, and they had the directions in them and the extra socks that I had taken for my daughter, but no key. I discovered that one of the pockets had a hole in the bottom, and I frantically felt all around the lining, but no key. I began replaying the evening in my mind, from the moment I locked up until that moment, trying to imagine what could have happened to the key, and I continued thinking about that basically non-stop throughout Shabbat, which was kind of maddening. I left my coat upstairs in our building and came down with the unfortunate news for my disappointed family. Luckily, the children were all asleep, but it was only a matter of time before the comfort of our double stroller let up and the kids needed a bed. And of course, I was kicking myself for not taking one babysitter's advice to give a neighbor a key.

We tried a small hotel that's across the street from our building, but they were totally full. We tried a friend's apartment, but they were asleep and didn't wake up to knocking at the door. We tried a different hotel, and they had a small room that they couldn't let us have according to fire regulations, and then they gave us false hope, telling us that we could stay at a different branch of their hotel in a different part of the city, but after much consultation, would not allow us to stay there without a credit card number, which was not something we could offer them, offhand, since we don't carry money or wallets with us on Shabbat. The not-Jewish Arab, working at the desk of this hotel, called the fire department first, but it turns out there is a policy here that nothing can be done for families like ours on Shabbat- neither by Jewish or non-Jewish people... So, we walked back to our friends who had hosted us for dinner on the off-chance that the key had perhaps fallen at their apartment, but when we looked there and found nothing, asked if we could crash on their couch. It was after midnight at this point, and our friends were incredibly gracious. We were two adults and three children who took over their apartment, and they were so happy to have us there. I spent a large part of the night managing our baby's teething. His top two teeth are coming in in earnest, and night time is, for some reason, an especially difficult time for him. Our hosts did not mention anything about the crying.

This morning, we came to our building to get my coat, and then went back to our friend's house who didn't wake up last night, where she welcomed us in for a breakfast, clothing and toy extravaganza. We were all invited to the same friends for lunch, so we walked there together, and then we proceeded to make ourselves at home at their apartment. After a delicious lunch, and putting our middle child in for a nap, my husband fell asleep on one of their couches and I on the other with the baby, while our hostess supervised her children and our daughter. Again, we were totally blessed to have such generous, gracious hosts. Also to our incredible fortune, they have a neighbor who is a locksmith who brought my husband home immediately after Shabbat and took care of letting us back in and changing the locks.

In the states, we had a combination lock box in the back of our house. Even without that we would have been able to break in without help, since non of our windows have the bars up that our windows here have. We would have been able to get help from the fire department, since they are, by and large, not Jewish, but in any event, they in no way governed by Jewish law or having any consideration for Shabbat. We would have gone to family- since our house was in Teaneck, around the corner from my aunt and a mile and a half from my parents. Here in Jerusalem, we were at the mercy of great friends and they made us feel so welcome and I feel so blessed to be part of this wonderful group of friends who are like family. I also hope and pray that if anyone would ever need this kind of help, that I would be able to extend the same warm, open arms that our friends extended to us. Thank God for the kindness of friends.