Soul Stories - Episode #3 - The Master Plan

this is soul stories where we tell real life stories that yeah touch your soul i'm rabbi lando thank you for joining us welcome to episode three it was at the height of the cold war that rabbi david goldwasser the prolific author an amazing torah personality was given a unique and very dangerous opportunity to travel to the former soviet union in disguise incognito as a simple tourist but really to make contact with the underground the jewish underground that was learning and teaching torah and growing and becoming closer to hashem even under the noses of the nkvd the russian secret police and rabbi goldwasser packed all his stuff fully aware of the great danger of being exposed and he put in his suitcase all the regular things that he would put in one would put in their suitcase touristy items baseball caps and sunglasses and sweatshirts and those type of things but there was also another compartment in his suitcase with a duffel bag and in that duffel bag were many items that were unattainable in the former soviet union kiddish cups bisom holders chala covers all these things that we take for granted but were just impossible to access in the soviet union and he took those with with the hope that he'd be able to give them out to distribute them so that people could live a more functional jewish life and he arrived and he made contact with this incredible young group of men and women that all they wanted to do was learn tyranga closer to hashem and it was really a remarkable trip and he he writes how he sat down with them and he began to teach them tire and he knew he had to be back in his hotel by 11 o'clock and when he got up to leave the one gentleman a fellow by the name of sasha puts his hand on his head and he says rabbi just five more minutes of tire please like a person who was thirsting for water they were thirsting for devarashem for the word of hashem it was really an incredible experience and thus he taught them and they were inspired and it was really remarkable under great danger with their curtains drawn and music playing in the background to block out anything these people learned and they learned because they wanted to and because they were thirsting for tyra the day before he left they approached him and said listen you've done so much for us it's been so meaningful we'd like to make a small goodbye party udas preda before you travel out of our lives and back to the united states to the world of the free and he said okay of course i'm going to come he was very touched by it and right before he left his hotel to go to this goodbye party he said you know what this guy sasha has been so instrumental in putting this together and he you could see his soul is on fire i'd like to give him a little gift and he reached into the duffel bag to see what was left of his son him a fragrance box that wasn't the right thing of kenishka and then he saw a very simple chala cover it was designed it was white you know like white velvet and it had on it two lines of silver and a blue blue or silver and a star of david a mug and dub it in the middle similar to an israeli flag and was designed to be a challah cover and he said you know maybe this is the right thing for this fellow i don't know just seems like this might be the right thing for him and he took the challah cover and he put in a little bag and he put it inside of his pocket and he said listen when i have a quiet moment i'll pull him aside into the kitchen and you know i'll give it to him and he arrives and there were even more people than in the past and on the table they had you know each person had brought their precious thing there was little tiny squares of cake which seems were a great treat there and there was some matzah left over from pesach which was their most precious item and a little bit of kosher wine and they'd real everyone had really taken the most precious things that they had to make this goodbye party meaningful to show rabbi goldwater how much they appreciated what he had done for them and it was beautiful it seems like they sang some songs and he shared some torah and the eyes were shining and the atmosphere in the room was beautiful at a quiet moment he took sasha into the kitchen and he said to him sasha you know you you were so amazing and you are so amazing and look what you're doing for i just wanted to let you know how much i appreciate you here and i brought you a small gift and he takes out the bag and he gives him the challah cover and sasha looks at the challah cover and he blanches tears begin to stream down his face wordlessly and silently he takes rabbi david goldwater by the hand and he leads him through the dining room into a little tiny hallway and in the hallway there's a there's a bookshelf and he shows him on the top of the bookshelf he takes out a book and he opens up the book and he pulls out of the book something so mind-boggling and something so incredible it was a simple white large paper napkin that he had drawn upon himself there was a line of silver blue on top a line a silver blue on the bottom and a star of david in the middle it had been his own improvised homemade chala cover and it was exactly the same chala cover that rabbi david goldwasser had brought all the way from the united states they hugged one another remarkable in awe of the fact that akash barco had given them such an incredible message that he was running the world what are the chances that those two chala covers would be exactly the same by the way sasha gave this paper napkin chala cover to rabbi goldwasser and he still has it it's a treasure it's something very precious in hashem's eyes but what comes out of the story is the most remarkable thing that two people two strangers one on one side of the world one on the other side of the world gives a gift to another and it's exactly what he needed and exactly what he was using you can't make this stuff up there's only one way for a story like this to happen and that is if you believe that there is a director who is directing every little aspect of our lives which leads us into an amazing and incredible story personal story that happened to me a bunch of years ago it's got a bunch of moving parts so pay attention because it all comes together in the most phenomenal and remarkable way so there was a fellow in our community that was unfortunately quite ill and his family asked me if i could young man actually and asked me if i can go and visit him at st peter's university hospital now i don't usually go to that hospital