By Rabbi Yoni Schwartz
Rav Kaplan was waiting for his flight to Israel on a Thursday afternoon. Unfortunately, delay after delay arose to the point where he was unsure if he’d make it to Israel in time for Shabbos. Suddenly, the leader of a birthright group of 75 non-religious people approached him asking whether they should take the flight with the awareness that if they missed it, they would likely not be reimbursed. He was stumped and called one of America’s leading Halachic authorities, Rav Yisrael Belsky, ZT"L. Rav Belsky told him not to fly and Rav Kaplan relayed this message to the birthright group.
Realizing he’s a prominent Rabbi, the kids on birthright then approached him saying, “We have a problem. You live nearby and can easily return home. However, we all came from across the country and had nowhere to go. If you go home, we are boarding the plane.”
Rav Kaplan said, “No problem. You have a deal. Let us book a hotel together.” He then tirelessly worked to make all the necessary arrangements of getting kosher food for the Shabbos meals. When Friday night came Rav Kaplan got up and said, “Normally, the Shabbos queen does not know if she’s welcome. Tonight, when we gave up a flight knowing we might not get another one, when we sacrificed for Shabbos, she knows she is welcome. Let me tell you some of the basic laws of how to keep Shabbos properly and let’s make this Shabbos one we’ll never forget.”
The Rav stayed up tirelessly, until 2:00 am, assuring that everyone was taken care of. After an incredible-yet-exhausting Shabbos, the airline called and surprisingly reimbursed them. Two years later, Rav Kaplan bumped into one of the kids from the trip. The kid told the Rav, “There were 75 kids on that trip. Ninety-nine percent of us are Shomer Shabbos today because of that Shabbos!” One Shabbos can change a person's life.
Reprinted from the Parshas Emor 5784 email of Torah Sweets.
