I read the story in last week’s sheet about having devotion to daven with a minyan, and I remembered a similar story that happened to me and my brother. A few months ago, while we were traveling together for the yahrzeit of Rebbe Yeshaya ben R’ Moshe of Kerestir in Poland. We planned to daven Mincha as soon as we landed in the airport in Katowice, Poland once we gathered the many Jews there who also wanted to daven.
We landed safely and we tried to arrange a minyan for Mincha, but everyone hurried to their buses, and they could not be detained for even a minute afraid that they would miss the trip with the group. It turned out that all the other observant travelers were in groups, and they were not concerned about the time since it was still four hours before sunset...
They were not concerned about davening, but my brother and I were faced with the difficult dilemma of what to do?! The trip from Katowice to Lizhensk takes about five hours, meaning that we would arrive after sunset. On the other hand, it was the one place that we knew we would find a minyan and we would also be able to daven at the holy site of Rebbe Elimelech in Lizhensk.
We remembered a story that Rav Gamliel HaKohen Rabinovich told about an elderly Breslov chassid whose grandson urged him to fly to the site of Rebbe Nachman, and the chassid was very moved by the invitation. He had already gathered his bags and a minute before getting into the car, he asked his grandson, “Where will we daven Mincha?” The grandson replied, “Saba, don’t worry, we will find a minyan at the airport.” In that moment the grandfather turned around and went back into the house, saying, “A trip to the Rebbe is a great thing, but in no way at the expense of one mitzvah!!!” All urging did not help, and he stayed in Israel.
We did not think too much about it and made it in three-and-a-half hours to Lizhensk, with joy and emotion we got out to daven at the site of Rebbe Elimelech. But to our great disappointment, there was no one at the site except for one man who had already davened Mincha.
Ten minutes before sunset I said to my brother, “We did the most we could do, we added 3&1/2 hours to the trip, we have no choice, we must daven by ourselves!!!” With a heavy heart, we began to say karbanos. Suddenly, we heard the squeal of brakes, and out of nowhere, two cars pulled up with four men in each car, looking for two more for a minyan.
I cannot describe the joy we felt at that moment. We davened with joy and emotion as Dovid HaMelech said in Tehillim (121:1-2)‘from where will help come’, out of nowhere, ‘help is from Hashem Who made Heaven and earth!!!’