there's a different hospital nearby where most of the people that i visit usually are but okay the fellow was there i'm gonna go there now let me just share something personal in most hospitals if you're a rabbi if you're clergy you don't play parking i know the other hospital whenever i go there i give them my parking ticket they validate it and i don't have to pay parking in st peters hospital i'd never done that before so i figured you know what i'm going to try to find a place to park and then i'll get my ticket validated but when i pulled into the parking lot i stopped the attendant and i said i just want to clarify something do you guys validate parking for clergy and he says to me what's your name i said my name is rabbi lando he said let me check the list and he looks at the list i'm not on the list he goes if you're not on this list you pay parking like every other person i'm like list well how do i get onto a list and he says listen you have to go as a catholic hospital you have to go to the rectory on the top floor where the nuns are and if they approve that you're a true clergy a genuine clergy they can put your name on the list and if they put your name on the list you won't have to pay parking okay i said i made a mental note i'll visit the patient and i'll go to the directory and then i'll get myself on the list and if i get myself on the list i'll never have to pay parking there okay i go and i visit this patient and then i take the elevator all the way to the top floor and i come into the rectory and there's a nun sitting behind the desk she's got one of those long not sure what they're called tickles and she looks at me she goes how can i help you i said hi i'm rabbi landau she goes where are you from who you work for i said i just wanted to get my name on the list and she goes oh it'd be my pleasure you work in the neighborhood you're coming to visit people let me put you on the list by the way she says rabbi maybe it's providential that you're here today like why is it providential she goes our jewish chaplain just quit two weeks ago and we have many names on the list of jewish patients that have asked for a chaplain can you go visit them i said listen i visited one fellow and i really don't have much time i certainly can't visit all of them but you know what i'll visit one of them who would you like me to visit and she scans the list and she goes oh i got it rose you should visit rose i'm like whose row she goes rose volunteered in this hospital for many many many years and now she's a very old woman and she's in the hospital she's been asking for a rabbi for three consecutive days we haven't been able to send her anyone would you be able to go visit her i feel like we owe it to her and it would mean so much to her i said yes but on one condition i needed to get me an attendant that can take me there quickly i don't want to have to find my way through the labyrinth of the halls of the hospital she goes no problem and very soon after after an aide came and took me to the to this woman's room and i come into the room it's there's two patients in the room and she's the far patient and she's behind the curtain and i call out rose and she goes who's there i said can i can i come in i'm run by land and she goes rabbi what took you so long three days i'm asking for you so i'm sorry rose i just came here today i didn't know i'm not the chaplain she goes okay so rose how are you what's doing she goes i'm okay i'm 95 years old and i broke my hip three days ago and i desperately need hip replacement she says the problem is i'm old so i keep getting to the bottom of the list in the operating theater and the surgery that i so desperately need i keep getting pushed to the end of the list so i'm just not having the surgery that i need and more than that she says rabbi do you know that i haven't eaten anything in three days she says if this hip ain't going to kill me starvation will i'm like well haven't you eaten this because they always want to have me prepped in case i have to go into the hospital before you have a surgery so so they're prepping me and and maybe i'll go and maybe i won't but and i went out into the hall to try to find a doctor or someone that i recognize who i did and i try to find someone whatever if we could maybe possibly do something for rose okay um while i'm talking to rose all of a sudden a doctor comes in and it's a doctor who i recognize i teach his son in high school and he kind of looks at me doesn't even say hello and he comes over to he says to rose she goes yes he goes my name is dr so-and-so and i'm a cardiologist and i'm here to clear you for surgery you're open that there's an operating theater that's open they'd like to take you right to surgery but i have to make sure that your heart is strong enough so is it okay if i examine you he examines certainly he says rose you have the heart of a 20 year old i'm clearing you no problem you could go into surgery she looks at me she goes rabbit i'm going into surgery i said that's amazing news rose would you like to say some prayers together and she says of course and we said something to hill him and i said i'm sure for her and i sat by her bedside just for a few minutes and she was very pensive and she looks at me and she says to me listen rabbi i'm in god's hands but god's been kind to me i have children i have grandchildren i even have great grandchildren and i'm at peace rabbi you can go god willing the surgery will go well i really appreciate you coming here and you praying here god bless you and i left and that was the end of the story or so i thought about two days later i'm in school and i'm walking down the front steps of the school and a woman stops me and says hi rabbi lando and i'm like oh hi it was the wife of the cardiologist the mother of my student and she says so sad rabbi right i'm like what are you talking about what's so sad she goes oh rose that woman she passed away in surgery like what she says my husband said you were there and he apologizes profusely he was so busy was under so much pressure but he cleared her first surgery later we heard that sadly she passed away in surgery i said i'm so sorry to hear that well thank you for sharing we should only share good news with one another but the story is not over yet because you see that evening i go to david milch of the afternoon services in the young israel of east brunswick and i come in there a little bit early as i like to do and there's three men sitting at a table and one of them i think has his shirt torn he's a mourner the