Nader Bolour, the owner of Doris Leslie Blau, home of vintage rugs and antique carpets in New York City, loves the spotlight. His designs have been featured in dozens of glossy magazines. He shines as he gives tours of his rugs at his showrooms. “Nowhere else in the United States can you get this design,” he says while lovingly caressing the samples.
His success in carpets, funded his second love sports cars, which he owns many of. But, Mr. Nader also loves to give, if it is a kind word, financial assistance or share words of Torah, which he does on a weekly basis at his synagogue.
He takes his studies seriously, and as a Sephardic Jew, has a deep respect for his rabbi. When the rabbi explained that glitz is not everything about life, he changed his sports cars for a humbler, albeit luxurious one. But last year, on May 25th, as he rushed home from his showroom, he had only one thing on his mind: Shavuot was coming.
The holiday of receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai begins at sundown, and continues for two days. But there was traffic on the FDR Drive parkway, and if there would be much more gridlock, he may have to park his car on the side of the road at sundown and jog home.
But when he arrived at the George Washington Bridge the road was clear. He soon was cruising towards his Englewood, New Jersey home, when he faced a scene “right out of a movie.” There was a Chassidic family with several children, and a police car standing off to the side of the ramp. It was about two hours to the holiday, and here they looked “like homeless people,” with their boxes and suitcases near them.”
When Mr. Bolour arrived on the scene, the Brecher family had been stranded for a while. Due to an address confusion, the car’s registration had lapsed. Chesky Brecher, a Chassidic cantor, was hired to lead the prayer services at the Raleigh Hotel in South Fallsburg, New York. After trying to reason with the officer, and explaining the confusion, he was told that there was no way out and his car had to be impounded.
The couple decided to take a car service to the hotel. But every time they scheduled a ride, the Uber or Lyft driver would cancel on them.
“My efforts were not producing results,” Mr. Brecher later recalled thinking, “So I said to G-d, it is all up to you, do whatever you want to do.”
At the very first moments the businessman saw them, he felt inclined to just continue on. “Wherever we are holding as Jews,” he said, “We think that our style is the right style. Naturally if you want to do charity, be kind, you want to do it with your own group rather than go to a group that you are unfamiliar with.”
It would have been easy, he said, for him to walk away when seeing the Chassidic family. “I didn’t identify with them. To go out of my comfort zone to a group of other Jews that I am not used to, is out of the norm for me.”
But instinctively he decided to pull over, and he asked Mr. Brecher how he could help him. “I told him that there is no way for him to help,” the cantor said, “He was coming from the opposite direction and was not heading Upstate.” After continuing to question their situation, the cantor said he needs to lead the services upstate. Mr. Bolour on the spot told them, “Take my car, and go. Go right now and be on time for the holiday!”
The cantor could not believe his ears. The car was a luxury car, and this man was giving it to a stranger. But Mr. Bolour had no hesitation. He told them that he has no need for his name, or phone number. He gave the cantor his number and told him, “We are all brothers, I trust you. Just call me after the holiday.”
The Brecher couple was bewildered, but they felt that this was their only choice to arrive on time. To the joy of Mr. Bolour, the cantor arrived on time for the holiday, but to him it was all orchestrated from Above: If he would have a sports car, it would not have been large enough for the family. If he would have left for home earlier, if there was no traffic on the parkway that afternoon, he would have not met them. To him, we just need to recognize the moments of divine providence in our life.
He adds that it was a plus to build a relationship with the Brecher’s, which has opened his eyes to see people different than him, as those he can also be there for. “Everything we have we are not deserving of it,” Mr. Bolour said that it is given to us by G-d to do good with it, “I was privileged to be able to be put into that position by G-d.”
By Dovid Zaklikowski
Dovid Zaklikowski is a biographer and author of over forty books, his books can be found on HasidicArchives.com or Amazon, and he can be reached at [email protected]
