R’ Hillel Vitkind Zatzal
R’ Hillel Vitkind Zatzal had been a guest by a Rav in Florida (probably to raise money for his Yeshiva). After the visit, the Rav took him for a ride to the airport. Unfortunately, there was bumper to bumper traffic. The Rav tried to dissuade R’ Hillel from continuing, since it was impossible to catch the plane.
The Rav told him that he would get him a new ticket for the next day’s flight. R’ Hillel Zatzal quietly told him not to worry, and to keep driving, despite the Matzav. Sure enough, they arrived 20 minutes late. However, the plane hadn’t left, since the door of the plane was jammed, and they couldn’t open it. As soon as R’ Hillel came, they “suddenly” had the door fixed, and R’ Hillel got on the plane!
Impossible? Not in Novardok
When R' Hillel Vitkind started his Yeshiva in Tel Aviv (and he chose Davka Tel Aviv, where there were not yet any Yeshivos), he needed to get good Bachurim (which could not be expected to come from the boys on the streets of Tel Aviv; they wouldn’t consider learning in Yeshiva, which had no “Tachlis”; i.e., income), so he decided to import them from Novardok in Poland. But at the time, Palestine was under the British mandate, and in order to immigrate you needed a certificate, and certificates were given out in limited supply since there was a yearly quota, and all the certificates had already been given out (to the non-religious kibbutzniks). How would they get any more?
So R' Hillel decided to go to the source; England. He traveled himself, and met personally with the minister in charge, James McDonald, a famous antisemite, who himself authored the infamous “white book”, which contained the original idea for curtailing the immigration to Palestine through quotas. As would be expected, R' Hillel was given a cold welcome, but he was not Nis'pael. He sat with the minister for an hour explaining the need for the certificates, speaking in Yiddish! He demanded: “Only Bolsheviks need to come to Eretz Yisroel??” They say that the minister understood the gist of what R' Hillel was saying, despite the language barrier... Miracle of miracles, R' Hillel walked out of that meeting with 50 certificates!!!!!! These 50 Talmidim were the basis of Yeshivas Bais Yosef in Tel Aviv. From then on, R' Hillel would go every year to London to get certificates for the Bachurim from Poland and Lita.
