A Yid from Elad relates: I travel to yeshivah in Bnei Brak each day, where I serve as a maggid shiur in the afternoons. Usually, I leave home at about 2 p.m., after lunch.
That day, I got on the bus and was already at the final stop in Elad when I suddenly remembered: I forgot to say Al hamichyah! How could this be?! Baruch Hashem, I had eaten a healthy lunch, which included farfel, and I had left the house without a berachah achronah!
At the last minute, I got off the bus and turned back in the direction of home. I was in a big rush, and I ran all the way. To my family’s surprise, I explained that, no, nothing was wrong, but I had forgotten to say a berachah achronah properly, in the place where I’d eaten.
I said the berachah, word for word, and left for the bus stop again. On the way, I was thinking that what happened to me was truly like what happened to Rabba bar bar Chana from the Gemara. He was walking with a group in the desert, and after they stopped to eat, he remembered that he hadn’t said a berachah achronah in place. In order to get the head of the group to agree to go back, he told him that he had left behind a golden dove. So they went back, and a miracle occurred: In the grains of sand in the desert he found a golden dove glittering!
I told myself that the first part of the story was very similar. I left behind a group — on the bus – in order to go back and say a berachah acharonah where I had eaten. Now, what was left was to pick up the golden dove...
Wonder of wonders: That day after shiur a bachur came over to me and gave me an envelope from his father with 250 dollars inside, as a token of gratitude.
I was amazed. It’s rare to receive an envelope from a talmid mid-year, not for Purim or Chanuka, and not even for Tu BiShvat.
This was nothing other than Hakadosh Baruch Hu completing the story and giving me my “golden dove.”
