Rabbi Leibish Langer is a rebbe at the Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn and teaches one night a week at Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway, near Queens. One night, Rabbi Langer was on his way back to Brooklyn with a carload of talmidim-students when his car hit a pothole and stalled in one of the crummier areas of Queens. He could not restart the car.
The neighborhood where the mishap occurred was known to be dangerous and the boys were tense. Rabbi Langer told the boys that they should collectively pledge money to a R' Meir Baal HaNeis tzedakah and then recite a chapter of Tehillim together.
Rabbi Langer assured the boys that Hashem would surely watch over them. Almost immediately, two policemen cruising by noticed the stranded car and stopped. Just then a yeshiva student driving by also stopped. The police radioed a road service company, which responded that its crew could be there in an hour and a half. The police could not wait there all that time, but they cautioned Rabbi Langer that if he abandoned the car he would probably not find it intact when he returned.
Rabbi Langer asked the yeshiva student to take the boys to the nearest yeshiva while he waited alone for the road service. The police cautioned him to remain in the car with the doors locked. The other two cars drove off and Rabbi Langer returned to his car, locked the doors from the inside and turned on a tape of a Torah lecture.
Almost immediately, a car passing by came to a halt and out stepped an African American fellow of imposing appearance. "Got a problem?" the man asked. "No, I'm fine," Rabbi Langer replied.
"Well, I'm a mechanic and I see you've got a problem. Open the hood and I'll see what I can do." Rabbi Langer remained in the locked car and opened the hood. It was obvious that the man was making a real effort to get the car started. Finally, the man came around to the driver's window and said, "The fuel is not going into the engine but I can't figure out why. Listen, you can't stay here alone — this is a very dangerous neighborhood! What are you going to do?"
Before Rabbi Langer could respond, the man went on. "I'll tell you what to do. Come out of the car and stand next to me. You'll see, any Jew that passes by and sees you will stop to help you out. I know — you Jews are humanitarians. And besides that, if you are standing next me, nobody will lay a hand on you!" Somehow, Rabbi Langer believed the man, and he stepped out of the car.
As they stood there, neighborhood teenagers walking by eyed them suspiciously. The man yelled at them in a language they understood to stop staring and get on their way. Within a few minutes, a former yeshiva student who had studied under Rabbi Langer pulled up. "Rebbi, what's the problem?" "See!" the man shouted. "I told you someone would stop. Just wait, we'll be here long enough, they'll be twenty Jewish cars lined up to help you. I know you people. I worked for Elite Caterers, a fellow named Shlomo Katz runs it — now, that's a good man!"
While they were talking, the driver who had taken the boys to a local yeshiva returned to see if he could be of further help. Rabbi Langer assured the African American man that he now had enough help and that the man could leave. Rabbi Langer thanked the man and insisted that he accept some money for his services.
The man refused, and he told Rabbi Langer that in truth, he was not a really mechanic, he merely claimed that he was, in order to be able to protect Rabbi Langer from neighborhood thugs. The man left and moments later, Rabbi Langer and the other two students got the car started. One of the other two drivers followed Rabbi Langer in his car until they were safely out of the neighborhood.
— Shabbos Stories
