“The tenth man”
Bournemouth, חשון תשע"ה
They were nine Yidden and the time to start שחרית arrived.
It didn't look like there will be a מנין
any time soon as it was Thursday, when most of the Shabbos visitors were still
out of town.
But I am getting ahead of myself; let's start from last
year:
London, אלול תשע"ד
The new year was fast approaching so we decided to wish old
Aunty Malka and even older Uncle Meir a לשנה טובה
in person. When we arrived they were
very happy to see us but her health was failing and his nerves frazzled from
caring for his wife. We realised that they need a holiday - urgently. The
earliest possible Shabbos we could arrange a flat in Bournemouth would be פרשת לך לך, well after ראש השנהhowever we surmised that the
mere fact that they were going for a break will help them tidy them over until
then.
We confirmed the booking with the landlord and made the
necessary Shabbos arrangements.
But I am getting ahead of myself - again; let's start from
the beginning:
Meir and Malka were
privileged to live in Eretz Yisroel and to top it off the Rebbe lived in the
same apartment block. With time they became like close family, with Meir
milling with the Gaboim and Malka becoming part of the extended family. When
they decided to leave the holy land they kept up the קשר
for some time but soon this was also a distant memory.
On the morning that this story happened – a good twenty
years later - Meir was looking for a מניןand when he was told at the
Normandie hotel that there isn't one on the premises, but he should be able to
find one down the road, a walk of about five minutes. He followed the
instructions and soon noticed an open door.
Whilst he was approaching the house where the Rebbe - by now a son of
his old neighbour - the Gaboim started to despair as the clock stroke eight and
this meant they will be late. Suddenly
they saw a man in his seventies with a Tallis bag tucked under his arm walking
in and nonchalantly enquiring about a מנין. Short of jumping through the roof they
welcomed him with such joy peppering him with an array of questions in
fast-fire fashion: "Meir! How on earth did you drop in here?!", “how
did you find us?!” and the like.
They were nine Yidden and one more - the time to start שחרית is now.
The Master Planner
arranged it so that old Meir and Malka should come to town Punkt when they were
needed
