Due to circumstances, I spent Rosh Hashanah in Tiveriah. I found a good minyan and I enjoyed the atmosphere and the Tefillah very much. But the mizmor of ‘L’Dovid mizmor’ which we are accustomed to saying at the end of davening, they said quickly, and they skipped the ‘Yehi ratzon’ of the Tefillah for parnasah afterwards.
The matter bothered me very much since the income of the person is set on Rosh Hashanah, and I need parnasah, and for this purpose I went to the kever of the Rambam to say the mizmor and Tefillah after it with feeling. On the way to the kever of the Rambam, I saw a Chabad shul, and I went in to wish my friends and acquaintances a good year.
We blessed each other and I noticed that tables were set with food for a seudah. They told me that at first they hesitated, but in the end decided to make one central seudah for all the guests...
I continued to the Rambam, stood calmly, and began saying the mizmor. As I began, I noticed a group of tourists who looked respectable. When I finished, three of the group approached me and tried to engage me. I think they were Mexican Jews, and they came to hear the shofar, but I do not understand English or Yiddish, so we had no way to communicate, and there was no one around this late. I raised my eyes and asked silently what I should do to help Hashem’s children, since I could not communicate with them.
I had a thought to perhaps check the Ezras Nashim, and to my surprise a young girl was sitting and saying Tehillim. I asked her if she spoke English. She replied that English is her mother language and it is hard for her to speak Hebrew... she translated that they wanted to hear the shofar. We explained to them that since Rosh Hashanah was on Shabbos, we only blow the shofar on Sunday.
Now the story begins. Seeing a young girl alone in the Ezras Nashim on Rosh Hashanah night?! “What are you doing here alone?!” I was moved by her answer, she is a ba’alas teshuva from the United States studying in Yerushalayim, and she planned to go to school specifically for ba’alos teshuva in Tzefas, and on the way she stopped in Tiveriah to daven and she missed the bus to Tzefas. She ordered a Jewish taxi and calculated that she would make it in time, but the driver would desecrate Shabbos and Yom Tov on his way home, so she decided to remain. She found a place to sleep, but not to daven or eat for the two days of the holiday, so that she not make the Jewish driver stumble with chillul Shabbos and chag!!!
I took her for the ten minute walk to Chabad where they took care of all her needs. She ate and davened and had all her needs for a unique Chag Sameach!!!
ש.פ.
