Had we made the Shabbos in some distant yishuv, that would have been a difficult question, but the Shabbos took place in Kiryat Sefer, and we immediately discovered the neighbors and their wonderful good hearts.
The person in charge of the hall went to call a goy. On the basis of the leniency brought by the Rema, we assumed that was okay. However, the messenger looked and looked and could not find one – not even one – non-Jew! We therefore felt that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted us to display special shemiras Shabbos without the slightest blemish, even though there is a heter for calling a non-Jew in our situation.
Meanwhile, an avreich approached us and said there was room in his fridge for all our food. Another avreich took the boiling-hot pot of cholent and placed it on his hot plate. It was beautiful to see how each person thought about how he could help us out.
The hardest part was finding a place to eat. We couldn’t sit in darkness. We hadn’t lit enough candles to light up the entire hall without electricity. We had dozens of guests, families with women and little children. What would we do? Eat in the street? Spread everyone out among the families in the neighborhood? What would we do?
I was standing near my mechutan, not knowing what to think. I said, again and
