By Eliezer Philips & Yanki Jacobs
You can imagine the frustration when hearing your flight is delayed, especially when you have a connecting flight. When your connecting flight is in Warsaw, Poland, we can tell you: your worries triple.
When the flight finally did leave, we thought we had enough time to make it. But after a long security line in Warsaw, we sped over to our gate, only to be told we were too late to board the plane, even though the plane hadn’t yet left the gate.
It was 9:30 in the morning. The next flight would only be at 5:30 that afternoon. You can understand how frustrated we were. Instead of spending the day at the airport, we made our way to the old Jewish Ghetto.
While we toured the Ghetto, we met a Polish Jewish couple. The husband only spoke Polish, but his wife had a passable understanding of English.
After a teeth-breaking conversation, we asked if he would like to put on Tefillin. His wife had never even heard of Tefillin, while he had once seen them, but never put them on.
As we strapped his arm and head, tears fell from eyes. Emotionally, he said the Shema prayer, and with his wife serving as an interpreter, he thanked us profusely.
We told him of our travel annoyances, and said this clearly was Divine providence; G-d had engineered the days events to ensure we would meet them and give them the opportunity to reignite their souls. Smiling, they agreed and thanked us once again.
Before we returned the airport to catch our connecting flight, we made sure they had Matzah and a place for the seder.
We might have thought that our mission hadn’t begun yet. We hadn’t even arrived at our destination. Clearly, our mission is constant. We are always on call for when a Jewish soul cries out.
Who could have envisioned such an emotional Bar Mitzvah, filled with joy and hope, taking place at a historic land filled with painful, tragic memories? It is a moment we will never forget. A Memory we will always cherish.
Eliezer Philips & Yanki Jacobs are spending Pesach in Warsaw, Poland, as part of the Merkos Shlichus Jewish visitation program of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch. Read more at RovingRabbis.com
Zev
FROM AUSTIN, TX
I’m kvelling. Beautiful story.
keep up the good work! thanks for posting the pictures!!
GO ELI!
and my brother Zevi Stiefel…
go worcester boy!
The flight from Poland to Slovakia was delayed, hence the stop in Warsaw.
Yasher Koyach Eli!!!!
Eli! Eli! On their flight to Vienna, their layover was in Warsaw. They went to the shaliach in Slovakia, and made their sedarim in Brno, Czech Republic.
I see my grandchildren, Mushka & Mendel Stiefel of Piestany, Slovakia, packing matzas! Lovely, thank you for posting this!
Go Eli!
GO YANKI JACOBS!!!!!!
Eliezer Phillips and Yanki Jacobs were on route to Piestany, Slovakia, when they misssed their connecting flight in Warsaw.
The children pictured in the last photo are Mushka & Mendel Stiefel from Piestany, Slovakia.
Yanki and Eli hands down the best two bochurim in Lubavitch..
Great job! keep it up…