At 9:05 a.m. my mother-in-law called me. “Do me a favor and go over to the shver. Tell him he has an appointment at the Interior Ministry at 9:20. He should take a taxi right away to the office in Har Chomah.”
My father-in-law was near a shul at the time, in a place where there is no phone service, which is why my mother-in-law was trying to reach him through me. I understood the urgency of the matter. My father-in-law travels every year before Purim to the United States, where he is mezakeh the rabbim in the mitzvah of tzedakah. This year he had to renew his passport, and due to all sorts of hurdles, the matter had been delayed until now. The appointment at Misrad Hapnim was truly urgent, and I was sure my father-in-law would hurry to do as his wife had suggested.
However, the moment I told him about it, he said, “What? An appointment at 9:20? But I haven’t davened yet. First I’ll daven, and afterwards we’ll see what to do. Please tell Ima that I cannot go to Har Chomah right now.”
I felt a bit strange about my job of passing the messages between them, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu helped, and the minute I left the building I got an incoming call from my mother-in-law. “Tell the shver that they rescheduled the appointment for 10:30.”
As we say, one doesn’t lose out from being makpid on davening.
