It was early evening and Rabbi and Mrs. Stein, who lived in New York, were on their way back to Jerusalem, where they were staying, after a nice visit with some of their family in the city named Betar Illit, when Rabbi Stein noticed a lone couple waiting at a bus stop on a cool evening. Since the Stein’s had room in their car, as well as warmth in their hearts, he pulled over and offered to take them to their destination. Upon entering the car, the couple introduced themselves as Rabbi and Mrs. Fried and then expressed their whole hearted thanks, as now they would hopefully be able to catch the last bus going to their home in the Northern (Galil) part of Eretz Israel and pick their children up from the babysitter at the time arranged. Throughout the ride they had a congenial conversation which focused on the Fried’s beautiful (shevah brochas) seven days of wedding celebrations for their oldest daughter which they just finished celebrating in this city of Betar. As they reached the bus stop just in time, the Steins wished them well, said (mazal tov) congratulations again and Rabbi Stein handed Rabbi Fried two hundred shekels to give as a gift to their newlyweds.
About five years later, Sarah and a few friends were on a bus making its way over the hills of the beautiful upper Galalee heading for the city of Tzaft for Shabbos. As Sarah, an (adel baalas teshuvah) a sweet sincere spiritual searcher from the States, looked out at the constantly changing breathtaking scenery, she began to reflect on how her spiritual journey likewise had taken many amazing twists and turns from the halls of secular academia to an English speaking (kiruv) Jewish seminary for beginners in the Holy land.
Little did Sarah know how much the double holiness of Shabbos and Tzaft would add another wonderful turn in her spiritual metamorphosis! Without knowing them previously Sarah’s hosts, the Stein family, who had recently moved to Tzaft from New York, were very impressed by her sincerity and good (medos) attributes, took her aside privately and spoke with her a few minutes about a possible (shidduch) wedding match with a fine young man named Yosef who had a similar background and excellent medos that had graced their Shabbos table a few weeks earlier. After Shabbos since Sarah sounded interested in hearing more the Steins gathered information from both Yosef and Sarah – the numbers of friends, relatives and (Rabbanin) Rabbis – so that they could try to put together the shidduch. Within a week the Steins were given a “green light” for Yosef and Sarah to meet at their home. It wasn’t too long, with some minor turns and twists, before the Stein’s were being congratulated for helping this lovely couple to become engaged. Over the few days a number of people asked the Stein’s how they merited to be the (shadchans) match makers for this amazing shidduch of this beautiful couple who each came to (Yiddishkit) Orthodox Judaism with such great (merias nefesh) efforts and sacrifice. The Stein’s themselves didn’t have a clue as to how to answer this question, until the day before the (la-chaim) engage party, when Rabbi Stein received a phone call from a man named Rabbi Fried who was the one who originally arranged for Yosef to be a guest at the Stein’s for a Shabbos a number of weeks earlier.
After exchanging mazal tovs, Rabbi Fried, who was the one who introduced Rabbi Stein to the then( bacor) bachelor Yosef just a few weeks earlier with the intention of helping him find a shidduch, added the following; “You probably don’t remember when and where we first met, so let me tell you so that you can better understand possibly why it was you merited to be the shadchan for this wonderful shidduk. About five years you not only were kind enough to pick up me and my wife up at a bus stop in Betar but you also added the mitzvah of (hachnasas kallah) helping our daughter – the bride. Therefore perhaps that mitzvah with us and our daughter drew with it this mitzvah of (chason) groom and kallah – as the Chazal teach us:
Mitzvah gorreres mitzvah!!! A good deed draws with it another good deed
May we all be (zoche) merited to fulfill many mitzvoth
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