sign of mourning and i went over to them and i said oh i don't recognize you guys but i noticed clearly that you must be in mourning my condolences and one of the fellas says yeah my mom passed away was an elderly fellow and she was she was quite old and she's 95 years old and she just didn't make it she died in surgery and i'm like rose and the guy takes a step back he goes how do you know yeah rose i said rose he says he starts crying and he goes we feel so terrible we got a call from the hospital that our mom was going to surgery and we went rushing over to the hospital by the time we got there she was already taken into surgery and we never had a chance to say goodbye to her she must have been so flustered she nobody around her and she's going in for this major surgery we feel so bad we were by her bedside for literally the last three days and we just took a small break and then she goes and then she disappears and we're never going to see her again this is so terrible he's crying he says we feel so guilty we should have been there for no one should have left her at least she could have gotten into surgery you know peacefully with her children around her i said gentlemen your mother went into surgery very much at peace how do you know they said to me and i shared with them the story and i shared her parting words and she said rabbi landau you can go i'm at peace god has been really kind to me he's given me children and grandchildren and even great grandchildren you have nothing to worry about no guilt going forward your mother was okay and i know that because i was the last person that spoke to her before she went into surgery the fellow began a new bout of fresh tears but this way these were tears of relief he could finally live with himself and then we began the afternoon services and we talked to the director the one that had arranged that i should go to the rectory to get a free parking pass and visit the one patient that the hospital knew and that i should come there while the cardiologist was there the cardiologist should come while i was there so that i could find out later that she passed away so that i could hear her final words that she was at peace with herself so i could share with her children who could live down the fact that they weren't there at their mother's bedside and that she was okay what are the chances of such a story happening one in a million one in a hundred million but when there's a director there's a master choreographer he puts everyone exactly where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be and he makes sure that the world is an incredible place and i was very fortunate to be a little tiny cog in a massive enterprise by the director himself which leads us to our final short story which just happened to me this past sunday crazy story i know people say stories everything happens to you what am i supposed to do somehow i'm fortunate that the director uses me as a pawn sometimes well here's the story i went to the grocery store in lakewood with my little three-year-old son and we come to the freezer section we wanted to buy some frozen pizza and i'm talking to my three-year-old and i'm like this brand we're not gonna buy because we have such a great experience with this brand pizza wasn't great last time when we bought it but maybe we'll take this and all of a sudden the woman behind me says what's wrong with that brat i spit around like i didn't even know what him was was there and i certainly didn't realize that anyone could hear what i said to my son and she says i said no nothing it's not important nothing's wrong it's great it's wonderful she goes no no i need to know i'm the owner of that pizza company that frozen pizza company said if you want to know the truth the crust wasn't great the cheese wasn't something was wrong with the pie that we had she says why did you call us up and tell us we like to know what our customers what their reviews are like i said don't worry about it it's just a pie pizza she reaches into the freezer case and she takes out a pie pizza and she goes here this is for you and then she takes out another pizza product that they manufacture once goes this is for you don't pay for it on my way out she was just shopping in the store like everybody else on my way out i'll settle your bill and you won't have to pay for it i want to make it right and if anything ever happens and you're not satisfied with our product just reach out and we'll make it good and i took those two boxes of pizza and paid for all my other items and she paid for those two items and i went home and i shared this story with my wife and my children and my kids like that's amazing you got two a full pie pizza for free plus another pizza product that's amazing and i looked at my children and i said that's amazing i want you to think about something for a moment what are the chances that while i'm at the freezer case of one of many many grocery stores in the area and i am whispering to my son about this pie pizza the owner should be there what are the chances of that happening who knows one in tens of millions yet somehow in the almighty's playbook on rosh hashanah when he was deciding how much i should have to spend for the groceries for my family he didn't feel that i should have to pay for that pie pizza as well as that pizza product and in that very same book when he was figuring out the calculations and tabulations of what the owner of this frozen pizza company should spend and receive that year he also somehow put into there that this pie a pizza that was not so good should be able to be made right and that she can make amends and she did and she did it in a real way what are the chances of such a thing happening humanly almost none but when there's a director there's somebody that's putting all the pieces together there's somebody who is choreographing according to the choreographer and creating this incredible choreography where everything comes together two random people could be standing next to one another in a grocery store and she can make the right for me she could have the opportunity to make a right something that perhaps should have been made right unbelievable we all have a choice we could either believe in the director or we could look at a directorless world but it's so much more complicated that way till the next episode if you enjoyed this podcast please share it with your family and friends if you loved it why not sponsor an episode contact sponsor kalatorakula.com that sponsor at k o l h a t o r a h k u l a h until next time