Led In The Direction You Want To Go
By Menachem Ziegelboim

Rabbi Ben-Tzion Schwartz, head administrator of the Chabad yeshiva in Ramat Aviv, relates:

The Chabad yeshiva in Ramat Aviv (see Beis Moshiach #273-274) is geared towards young men who are searching for meaning in life and want to learn about Judaism and Chassidus. About a year ago, a French boy called Jo came to the yeshiva to learn about Yiddishkeit. One day he told us how he became interested in Judaism.

Jo was in his twenties when he decided to leave France and tour the world. His goals were to learn, to experience things firsthand, and mostly to have adventures. Jo was not raised in a religious home, though it was somewhat traditional. Before leaving home, his mother asked him to take his t’fillin with him and put them on every day. She wanted to ensure that wherever he would be, he wouldn’t forget his Judaism.

Jo agreed and packed his t’fillin. Seeing his willingness to go along with her request, his mother gave him a tallis, too (in the Sephardic tradition, single men wear a tallis), but that he refused. "The t’fillin are enough," he said. "I don’t want to be unduly restricted." Another attempt or two on her part proved useless.

Jo started his tour in Madagascar. From there Jo was planning to visit dozens of other countries. As he promised his mother, he put on his t’fillin each morning and said Shma.

One day Jo came to a tiny, forsaken village where the people lived in huts and walked barefoot. Here and there a donkey or a horse pulling a cart could be seen struggling through the sand. The village seemed utterly removed from the rest of the world. Jo decided to spend the night.

In the morning, he put his t’fillin on as usual and began saying Shma. When he got to the words, "Speak to the Jewish people and say to them, and they shall make tzitzis," he began to think, "I don’t have tzitzis." Then he remembered his mother asking him to take his tallis with him, which he had refused to do. "How can I stand here before G-d and say that I need to wear tzitzis when not only don’t I do so, but I actually refused to take them?"

He felt sad about the opportunity he had lost. He knew he wouldn’t be able to obtain tzitzis in that part of Africa. Each day, when he reached the words, "and they shall make tzitzis," he felt distressed. One day he felt he couldn’t take it any more, and he begged Hashem to help him.

The next day, he walked down the dirt path leading out of the village, with his heavy backpack on his shoulders. He encountered an African village woman, holding bundles in her hands. He glanced at her and something caught his attention. When he took another look he noticed that she was wearing a shawl that looked just like a tallis. Jo approached her to ask to see her shawl. The woman agreed to the tourist’s request and handed him the shawl. He examined it closely and saw that it was indeed a tallis, a woolen tallis with the bracha embroidered in gold letters on a silken strip along the top!

Jo just couldn’t get over it! He asked whether he could buy the shawl, using his hands to explain what he wanted. However, the woman thought he was accusing her of having stolen it from him. Visibly aggravated, the women tried to communicate that she had, in fact, paid for it. After great effort Jo managed to explain to her that he wanted to buy the shawl from her, and even pointed out the Hebrew letters on it. Eventually she agreed to the purchase.

Now that he had miraculously acquired a tallis, Jo was sure to put it on every day followed by his t’fillin.

At the first opportunity he had to speak with his parents, Jo told his mother about what had happened. As you would expect, his mother was astonished and very pleased by the news.

When Jo arrived in India, he met the Chabad shaliach in New Delhi, Rabbi Nachman Nachmanson. Jo became interested in Judaism and got more involved. Rabbi Nachmanson sent him to the new yeshiva in Ramat Aviv.

How did the tallis end up in a little village in Madagascar? Not long before, food parcels and American aid had arrived in the area. Among the packages that American citizens had sent, there was a tallis. Evidently it had been sent – by Divine providence – for the purpose of reaching Jo, the wandering Frenchman.