the King is in the train station!
The most amazing things happen every day, yet, more often than not we (I) pass them off for 'regular' events.
Last week, on my way back from uni, I took a look at the darkening sky and realised, that there was only a few minutes left to daven Mincha (truth is, it was probably too late already!).
I was at Richmond Station platform 2, and my Sandrigham bound train was leaving in 4 minutes. Now, I am a proud Jew, but i'll have to admit, I felt a bit self-concious davening mincha in a jam-packed-peak hour tain station. All of a sudden I had a flash-back of something i saw in Israel: one late afternoon I saw a muslim man lay down a flattened cardboard box and pray to Allah - in front of everyone. So I said to my self (back at the train station) "if a muslim guy is not self-concious to pray in front of eveyone, there is no way that i am going to be!"
So I found a nice (busy) spot and began ashrai yoshvay veysechoh...As I took my three steps back, I made a resolution in my heart, that even if I heard the train coming to the platform (by now i only had 3 minutes), I would not rush to daven Mincha, I would rather miss the train than speed up my davenn'...
Then it happened, my Mincha delayed the train! Just when I was winding up my shmona esrai , An anouncment over the speakers boomed: "your attention passengers, we would like to advise you, that the 6:15 train has been delayed 5 minutes, we sincerly applogise for this inconvience."
I smiled to myself. I was suprised to hear that the train was delayed, i practicaly expected it! You see once i decided that no matter what I would finish my Mincha regardless- HaShem decided He'd let me do both, finish Mincha and catch my train home!
I belive that HaShem wanted to show me that no matter what, nothing in the whole world can ever intefere with a Jew who is occupied in performing a mitzvah.
The reality we don't always see, is that the whole world revolves around the Jewish people. Yes, its hard to explain to people (especially left wing liberal Jews) but, thats what 'the chosen people' means. G-d decided, for whatever reason, that we are the tachlis hakavanah (ultimate intention) of creation.
Last week, on my way back from uni, I took a look at the darkening sky and realised, that there was only a few minutes left to daven Mincha (truth is, it was probably too late already!).
I was at Richmond Station platform 2, and my Sandrigham bound train was leaving in 4 minutes. Now, I am a proud Jew, but i'll have to admit, I felt a bit self-concious davening mincha in a jam-packed-peak hour tain station. All of a sudden I had a flash-back of something i saw in Israel: one late afternoon I saw a muslim man lay down a flattened cardboard box and pray to Allah - in front of everyone. So I said to my self (back at the train station) "if a muslim guy is not self-concious to pray in front of eveyone, there is no way that i am going to be!"
So I found a nice (busy) spot and began ashrai yoshvay veysechoh...As I took my three steps back, I made a resolution in my heart, that even if I heard the train coming to the platform (by now i only had 3 minutes), I would not rush to daven Mincha, I would rather miss the train than speed up my davenn'...
Then it happened, my Mincha delayed the train! Just when I was winding up my shmona esrai , An anouncment over the speakers boomed: "your attention passengers, we would like to advise you, that the 6:15 train has been delayed 5 minutes, we sincerly applogise for this inconvience."
I smiled to myself. I was suprised to hear that the train was delayed, i practicaly expected it! You see once i decided that no matter what I would finish my Mincha regardless- HaShem decided He'd let me do both, finish Mincha and catch my train home!
I belive that HaShem wanted to show me that no matter what, nothing in the whole world can ever intefere with a Jew who is occupied in performing a mitzvah.
The reality we don't always see, is that the whole world revolves around the Jewish people. Yes, its hard to explain to people (especially left wing liberal Jews) but, thats what 'the chosen people' means. G-d decided, for whatever reason, that we are the tachlis hakavanah (ultimate intention) of creation.
posted by subjewd @ 8:33 pm
6 Comments:
At 4:29 pm,
Dovid said…
Great story man!
At 6:21 am,
Anonymous said…
moish, thanks for a beautiful story,
reminds me,
was just at the bus stop in modiin on my way back from the moshav,
and some israeli bocher asked my friend where she was from and when she said "drom africa" he asked "drom africa, what's there?"
and she got offended, and I was thinking, gosh, these isralies think that the whole world revolves around them, and that there's nothing else in the rest of the world. and then i realised - hey!
that's not just the guy being self centred but it's the truth!
At 8:27 am,
Ittay said…
Lovely story. Had the train come on time, you could have got on and had a whole minyan at balaclava station.
At 6:17 pm,
Nemo said…
Since we're sharing davening stories....
One time I was flying on Turkish Airlines to Israel. In the waiting lounge this quite-obvious jewish looking kid in a baseball cap comes up to me, in my black fedora. He explains that he just bought himself this cap because he and his parents were a little paranoid about him going Turkey. He asks me how I plan to daven when we get to Turkey in an "Arab country". I kinda just said that there's nothing to worry about.
I'm not usually too frum about davening standing etc., especcialy on an airplane. But, before boarding the Istanbul flight, I decided that I'm gonna daven mincha right there in the airport, in front of all the Turks, and show this kid how it's done.
Halfway through Shmoneh Esreh, he summons up the courage and pulls up right next to me, davening the words, but reading out of a novel!
At 1:22 pm,
subjewd said…
Great story nemdo you remember what the novel was?
At 5:31 pm,
Anonymous said…
Cute story, Nemdo, but Turkey is not an Arabic country. It's a Muslim country and they speak Turkish. Aside from the fact that they don't belong (yet) to the EU, Turkey has also often been considered a part of Europe.
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