Rav Mordechai Malachi relates, as he heard first-hand:
My son Yair made my life miserable. I didn’t think I would miss the days he spent at home after he was thrown out of his yeshivah. I thought that was the worst that could happen, but it soon became clear that the friends Yair had found dragged him down to unbelievable levels. It would be hard for anyone to imagine how bad it was.
Before Sukkos this year, I asked him where he would be. “I’ll be home,” he said. This made me happy. With all his bitter nisyonos of the yetzer hara, he tried very hard to respect us. He did not do things b’davkah to anger us. He was quiet; he would come and go without telling us where, and he would sit though the seudos in the holy sukkah, and I hoped that the holy Ushpizin would influence him.
Before Simchas Torah, we spoke again about his plans. “For Simchas Torah I’m going South,” he told me.
“South? What’s in the South?”
“My friend suggested that I join him for a huge festival there. He said it’s going to be amazing.”
“A friend? You don’t mean a friend from yeshivah, right?”
He laughed hollowly. Mah pitom?! These were his new friends. “What are you going to do there?” I asked.
“We’ll dance,” he said. “It’ll be fun…”
It hurt. “Listen, Yair,” I told him, “I understand you; I understand that you’re looking for something rare and especially happy and fun, but who says you won’t be able to find it here? You want dancing? You have it here in abundance on Simchas Torah. Friends? Bring your friend here too! What do you say? Can you do this for your father?”
As I said, Yair respects his parents, and he thought about it. He decided that if he succeeded in persuading his friend to come, then he’d stay home.
The friend agreed to come. He came to our home for Hoshana Rabbah, and for the first time ever, he sat in the sukkah and said “al netilas lulav.” Since it was the first time he’d taken a lulav, he also said Shehecheyanu, and the two went out to dance at the hakafos in shul. They danced like Jews, with the holy Torah, and their lives were saved.
When everyone found out what happened to those who attended that terrible, unfortunate festival, Yair understood that he had been spared from certain death. He was shocked by what happened, and for the first time, he understood what we had been trying to explain to him in a thousand and one different ways. One can only truly live as a Jew.
“Abba!” he announced after Yom Tov. “I’m coming back! I’m staying here!”