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About 30 years ago, Rabbi Vorst was starting his job as the Chabad representative in Holland. Right before Passover, Rabbi Vorst got a phone call from the Lubavitch Headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. Rabbi Hadokov, who was the Rebbe's personal secretary, told Rabbi Vorst that the Rebbe wants him to go to a small town and give shmura matza (handmade matza) to the Jew that lived in the town. Rabbi Vorst agreed to the task and asked Rabbi Hadokov for the Jew's name. Rabbi Hadokov replied by saying that the Rebbe didn't tell him the Jew's name. But Rabbi Hadokov informed him that once he goes to the town he will find the Jew. Rabbi Vorst explained that the town was very far away and he was busy preparing for the upcoming Passover Seder and he didn't even believe that there were any Jews in that town. But Rabbi Hadokov told him that he must go.

So the next morning Rabbi Vorst set out on his trip to this little town, which took serveral hours to get there. Once he got there, Rabbi Vorst spent additional hours looking for the Jew but was unable to find any Jew there. As Rabbi Vorst was getting ready to leave and give up, he stopped at the local gas station to get petrol for his return trip. The gas station attendent asked what brought Rabbi Vorst to this town, which he replied with his story. The gas station attendent told Rabbi Vorst that he believes that a Jew works in the local butcher shop.

So Rabbi Vorst figured that he has nothing to lose and he set off to the local butcher shop. As soon as Rabbi Vorst entered the butcher shop, the man working behind the counter took one look at Rabbi Vorst and fainted.

When the man recovered he told the Rabbi his story. The man and his mother were the only Holocaust survivors from his family and that they moved to this little town in Holland to get away from further persecution. The man went on to say that no matter what his mother would tell, she always would say to him that he must remain loyal to his faith and not to forget that he was a Jew. Many years went on with the man living in this small town with his mother and he passed away a few years before this story takes place. The kept telling that he will always his mother's words about remaining loyal to his faith. The man also said that the local priest would come in the butcher shop once in a while, but lately he was coming in more and more and he was talking to the man about converting. At first the man said that it was totally out of the question, but as time went on and the priest would keep coming back into the store and telling the man that G-D had abandoned and he must convert for him to find G-D again. So the man finally agreed to convert, although he didn't really want too. He told the priest that he should give him three days to think it over.

The man kept praying to G-D during those three days to ask G-D for a sign that he should remain Jewish, however he got no sign from G-D. On the third day with just hours away to his deadline, the man prayed even more and more asking G-D for more signs. Until finally the deadline was just an hour away, 50 minutes left, 40 minutes left, 30 minutes left, 20 minutes left. At 5:45 PM the man got ready to close up the store (the store closed at 6:00 PM and the deadline was 6:00 PM). At 5:55 PM, just five minutes away from the deadline, Rabbi Vorst walked into the door with matza in his hand. Rabbi Vorst was amazed at the story and he invited the man back to his seder that he was having, the man agreed and attended the seder.

Twenty five years later, Rabbi Vorst was in Israel at the wedding of a family member and he was praying at the Western Wall, when a man ran up to him and ask the Rabbi if he remembers him. It turns out that the man was the sole Jew from that little Holland town. The man went on to tell the Rabbi that he moved to Israel, got married, and now has a famiy. The man told the Rabbi that he owns everything to Rabbi Vorst.

[Adapted by Yrachmiel Tilles from the rendition of Rabbi Herschel Finman in his weekly e-mail "The Torah e-Parsha"]

posted by Shlomo Lieb Goldman | 1:38 PM
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