Rav Elazar Grossman shlit”a relates:
My son Reb Moshe sheyichyeh traveled to Ukraine with a group of yungeleit, to daven at kivrei tzaddikim. They davened and pleaded for personal and communal yeshuos. Before Shabbos, he left the group. He and another avreich were planning to return home and spend Shabbos in Eretz Yisrael. They hired a taxi driver to take them to the airport in Kiev, and they were on their way.
At one point their taxi got stuck in a huge traffic jam that spanned dozens of kilometers. Cars and vehicles snaked their way at a snail’s pace. Half an hour passed, then another half-hour, and the taxi had barely moved.
Finally, the traffic cleared up. The driver stepped on the gas and drove Reb Moshe and his friend to the airport as quickly as possible. They hurried to the departure gate, but they were stopped by the official in charge. “You can’t get on the plane now. The flight is already closed.”
The two Jews stood there, confused. Just a moment earlier they were planning to be in Eretz Yisrael with their families for Shabbos. What a disappointment! They looked around, asking themselves, “Shabbos in Kiev? How do you do that?!” They had no idea. Where would they get challah and wine? What would they eat? Where would they sleep?
They had no clue, no ideas. They stood there, waiting for yeshuas Hashem.
Then a chassidishe avreich saw them. He asked what happened and heard that they were Jews from Eretz Yisrael. “I’m traveling to America,” he told them, “but I hate to think that you’ll be spending a dismal Shabbos here. I have a floral kaftan with me. Take it, so at least you’ll have Shabbos clothing to wear.” He gave them the kaftan and left them to catch his flight to America.
Now they had a kaftan, and they agreed that on Shabbos each of them would wear it for a few hours before giving it to the other.
A short while later another Jew approached them. He was Rav Hillel Cohen shlit”a, a well-known askan who does much for the Jews of Kiev. He heard about their missed flight and told them, “This is truly hashgachah pratis! This Shabbos I’m making a bar mitzvah for my son, iy”H. I invited my extended family and rented rooms in a hotel. Everyone showed up except for one family. So I have an extra room, and it’s just waiting for you! Come with me, and I’ll show you where you can stay for Shabbos. Of course, regarding food you have nothing to worry about; you’ll be my guests along with all the bar mitzvah guests.”
This was above and beyond anything they might have expected.
The two were escorted honorably to the hotel, where they were greeted pleasantly. They were taken into a comfortable, fully-equipped room, and it seemed that everything had worked out.
Reb Moshe called me on Erev Shabbos and told me about everything that had happened until then and said, “Everything Hashem does is for the best. We have everything we need here. There’s only one thing that’s bothering me. I don’t have my shtreimel. How can I go into Shabbos with a weekday hat on my head? Even when Tisha B’Av falls on Shabbos we wear a shtreimel!”
My son’s pain touched my heart, and I recalled a relative, Rav Binyamin Gutfarb shlit”a, who is the principal of the Talmud Torah in Kiev and recently made Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael, where he serves as a respected mechaneich. I called him and told him the story, and my son’s problem.
“He’s in the Jewish hotel in Kiev?!” Rav Binyamin asked.
“Yes,” I responded.
“Tell your son to look out the window. He’ll see an old Volvo. He should go down, open the trunk, and take out the Shabbos kaftan and shtreimel that he’ll find there.”
“Are you talking to me?” I asked, astounded.
“Yes, yes, tell your son.”
I called my son and told him, “Are you standing by the window?”
“Yes.”
“Look down at the parking lot. Do you see an old Volvo?”
“Yes.”
“Go down there, open the trunk, and you’ll find a shtreimel and kaftan.”
Reb Moshe is a wonderful son, who respects his parents and does what I tell him to do. Without understanding how I could possibly know what he saw outside the window of the hotel in Kiev, he went down to the old car, opened the trunk, and found exactly what he needed. Back in his room, he called me, all excited. “Tatte, it’s true! I’m now holding a shtreimel fit for a chassan, along with a distinguished-looking floral kaftan! On Shabbos night I’ll wear a tallis and my friend will wear the shtreimel, and in the morning he’ll wear a tallis! That way we’ll both have a shtreimel for Shabbos!”
I could hear the joy spanning continents and coming all the way to Yerushalayim.
I asked Rav Gutfarb, “Perhaps you can explain to me what’s going on?!”
And he answered, “Ever since I left Kiev, I’ve been going back there from time to time. So as not to have to carry too much each time I come, I purchased a shtreimel and kaftan to wear for the Shabbasos that I’m there, and I keep them in the car that I use when I’m in Kiev. The last time I traveled there, there was a problem with the car’s battery, and since I didn’t have the time to take care of it, I asked a friend to call a mechanic. I left the car unlocked so the mechanic would be able to fix the car. That’s how it turned out that when your son came the car was unlocked, and he was able to take my Shabbos clothing.”
It’s incredible how Hakadosh Baruch Hu orchestrated that, even if it was decreed that he not make it home for Shabbos, everything was arranged, down to the last details, so that His two children from Eretz Yisrael would be able to keep Shabbos kodesh properly.
