The taxi honked downstairs, near the entrance to the
building. Chani's parents, dressed-up, had already gone down
and Chani was still hesitating at home. Ima called her on her
cell phone, "Chani, where are you?" she asked impatiently.
"The taxi's waiting."
"But, Ima . . . I can't find my coat . . . the new coat that
Savta bought me last year . . . "
"Well, where can it be?" Ima asked, on edge.
"I have no idea. I've looked everywhere and there's no trace
of my Shabbos coat."
"So take your weekday coat in the meantime. The main thing is
that you come downstairs already so we don't miss the
chuppah!"
"But Ima, what do I tell Savta if I don't have the coat?"
"Let's hope she won't notice," her mother tried to calm her
down.
Chani shrugged into her simple coat and hurried downstairs.
When she arrived at the hall, she planned to take the coat
off quickly and put it in the cloakroom before her
grandmother could see what she was wearing.
*
It all began a year earlier. Chani had hinted to her parents
that she didn't have a dressy coat and that she was using the
same coat also for every day and also for Shabbos, for
regular wear and for simchas. She needed a fancy coat,
especially as there were already a few kallahs in her
class and the wedding season was about to begin.
The timing wasn't great from the financial point of view of
her parents. Her father was a avrech kollel whose
meager stipend was barely enough to live on; her mother was
working intermittently part-time, and Chani's pressing dental
work had taken their last penny. For now, they had no way to
take on yet another expense of several hundred shekels.
Chani understood, of course, but the coat that she had seen
when she had gone with a friend to a neighborhood sale, and
had managed to try on, had entranced her with its beauty and
fit her to a tee. She had animatedly described to her mother
how the coat looked, knew the name of the factory where it
was made, described the color, size and design and her mother
heard and took note.
On Erev Succos, Chani's birthday, a notice came about a
package in the mail. It turned out, that Chani's grandmother
who lived abroad, sent her a coat very similar to the one she
had seen. She had bought it cheaply at a factory abroad.
Chani tried on the coat and discovered it to be practically
perfect. It needed just a few tiny alterations for it to fit
to her taste: She replaced the buttons, removed the belt and
the belt rings and finally added a small decorative pin to
the end of the collar. Her joy knew no bounds. She thanked
her grandmother from the bottom of her heart, also her
parents who had initiated the idea, and was proud of her
elegant coat that earned her compliments from her friends at
every special occasion.
*
As we said, a year passed, and fall once again arrived. Her
cousin was getting married this evening and her grandmother
had come especially from abroad for the occasion. The weather
had gotten cooler; Chani had to take a coat and now she was
in a quandary: What would she say when her grandmother
wondered why she wasn't wearing the coat? She had gone to the
trouble of buying and sending her a coat and her
granddaughter apparently preferred wearing her weekday
coat?
Chani removed her plain coat before even entering the hall,
hung it deep in the cloakroom and went inside. Her
grandmother was happy to see her and her prayer that her
grandmother wouldn't ask about the coat seemed to have been
answered. Soon she was overjoyed to see the rest of the girls
in her family and her friends and over the course of the
celebration, the coat was completely forgotten.
The wedding was over. Chani was holding her old coat folded
in her arms and was about to leave the hall and join her
parents going home. As she was leaving the hall, she stopped
in her tracks. Before her stood Yael, a young woman who lived
in her neighborhood with her little children, wearing a coat
identical to the one that had disappeared. Chani was rendered
speechless from astonishment and shock and she visibly
paled.
"Is something wrong?" Yael asked worried when she saw Chani,
who babysat for her on occasion, so frightened.
"N...no . . . I'm okay . . . it'll pass . . . " Yael raised
an eyebrow and questioned, "so, everything alright? Are you
sure?"
"What are you doing here?" Chani asked when she had recovered
a bit, trying to hide her wave of emotions.
"I'm a distant relative of the chosson," Yael
answered. "Although I did come late, I still wanted to wish
them Mazal Tov. I hope someone's still there . . .
I'd better hurry. See you!"
*
"You're still so upset about losing your coat?" her father
asked.
"Not exactly . . . " Chani answered, "Now I'm upset because I
found it . . . what I mean is, I saw it!" Her parents were
now completely confused.
"Lost or found? If you saw it, why didn't you take it?" Chani
tried to fight the tears that were threatening to escape and
explained to him that she had seen Yael wearing her coat.
"You're obviously mistaken; the company makes many coats like
that," her mother said.
"But the alterations that I made, the buttons I replaced, the
belt I removed and the decorative pin I added to the collar .
. . I'm positive!"
"Now don't tell me that you suspect that Yael stole . . .
"
"I can't imagine Yael doing something like that, but I have
no other solution for the mystery of how my coat got to
her."
