A shidduch story that took place in Israel has been making the rounds in Israel in recent days, Kikar H’Shabbos reported.

HaRav Chaim Shmreler, who is heavily involved in the issue of shidduchim for older singles, told the story in a shiur that was uploaded on Kol HaLashon.

The story began about a year ago, when Reb Gershon Klatzkin, a shadchan from Beitar Illit, suggested a shidduch to the father of a yasom who was learning in a yeshivah in Jerusalem. The father was apparently not interested in the shidduch because when the shadchan called back to inquire about it, the father didn’t answer his phone calls.

Two weeks passed, and one day when R’ Klatzkin was on a bus to Jerusalem, he suddenly overheard a man saying on the phone: “I haven’t answered his phone calls for two weeks already. I don’t think the shidduch is mat’im (appropriate).”

The shadchan, who until then was only acquainted with the father over the phone, realized who it was, and decided to take action. He introduced himself to the surprised father and suggested to him that he reconsider the shidduch.

The shadchan was successful in convincing the father to change his mind. The shidduch proceeded quickly and ended with a mazal tov and a jubilant chassan and kallah.

A day after the vort took place, the mashgiach of the chassan’s yeshivah approached the shadchan and told him the “real story” on how the shidduch ended up proceeding, despite the father’s initial reluctance. At the very hour that R’ Klatzkin “coincidentally” rode the same bus as the chassan’s father and overheard him speaking about the shidduch, the chassan himself was at the Kosel crying bitterly.

“Ribbono shel Olam, I’m broken,” he davened. “I don’t have a mother. I didn’t have a mother at my Bar Mitzvah, I didn’t have a mother to ask me how my first day of yeshivah went, and I didn’t have a mother to send me homemade to yeshivah.”

“I never complained despite the fact that it pained me,” the bochur continued to daven. “But now I can’t anymore. All my friends have married and I’m left alone in yeshivah.”

When the bochur finished his tearful tefillah, he returned to yeshivah, where a phone call from his father about R’ Klatzkin’s shidduch was waiting. Days later, he was engaged.

The incredible power of tefillah, especially the tearful tefillah of a yasom at the Makom Hamikdash, had an immediate effect.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)