Rav Dovid Ashear wrote a great story. A woman, we’ll call her Mrs. Mandel, a widow, whose daughter was undergoing treatment in the Tel HaShomer Hospital, requested Shabbos accommodations in the Rachashei Lev Chesed apartment. When she called with her request, she added, “I know that I will cry a lot, and I would really prefer to be alone.”
The director of Rachashei Lev, Rav Reuven Gesheid, usually gets many calls each week from several people, and tries to accommodate the men at one location and the women in the other multibedroom apartment. He told her that he could not commit to that request, but he said he will see what he can do.
Half an hour later, a girl called and said, “My relative is in the hospital and asked me to stay with her over Shabbos. Could I possibly sleep in the apartment near the hospital?”
Rav Gesheid did not think too long before he agreed. After all, how could he turn away this girl just because the other guest wanted privacy? He called Mrs. Mandel and informed her of the turn of events. He said to her, “We both have an obligation to help this girl. She is trying to do a Mitzvah. Who are we to stop her?” Mrs. Mandel was not very happy with the decision, but she realized that she had no choice.
A few weeks later, she called Rav Gesheid again. This time, she was elated and said, “My son just got engaged! Thank you, Rabbi Gesheid! Thank you!”
Rav Gesheid was cautious and replied with a “Mazel Tov,” and then he asked, “but why are you thanking me? I wasn’t involved in the Shidduch.”
Mrs. Mandel exclaimed, “You were the Shadchan! The girl you allowed to share the Shabbos apartment with me was the sweetest girl I ever met. Every time I wept, she came over and comforted me. She spoke so softly and with such wisdom. Right away, I wanted her for my son, and Boruch Hashem, it happened!
“I thought I would be better off having my privacy and sleeping alone. But what I thought was going to be a discomfort and inconvenient, was exactly the way Hashem sent the longawaited Shidduch for my son!”
Reprinted from the Parshas Vayikra email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefilah.