"We are required to give the benefit of the doubt; we have to
simultaneously 'respect' and 'suspect'. We'll have look into
the matter!" her father said.
"But how?"
"Ask her directly in a respectful way, as a matter of fact,
and maybe she'll be able to enlighten us."
*
That same evening, late at night, Yael's phone rang. Yael
who had just returned from the simchah understood that
this must be an important call that couldn't wait.
"Yael? Good evening, its Mrs. Levi, your babysitter's
mother!"
"How are you, Mrs. Levi? And how is Chani? It seemed to me
that she didn't feel well this evening . . . When we met at
the wedding she looked very pale."
"Oh, Boruch Hashem, it passed and everything's alright now.
You know, Yael, I'm calling about something else, completely.
I wanted to ask you about the coat, I mean my daughter really
liked the coat you were wearing and I wanted to know where
you bought it."
"I'm sorry but I don't think I'll be able to help you with
this," Yael answered and Mrs. Levi's senses pricked.
"Why?" She asked trying to overcome her emotions.
"Because I . . . I didn't exactly buy it . . . "
"Which means???"
"Which means, I got it . . . "
"You mean to say, you received it as a gift?"
"Yes . . . sort of . . . you could say that," Yael answered
clearly ill at ease. "But why do you ask?"
"Well. I don't feel comfortable asking but my daughter is
looking for a coat exactly like that one, and I thought that
I could get the details where I could get it," Mrs. Levi
found a dignified way out.
"I'll tell you the truth. You know my husband learns and I
don't work. Buying clothes for ourselves and our children is
just not in the budget. I started going to a clothing
gemach. At the beginning it was hard for me to get
used to the idea, but my husband encouraged me and told me
that the only thing a person has to be ashamed of is sin, and
buying things at a gemach is not a sin. I go there and
sometimes I find really good bargains that help me out a
lot."
"Oh, don't feel uncomfortable, we also go there sometimes and
we get away with a hoard of stuff that costs next to
nothing!" Mrs. Levi encouraged her.
"Well, the last time I went there, I found this coat. At the
beginning, I didn't believe my eyes, I thought I was
dreaming; is it possible that someone would send a coat in
such good condition, almost new, to a gemach? I asked
Mrs. Schwartz, the woman in charge who volunteers, there and
she told me that there are apparently people with means who
every year want to renew their wardrobes and they send all of
last season's clothes, whatever condition they're in. You
know 'out with the old in with the new,' even though their
old is almost new."
"I'm delighted to hear that you had such siyaata
d'shmaya," responded Mrs. Levi, without Yael
understanding what she meant exactly.
Mrs. Levi recognized the truth when she heard it and she knew
that she could believe every word that Yael told her and that
Chani's coat was taken from the gemach. But the
question remained, how did it get there? It still wasn't
clear who had brought it there without her permission.
*
When Chani heard the story, she put her head in her hands
thoughtfully and tried to recall the facts. Only then did she
remember what had happened and was surprised that she hadn't
thought of it before: At the beginning of Nissan, last year,
her mother had sent her to the gemach to deliver a
bundle of clothes that the children had outgrown. It was cool
out and as her everyday coat had been sent to be dry cleaned,
she took the fancy one. Who would notice Erev Pesach? She
entered the bomb shelter where the gemach was located,
delivered the parcel and in the meantime ran into her friend
who was also there looking for bargains. Her friend
distracted her attention to some pairs of pants and
children's shirts at an excellent price which could be good
for her younger brothers.
She began looking through them but the place was stuffy and
she was too hot so she took off her coat. After a while, she
found what she was looking for and left together with her
friend. On the way home, it was cool actually, but she was
engrossed in conversation and didn't notice that the coat had
been left behind.
Spring that had meanwhile sprung, made her forget about the
coat and it remained in the gemach, but not for long.
Quick enough, Yael discovered it, surprised at finding such a
find and if not for the volunteer who had convinced her by
saying: "This is what people throw away nowadays," she would
have found it hard to believe.
All spring and summer, Chani didn't notice the coat missing
because she hadn't needed it. Now that winter had arrived,
she was reminded of it but it was already too late.
*
"If the hand of Providence arranged it so that the Yael got
the coat in this remarkable way, it is a gift." That was the
unanimous decision of the Levi family. The tension and
heartache dissolved at once and when the doubts were lifted,
so was the mood.
The balance sheet came out positive: Savta had given a coat
she knew her granddaughter would enjoy, Chani was left
without a fancy coat but she and her parents felt good that
at least the mystery was solved. Also Yael felt wonderful
about the great Hashgochoh Protis she was privy to,
though she didn't know to what extent . . .
