A boy from Yeshivas Ponovezh in Bnei Brak became engaged to a girl from Tel Aviv, and as was customary, he spent Shabbos at his kallah’s home. On Shabbos morning he went to shul with her father, and something terrible occurred there, something he later found difficult to recount with composure.
After davening, one of the men approached the kallah’s father and said, “This is your chosson? Have you seen how he davens—like an am ha’aretz. It’s hard to believe a Yid could daven like that.”
This was said about a serious learner, a ben Torah with yiras shomayim, and the boy could not understand what he had done to provoke such words, especially spoken in front of his mechutan. He was deeply humiliated, and naturally the kallah’s father began questioning whether his daughter had made the right shidduch, with the rest of Shabbos passing in an atmosphere of gloom and despondency.
After Shabbos, a young man who learned in the yeshivah heard what had happened and went to R’ Dovid Frankel to relate the incident. Rabbi Frankel said, “Only one person in the world can save this bochur from what may happen, and that is R’ Shach—go to him and tell him everything.”
The young man followed his advice and went to R’ Shach, who asked, “Do you know the kallah’s address in Tel Aviv? We are going there right now.”
When the family opened the door and saw who stood at the threshold, they were stunned—it was R’ Shach, the Gadol HaDor himself. The father trembled as he greeted him and asked what brought him such a privilege. R’ Shach replied that he happened to be in Tel Aviv, heard that they lived there, and felt he could not pass by without telling them what a gem they had merited in their chosson, praising him for his brilliance in learning, in davening, in yiras shomayim, and in middos.
In an instant, all the father’s anxiety and doubts about his future son-in-law vanished, replaced by tremendous relief. Today the couple has several grandchildren, and to this day the son-in-law has no idea how R’ Shach saved his shidduch. (Excerpted from the book – “Meant To Be”)
Reprinted from the Parshas Beshalach 5786 email of The Weekly Vort.
