Bus stops in Israel defy description. A bus stop could be a yellow metal flag on a pole listing the bus numbers and destinations, it could serve as a reinforced mini-bomb shelter or it might be a ghost stop, where a bus stop used to be and people, out of habit, still wait there while the bus drivers dutifully pick up and let off passengers.

Bus stops here double as bulletin boards. Posters announce neighborhood gatherings, demonstrations and Torah classes. Signs warn women to preserve their modesty by wearing a wig, or not. Death notices and funeral times are posted and what time Shabbat enters. Offensive posters are marked over or ripped off. Israeli bus stops reflect local needs.

Contrary to municipal warnings to refrain from posting notices, often bus stops are papered with offers of house cleaners, organized trips, rooms for rent and get-rich quick job schemes.

Have you seen a Jewish bus stop? They generate Chessed. Often one can find a metal pushka welded (illegally) to the support beam of the bus stop collecting for orphans, the hungry, and the ill. One might find an offer to pray at the Kotel for forty consecutive days in return for a modest stipend. Of course, this is guarantees success in: finding the right spouse, return to good health, adequate income… you name it.

Waiting at a bus stop can be an educational experience. When I was a young mom, my daughter was playing a waiting–for-the-bus game. She took her baby hand and tapped me on my cheek. She giggled and repeated it again and again. It didn't hurt me and it kept her happily busy. An elderly Bubby scolded me by saying: "It is forbidden in the Torah for a child to strike its parent." She was right, you know, and I too pass on that bit of advice when relevant.

Blessings - Erev Rosh Hashanah, 2000, as I was leaving the end of a long exhausting hospital night shift, I saw a shriveled old woman sitting at the bus stop and crying. Her long grey hair looked greasy and her shabby sweat suit was full of teardrops and food stains. She wore torn dirty sneakers. I sat down next to her and asked her if I could help.

As she sobbed through toothless gums, she explained that she was released from the hospital earlier that day. Without cash on her, no taxi driver trusted her promise to pay the fare when she arrived at home. She didn't even have money for a bus ticket. To prove her point she fished out her discharge papers from a plastic bag and turned her pockets inside out. My heart went out to her as I rummaged through my wallet. I rarely have cash on hand and today was no exception. I gave her whatever I could find; not enough for a taxi but at least for her bus home. She kissed my hands.

If you see her on the street corner, drop a coin or two in her outstretched palm and continue walking, you will miss meeting an incredible person. She became a beggar after she was beaten and robbed in her apartment. The young men who attacked her, beat her face to a pulp. That’s how she lost her teeth. There was nothing really to steal. This was the second robbery in as many years and she hadn't replaced whatever little bit was stolen. So these drug addicts took her broken TV and the mattress on her only cot.

She is a retired seamstress living on a meager government pension. Since the second break-in she's afraid to sleep at home and lives on the street. She isn't well and looks older than her years. What is amazing about her is that if you treat her like a person and stop to chat, she insists on returning the chessed. The area where she 'works' is a long street of shops in Geula, the ultra-orthodox neighborhood.

Early in the morning she canvases local shopkeepers who fill her bags with their donations. These she distributes to the friends who approach; a bouquet of flowers, a bag of rogelach or a fancy soap accompanied by a blessing. The lady is very good at giving blessings. She says it is because she is from a family of Kohanim, priests. I'm not sure who receives the better gift.

Judith Berger, R.N., M.Sc. Family Therapy, is a professional nurse and life issues advisor. She is currently an advisor and fundraiser for the Ginat Eden Farm-School Project for Teenage Girls at Risk in Israel