NEWS
Stand on Principles During a Flight Led to a Prayer for the Release of a Hostage
by Yated Ne'eman Staff
Between the walls of the Yeshivas Mir in Jerusalem, actually, on the site of the ancient beis medrash of the Chassidic dynasty of Pinsk-Karlin, situated in the Beis Yisroel neighborhood, there reverberates an amazing story exemplifying the power of purified prayer. This is the story of Yaakov Tzvi Arye Shwimmer, a London-born nineteen-year-old yeshiva bochur who demonstrated how a moment of steadfast stand on chareidi principles turned into an exemplary demonstration of chessed and prayer.
On one of the days of Selichos, when this young man's heart surged with elevated emotions anticipating the upcoming Yomim Noraim, he boarded an El Al flight headed for London. His ticket in hand, his heart was filled with a prayer that the trip home would be safe and uneventful, but when he located his designated seat, it was flanked by two women passengers. One of them offered to change her seat but his tender Chassidic heart writhed in discomfort.
Eyes downcast, he scoured the already seated passengers, holding on to a small Tehillim for dear life. Appealing to a steward for help, all he received was a cold, laconic brush off. "The plane is at full capacity. There is nothing I can do for you."
Just then, the captain requested all passengers to sit down, fasten their belts and prepare for takeoff. Yaakov Tzvi took his seat very reluctantly.
A woman on the opposite aisle eyed his Tehillim with a glint in her eyes. "Are you praying for the hostages?" she asked waveringly. Replying in a Chassidic accent and a broken Hebrew, he said that he was praying for "all of our Jewish brethren who find themselves in trouble and captivity."
"Would you be willing to pray for my daughter, Emily Tehilla bas Amanda Francis, on a daily basis," she asked, a stray tear rolling down her cheek, "that she be released speedily." Her heartfelt plea touched his heart. He took a pen from his shirt pocket and wrote down the unusual name on the very flyleaf of his Tehillim, adding his words that she go on to "truly fulfill the will of the Creator."
With the finalizing of this request, the woman agreed to switch places with him so that he could sit next to a religious man who was occupying the seat next to her. At that moment, Yaakov Tzvi understood that this episode had deeper meaning.
From that day on, true to his promise, he prayed for the release of Emily Tehilla, daughter of Amanda Francis, whom he had never met and with whom he had absolutely no connection but somehow, felt very connected to her fate.
Last week, with the release of the first few hostages, he called his father in London, asking if he was still obligated to pray for Emily. To his utter amazement, his father said, "The one whom you are praying for was among the first hostages to be released!"
This incredible story was swiftly spread throughout Yeshivas Mir and beyond, arousing wonder and astonishment, reinforcing faith in the power of prayer and chessed and especially emphasizing it at this timely period of 'Shovovim" — how a small but resolute stand on a principle of Yiddishkeit had such a powerful repercussion in rescuing a Jewish soul from enemy hands. It surely arouses in us the need to continue to pray for the release of all the prisoners and their emergence from darkness to light, from danger to freedom.
This story joins the chain of so many other testimonies of the power of prayer, especially in times of trouble.
|
