The Car Show at Cary

A few weeks ago, David and I took the kids to Chicago to visit his family. We had a beautiful time, but I’d like to share this incredible story of Divine providence that happened while we were visiting his sister.

His sister lives in a tiny little town called Cary, which is over an hour’s drive from the city of Chicago. Now when I say tiny, I mean tiny. It’s one of those towns whose “downtown” is called Main Street, and that street takes about 30 seconds to walk from one end to the other. It’s a town lined with restaurant after restaurant, accompanied by acres of beautiful, empty land.

Every Wednesday this quiet little town hosts a car show on Main Street. When we were there, we took the kids to the car show, whose theme that week was antique cars from the 1950’s. The kids had a great time getting into these old-fashioned cars with *gasp* no DVD screen, no Bluetooth, no USB port, and even no air-conditioning.

Gosh. How did people survive??

As the kids marveled at these strange relics from another era, I marveled at the strange tattoos and hair colors that covered some people’s bodies. I can’t begin to explain how uncomfortable it felt to be in this type of environment, as you can obviously understand why. Thankfully, the kids were more interested in the cars than the people.

But, there were certainly people there who found my kids interesting! Can you imagine? This tiny town in Middle America, filled with non-Jews–many had probably never seen a Jew in their lives. They were staring at us!

I’m not sure if they were looking for our horns or wondering how a little lady like myself could have given birth to five boys, or what those crazy white strings sticking out of the bottom of their shirts were, or all of the above.

Okay, so here’s where it gets interesting, now that I’ve set the scene for you.

So I’m walking around with the kids, and a nice lady comes up to me and says, “You know, I’m Jewish.” Say wha’??

I whipped my head around to face her, with one eyebrow raised for maximum effect. She continued: “I don’t have any Jewish friends. My husband and I are the only two Jews in this town, as far as I know. I would love to have a Jewish friend.”

I introduced her to my sister-in-law, and we continued our conversation. “I can’t tell you how happy it made me to see your boys with their kippah and tzitzis,” she said, full of emotion. I couldn’t believe that this thing I took for granted made such an impact on others. It amazed me.

After I told her that we had just moved back to the States from Israel, she told me that her brother was a rabbi. In Israel. “Really?” I inquired. Her story was getting more interesting by the second. “Yes, in Ra’anana.” I didn’t know him by his name, but I thought it was amazing that you can have one Jew in the middle of nowhere, observing nothing, while her brother is a rabbi in Israel. It’s really fascinating.

After a few more minutes of conversation, I suddenly remembered that David was a rabbi, too. “You know, my husband is also a rabbi. He doesn’t teach or anything, but he got his ordination in kosher laws in the kitchen.”

“Are you serious?” she asked, “That’s what my brother does!”

“What do you mean?”

“My brother works on river cruises,” she told me.

My heart nearly skipped out of my chest. I couldn’t believe it. It just couldn’t be…

“What do you mean, river cruises? Where?” I asked, breathless with curiosity, just dying to see if my suspicion was correct.

“He’s the mashgiach (kosher rabbinical supervisor) for the food on these kosher European cruises,” she explained.

IT JUST COULDN’T BE!!!!

“Does he know Rabbi Doniel Channen???” I almost screamed at her in excitement. “He is the husband of one of my best friends, Rebbetzin Yehudit Channen!! He gave my husband smicha (ordination)!!”

As you may know, Rebbetzin Yehudit Channen is one of my closest friends.

Totally freaking out, I shakily grabbed my phone to show her a picture of the two of them.

“That’s him!!” she squealed. “I met him on the last cruise I was on, two years ago! I’m going on that same cruise again in October!”

“Rebbetzin Channen will also be on that cruise! I’m going to put you two in touch!”

We hugged like old friends, in awe of the unbelievable “coincidence” that we had just experienced.

Can you imagine? In this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, two Jews who are total strangers have two such close people in common?? Is that not mind-blowing??

But, wait! If that wasn’t good enough, the story gets better!

Later that night she texted to tell me that the next day was her birthday.

“My friends had invited me out for my birthday, but instead, because I was so inspired by meeting you and seeing your cute little boys, I decided to take my friends to visit a sick friend who just had surgery,” she wrote.

WOW.

It blew me away.

Isn’t it amazing?

The Jewish neshama, that special Divine spark, that tiny piece of G-d Himself–no matter how much it’s hidden, it is always ready to shine. That beautiful spark never goes away. Even if it’s been lying dormant for many years, it’s ready to come out in full force when it’s summoned.

What a beautiful story. I got chills writing about it.

Look at what Hashem did for this woman, to remind her of her roots, her spiritual source. To remind her that no matter where she is, no matter what situation she is in, her Jewish soul is always with her. Her connection to Hashem is infinite.

The next day, on her birthday, she texted to tell me that she visited not one, but two sick friends.

There is nothing as awesome and beautiful as experiencing Hashem’s direct involvement in our lives. It just shows how much He loves each and every one of us.

I hope that one day, soon, we will all not just believe it.

I hope we will know it.