Reply To: YWN Coffee Room Nightly D’Var Torah

************Jax’s Tuesday D’Var Torah – Parshas Netzavim************

“And you will return unto Hashem your G-d…” (Deut. 30:2) Rosh Hashanah approaching makes us think of returning to Hashem. Sometimes this can happen in the most unusual and unexpected ways, as the following amazing story points out:

Michael was held up at knife point in a New England Public High School. His parents wasted no time enrolling him in the local catholic high school. One day he was assigned a book report on a great historical personality. After looking through the library he came across the name Maimonides, the great Jewish leader and thinker. The next week, Father McKenzie called him into his office, “Michael you’re the first student I’ve ever had who did a book report on a Jew. Why did you select Maimonides?”

Because I’m a Jew,” the boy answered quietly.

“You’re Jewish?” sputtered the astonished priest, “Then what are you doing in a catholic school?” Michael explained that it was not for religious reasons that his parents enrolled him. Father McKenzie lapsed into a long silence. Finally he wrote something on a piece of paper, handed it to the lad and said, “Michael, let me give you some advice. If you ever decide to learn about your religion, visit Jerusalem and look up this address.”

That conversation awakened Michael to the realization that his Judaism, though he knew next to nothing about it, was extremely important to his life. At his high school graduation, he asked his parents for a graduation gift for which they were not prepared – a trip to Israel. Upon arriving in Israel, Michael withdrew a scrap of paper from his pocket. He located the Yeshiva, whose name and address were written on that paper – the paper Father McKenzie gave him years ago. He had never been in a Yeshiva before. He was about to enter a new wonderful world.

Four years later Michael visited Father McKenzie, not as a catholic school student, but as a Yeshivah bachur. He thanked the priest and asked how it was that he came to give him that address. Father McKenzie explained, “When I was studying for the priesthood, I traveled to Jerusalem to study the sites and shrines of my people. I was curious to see the Wailing Wall which you Jews hold so dear. While there, a Rabbi approached me and offered to show me a Jewish school for young men with little or no Jewish education. I was taken aback by the warm reception I received at the Yeshivah. The people were so warm and friendly, so eager to help me. I stayed at the Yeshivah for three months of delightful study before returning to the States. I’ve always felt guilty about taking free tuition, room and board and never giving anything in return. Worse, I fooled every one of them into thinking that he was helping a Jewish kid find his roots. When I learned that you were Jewish and had some interest in your Judaism, I felt that this was an opportunity to pay back my debt.”

Rosh Hashanah approaching makes us think of returning to Hashem! sometimes this can happen in the strangest of ways!