A man from Israel, who we’ll call Yehuda, works as a tour guide and real-estate agent. Over the past few months, he has gotten very little business and has found himself with a lot of extra time, not to mention a lack of parnasa. He therefore wanted to do something beneficial for the sake of Hashem, and so he contemplated going back to working in chinuch like he had done in his younger years.
When he had first gotten married, he had been a rebbi in a yeshiva, and after that he’d worked in outreach, giving shiurim to baalei teshuva. He contacted the Rosh Yeshiva of a yeshiva for baalei teshuva in his area, and they arranged a time to meet. When he arrived at the Rosh Yeshiva’s office, a pleasant rebbi with a smiling countenance greeted him, and they started talking about his past experience and his current occupation.
When Yehuda was asked about his methods of working with boys, suddenly a flash of lightning seemed to shoot through his head. The same lightning bolt went through the Rosh Yeshiva’s head as well. They immediately recognized each other, and the Rosh Yeshiva said to him, “You will certainly come to work here. You possess keen discernment. You understand bachurim. You will be a treasure for us.”
What was the story behind their past? When Yehuda was a rebbi, he had a nice boy in his class from a respectable family. That boy’s older brother, then a teenager, had left yeshiva, all his connection to Yiddishkeit, and was essentially doing whatever he pleased. His parents were horrified and tried everything they could to bring him back. The boy’s mother even called Yehuda, asking him to please speak to her son and try to reach him.
For a long time Yehuda sat and thought as to what he would tell this teenager. He remembered a Gemara in Bava Metzia about the son of Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Shimon, Yossi, who went off the derech. When Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi heard about it, he called Yossi and gave him semicha as a rav and then sent him to learn with another rebbi. Yossi had no patience to learn, and every day expressed his desire to leave. His rebbi told him, “You’re going to become wise. And they’re going to spread a golden canopy over you and call you rebbi.” Those words gave him motivation, and indeed he began learning hard and eventually became a Gadol b’Torah.
Yehuda decided to use the same tactic for this boy, who we’ll call Moshe. He told Moshe, “You’re going to be a Rosh Yeshiva one day. You will learn and grow so much that everyone will want to learn in your yeshiva.”
Yehuda then designed special stationery for him with his name at the top, calling him HaRav HaGaon HaRosh Yeshiva Rabbi Moshe Meor HaGolah. He played the game down to all the smallest details, and Moshe indeed improved and came back to Torah and mitzvos.
They lost connection over time, and Yehuda never knew what became of Moshe. He was hoping that he was living like a good Jew. Now, thirty-two years later, Yehuda saw with his own eyes the fruits of his labor. Moshe indeed became a Rosh Yeshiva, and was sitting directly opposite him in all his glory.
He was now, successfully, bringing others back to Torah and mitzvos. Rav Moshe told Yehuda, “You were the only one who predicted this type of future for me. You discerned the strengths that Hashem gave me, and you were right. Baruch Hashem, I succeeded.”
This meeting gave Yehuda so much satisfaction. Hashem led him to that specific yeshiva not only to bring him back to teach Torah but to show him how far his efforts had gone.
A person never knows what encouragement could do for another. It can change the entire course of someone’s life for the better.
