At 5:00 AM on Erev Shabbos Parshas Ha’azinu, two brothers named Shimon and Yerachmiel found themselves in Newark Airport, trying to get home. Yesterday had been an uplifting Yom Kippur, and now they were looking forward to Sukkos and bein ha’zmanim at home. After checking in their luggage, they went to get their boarding passes. However, the clerk told them that he didn’t see any confirmation of their tickets. Nothing. The supervisor then explained to them the reason — their flights had been booked for the previous day of Yom Kippur.
“Is there any way we can get on this fight?” the brothers asked innocently. The supervisor’s deep and intractable voice was not very pleasing. “Other than the bathrooms, there aren’t any seats available.”
“Are there any other flights to Chicago before Shabbos?” they asked. The supervisor said that there was a 9:00 AM flight, but that it was fully booked as well — no economy, business, or first-class seats available. “Sorry fellows, but there is just so much I can do. You’ll have to lodge here until after your Sabbath and then reschedule your flights.”
Yerachmiel suggested that they reach out to the travel agent, even at that early hour of the morning. However, the travel agent told them that other than the 9:00 flight, there were no other flights they could take that would get them home in time for Shabbos.
At that point, they felt stuck. Where were they to turn? They lived in Chicago but spent the z’man in Edison Yeshiva in New Jersey, which was now closed for bein ha’zmanim. They had no close relatives nearby, but were confident that, as part of Klal Yisroel, someone would be there for them if they needed a place for Shabbos. But what about their luggage? They’d already checked it in, and it was on its way to Chicago without them. What should they do?
At that point, ninth-grade Yerachmiel turned to his older brother, the bachur in Beis Midrash, and reminded him of the words that his rebbi had drilled into him: “Kol ha’mekabel alav ohl Torah maavirin mimenu ohl malchus v’ohl derech eretz — One who accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah has the yokes of government and livelihood lifted from upon him” (Avos 3:5). Standing there amidst their turmoil, they agreed between themselves that over Shabbos, wherever they were, they’d both learn a 30-minute retzifus seder as a zechus that Hashem arranges for them a safe flight before Shabbos.
It didn’t take more than 30 minutes from their decision before the clerk called their names to the desk. “We just got two cancelations on the 7:00 flight,” they were told. “They’re yours if you want them.”
The two brothers thus boarded the plane happily — not just for the fact that they would be spending Shabbos in the comfort of their home, but more so because Hashem showed his exceptional hashgachah after they’d accepted upon themselves that small kabbalah. It wasn’t even meant to last indefinitely but was simply a one-time commitment, and yet they went flying with that zechus and saw exceptional siyata d’Shmaya.
