Windows to Eternity: Mission in Los Angeles

× Mission in Los Angeles X

Reb Meir from Zurich related the following:

I am zocheh to head a kiruv organization in Zurich for young adults, with Torah classes and outreach for those who never received a Jewish education. Like any organization, we need money. I don't usually fundraise, but this time I had no choice. I asked a tzaddik for a brachah for our organization, and he told me "Go fundraise in Los Angeles."

I listened, and set out on my way with much tefillah on my lips and in my heart. I felt that I would be doing my part, but only Hashem could open the hearts and the pockets of our brothers to donate to this very worthy cause. I often think about the idea that wherever a person travels or ends up in life, there is a specific reason why he needs to be in that location. I had never dreamed that I'd be fundraising, and certainly not in Los Angeles. While on the plane, I wondered whether Hashem was taking me there in order to fulfill some Divinely ordained mission. Only time would tell.

I arrived, began making my rounds, and people were receptive, and donating generously. At one point, I was in a car with the driver I'd hired when I got a call from a friend in Zurich. "I thought about you," he said. "There's someone in Beverly Hills, a Yid with a big heart, whom I think you should see. He was once in Zurich and donated generously to all sorts of causes."

My friend gave me the person contact information, and I arranged a time and place to meet with him.

"What brings you here?" the man asked me, after some preliminary greetings.

I answered him by sharing my thoughts from the plane. "Well," I said, "I'm not really sure why I'm here. You see, I need to ask for a donation for my organization, but I know that Hashem sent me specifically here. Perhaps you can tell me," I said half-jokingly. "What am I really doing in Los Angeles?"

"What's the name of your organization?" he asked.

"Yad Lano'ar, in Zurich," I responded.

"Oh!" he said. "I lived in Zurich for a while. It was 38 years ago. If you live there now, perhaps your mission is to help me!"

He told me he had a debt to repay from the time he lived in Zurich.

"My friend Mark and I went away to a resort in Austria for a week with our families," he explained. "We planned an itinerary together and split the cost of food, lodgings, and everything else. It worked out well for both of us. Afterward, when I'd already moved to Los Angeles, Mark called and told me the Austrian municipality had charged us a fine of 300 Francs because we left our garbage out somewhere where it was forbidden by law.

"I was quite annoyed. I told Mark that the Austrian municipality was crazy. What were they thinking, sending a fine to vacationers?! 'I'm not going to send them anything,' I told him.

"Mark was a very law-abiding person, and he felt we should pay the fine, but since we disagreed, he simply paid the sum in full.

"Throughout the years, it's been on my conscience that Mark covered my end of the fine, and I wanted to repay him, even though he'd accepted to make the full payment on his own, and even though I don't believe the Austrians would have come looking for us if we had ignored their letter. Still, it just didn't feel right to me.

"Several years ago, I decided to look for Mark in order to repay him, and I heard he had passed away at young age from a heart attack. I called a mutual friend and asked him to look up Mark's family, but he made nothing of my concerns. 'You don't really owe him the money,' he said. 'Just donate it somewhere l'ilui nishmaso.'

"The thing is, though, that I do want to hear from the family. I want to know if they want the money or if they want me to donate it, and to which organization."

The man suddenly seemed to recall who he was talking to, and he interrupted his narrative. "Tell me again," he said, "which organization are you collecting for?"

"Yad Lano'ar in Zurich," I repeated.

"Yad Lano'ar!" he said. "It seems to ring a bell..."

He looked through his notepad and found where he'd written the name Yad Lano'ar. "Aah!" he said. "It was that mutual friend who suggested that I donate to a worthy cause in Zurich, l'ilui nishmas my friend Mark, and he named your organization."

Things moved quickly after that. I got hold of Mark's family and told them the story, and then the Yid gave our organization a hefty donation and asked me to also go to Mark's kever and ask for forgiveness in his name.

Back in Zurich, I went into the beis hachaim, which is a six-minute drive from my home, and did as he requested.

Now I understood. This was the mission that I'd come to fulfill in Los Angeles.