Rabbi Micky Mellul of Beth Habad Loubavitch in Creteil, France, shared the following with COLlive.com:
We brought a group of members of our community to spend “Shabbos by the Rebbe” in Crown Heights.
After a very inspiring and uplifting Shabbos, we went to visit Manhattan on Motzoei Shabbos.
In Times Square, a homeless man came over to me and asked if I was a rabbi.
Yes, I said.
Can I ask you a question?
Sure!
“I found something in the street. I want to make sandals from it but I first would like to know if it’s valuable.”
He then went on to show me a blue bag with a Magen David on it. It had a pair of Tefillin inside.
In order to save it, I said it wasn’t worth much but that I would be willing to give him $25 for it. After some negotiation, he agreed to sell it to me.
Inside the bag, we found the phone and the phone number of the owner. We called him and arranged to meet up on Sunday at 770 Eastern Parkway.
The man was so happy to get his Tefillin back.
“It’s incredible how Hashem brought you all the way from France to New York to save my Tefillin,” he said.
great story….but did any one offer to buy the homeless man the shoes he needed?
25 bucks is enough for shoes
I agree! I thought the story would end with the rabbi taking the homeless man to buy shoes or to feed him a meal, at least that is what would have happened in a classic chasidic tale. In fact, if this happened to the Berdichever, he might have said the whole reason the Tefillin got lost in the first place was to bring to his attention the plight of the needy man! Delighted the owner got his tefilln back, but there is a human element missing from this story!
Have you ever given more than $25 in Times Square? I suggest you go to Manhattan and buy shoes for the next person who steals someone’s tefilin 😉
Please please please put a card with your name and contact information in each of your tefilin bags. No one plans to misplace their tefilin.
The Shliach is Rabbi Michel Mellul, son of Rabbi Chaim Mellul, both of Creteil.
Thanks for sharing! Beautiful story and the power of hashgacha pratis nowadays..
The shliach is my uncle!