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For Your Inspiration

with permission from the author Rabbi Eisenman

As I sat down at my desk this morning I knew what awaited me:

Last minutes details about food to be ordered and lights to be left on.

Letters to be signed and calls to be returned.

Shiurim to be prepared and copies be run off.

Thoughts which fill the mind which are meaningful and deep.

And hours and hours to go before I sleep.

I know what you are thinking:

"Hey Rabbi Eisenman, stop plagiarizing Robert Frost!"

Okay, okay, let me get back to the Short Vort.

Here I am thinking about the noble, meaningful, and inspirational yet pithy words I will write this morning, when guess what? Nothing comes to my mind!It is Erev Shavous and I have nothing to say!

Just as I was about to give up and go back to the Gemara, the phone rings.

Here is a transcript of the conversation:

Caller: Hello, is this Rabbi Eisenman?

ME: Yes, this is he, who is calling?

Caller: Rabbi Eisenman, do you remember me? I am so happy I found you.

ME: Who is this? (At this point I figured the next words out of the fellow's mouth is going to be if I want to sponsor a trip for a deprived child to Uman or something of that sort)

Caller: Rabbi Eisenman, were you in Israel in 1980 and did you teach a group of high school boys from Auckland, New Zealand on Shavous night?

ME: Wait, are you for real? I do remember that. I was a bachur in the Yeshiva and the mashgiach asked if I was learn with these boys since they needed an English speaker to give the shiur and I agrees to do it. Of course I remember now. There were about 15 of you from a Jewish school in Auckland. We stayed up the entire night learning!

Caller: Well, I was just calling to wish you a Good Yom Tov. You see I have been looking for you for 29 years!

After that Shavous, I decided that Torah learning was the correct path for me.

I returned to Auckland, became very serious and a year later when I finished high school I came to Eretz Yisroel to learn and I have not left since!

I live in Yerushalayim and have been learning in the Mir Yeshiva for the past 20 years! I am married and have five children.

Every Shavous I think of you and of the learning we did that Shavous night and how it changed my life and the lives of my wife and children.

However, I never knew where you were. In fact, I did not know your name. However, last week I was at the Kosel davening and as I was leaving the wall I saw a fellow who looked lost. I asked him if he needed help.

I then walked him to where he was going and as we walked we talked. He informed that he was from a place called Passaic, New Jersey. I told him that I never heard of this place. He looked at me and said, "What you have never heard of Passaic? I thought that everyone has heard of Passaic."

I asked him where he davened there and he told me at Rabbi Eisenman's Shul. I told him that I never heard of Rabbi Eisenman either. At that point he pulled out of his pocket a piece of paper. He said to me, "Here, read this when you get a chance."

When I arrived home at night I read the paper; it was called "The Short Vort".

It was very interesting and I noticed that at the bottom of the Vort there was listed a web page.

My wife works in an office with internet access and I asked her to look up Ahavas Israel in Passaic.

She came home the night with a printout of the Shul web site. She also brought home a picture of the Rav of the Shul from the web site. As soon as I saw the picture, I froze. I said. "That's him, that's him! That's the Rav who taught me 29 years ago on Shavous night. I have finally found him!"

That was last week. Today on Erev Shavous I finally am able to say to you the two words which I have waited 29 years to say: "Thank you".

I want to wish you a good Yom Tov and thank you for that Shavous shiur twenty nine years ago".

As I hung up the phone, life suddenly became that much more worthwhile and meaningful.

You never know.