Weekly Chasidic Story #609 (s5769-44/ 7 Menachem-Av 5769)

The Tefilin Difference

I had flown to New York to buy antique Torah scrolls for a private collector.

(Connection: Weekly Torah Reading - the verse about tefilin in the Shma Yisrael paragraph)

 

The Tefilin Difference
David First


I was sitting in a JFK airport terminal waiting to board the flight home. I had flown to New York to buy antique Torahs for a private collector.
It was February and the temperature outside was in the upper twenties. I'm was used to such weather living in central Florida. In my carry-on bag was one of the antique Torahs, a small one, my tefilin and a camera.

The flight was delayed due to bad weather at the airline hub city in Charlotte, North Carolina, where we were due to change planes. The cold front that brought the freezing weather to New York City had turned into a severe ice storm along the Atlantic coastal states. The weather had to clear up down there before we could leave, which made our delay over an hour at that point.

I looked across the room full of people. I noticed several teen age kids talking and laughing. They looked Jewish and I wondered where they were going.

One of them was a young man of good size who kept going back and forth between the small groups of teenagers sitting in different rows. Another was an attractive young teenage girl who kept changing seats every few moments. Each time she changed seats, she moved closer towards me.

A couple seats away from me was an elderly woman who got up and walked into the ladies' room. The young Jewish girl looked around the room, walked over and sat in the now empty seat. I laughed a little as she kept glancing towards me trying not to look too obvious.

"What are you laughing about?" She asked waving to one of the other girls to come over and join us.

"I've been watching you go from seat to seat starting across the room over there until now." I said pointing to every seat she sat in on her journey across the room.

She nodded her head, "You were watching me? Why, where are you going?"

"I'm flying home to Tampa, Florida."

"We're going to Florida too. That's my cousin. We're going to Miami." She pointed to the young man now walking towards us. "So why are you in New York?"

"To pick up some Torahs."

"No way," She said with excitement. "Where are the Torahs?"

"One's in my bag," I began to open the bag. "Would you like to see it?"

She waved for her cousin to come over with urgency and said, "It must not be very big. Is it real?"

I laughed again, "Of course it's real." The Torah was inside a small round decorated Sephardic style box. "It's an antique. One of ten I bought yesterday from a dealer."

"Ten? You bought ten Torahs? I'm Jewish" she said trying to see the Torah better. "My name is Rebecca and my cousin is Moshe."

I shook hands with Moshe. "My name is David. And yes, I bought ten Torahs. The other ones are in special luggage or being shipped home seperately. They are for a collector and a museum." I said taking the box out of the bag. "I knew you were Jewish."

"No way! How could you tell?"

"You actually look like a Sabra, a native Israeli, or someone from the area that runs from the Mediterranean through the Mid-east area that makes up Iraq and Iran. I'd say Iran."

"No way." She said again. "My family is from Iran. How could you know that?"

"I've traveled a lot and you have that kind of complexion." I opened the box and showed her the Torah. "This Torah is about 300 years old and from the Iran region too."

She couldn't believe her eyes. She asked if she could touch the Torah. I looked up at Moshe and said, "You know, there are times when it is customary that a young woman not touch the Torah." He nodded that he understood and looked at her with an expression of serious doubt.

She looked at him, "I know all about that. I study in a Yeshiva too. Don't worry, I'm OK." With that, I let her touch the outer parts of the yeria, or pages. She said she had never touched a Torah before. She took out her camera and took some photos. "No one will believe me that I was on the same flight with a guy carrying a 300 year old Torah."

I looked up at Moshe and asked, "Did you put on tefilin today?"

He replied no. I took out my tefilin bag and handed it to him, "Why not? You do know how to put this on?"

"Of course," he said. "We are yeshiva students. But I didn't feel like it this morning."

"Then take mine and go put on the tefilin."

He hesitated. But I told him again to go put it on. Rebecca told him, "Go do it. If anything goes wrong it will be your fault." He took the bag and walked off.

Rebecca called over some of the other girls to see the Torah. Soon all the Jewish kids were around me talking. The subject quickly changed from the Torah to school work and getting some sun while in Miami. I quietly put the Torah away.

Moshe returned, "I put it on. I noticed you have blue threads on your tsitsit [the strings that dangle from a four-cornered undergarment]."

"Yes. Now you have put on tefilin that accompany blue tsitsit. Your trip will go better."

Rebecca cut in, "I did my morning prayers and touched a 300 year old Torah. Will that make my trip better too?"

"We'll soon find out," I said as the counter person began calling people to board the flight. We sat in different sections of the plane. The seat next to me was the only open one left and I strapped the Torah into the seat. Everyone was looking at the box wondering what it could be that was so special that I strapped it in. I kept telling everyone it was a Torah. Most didn't understand so I'd say, "An antique Bible."

In Charlotte the airport was a mad house. The ice storm had caused all flights to be cancelled until it was safe to take off. Everyone was trying to get a seat on the next flight out. At the service desk the customer service people told everyone in frustration that all the next flights were full and the only remaining seats were on flights later that night, about 12 hours. While standing in line I saw Rebecca and Moshe again.

"David, David," Rebecca called out. "You won't believe what happened. I got a first class ticket on the next flight out. Moshe got coach. I can't believe it. I got first class. We got the last two seats to Miami. I knew touching the Torah was going to bring me good luck."

I looked at Moshe and said, "Next time, put on your tefilin when you're supposed to, before you leave in the morning. If you had, you too would be sitting next to Rebecca be in first class. You're lucky you at least did the tefilin in the airport and you both got on the flight together."

The customer service person called me over. She said there weren't any seats left on any flights. She looked at me for a second and then said, "Can I see your ticket." I handed it to her and she said, "This is strange. The computer just placed you in a first class seat on the next flight out. Now how did that happen? It wasn't there a second ago."

I chuckled and replied, "Tefilin of course."

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Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from a submission by the author, David "Angelman" First, a long-time friend of Ascent.

Connection: Weekly Torah Reading - the verse about tefilin in the Shma Yisrael paragraph


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Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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