Shliach Learns the Effects of an Encounter Years Later

An encounter from over three years ago closed a circle on Shabbos afternoon for Rabbi Yisroel Bernath, a campus Shliach at the NDG & Loyola Campus in Montreal, Canada. Following Davening a women shared a story about a chance encounter she had with the Shliach which prevented her from intermarriage.

So excited by the story Rabbi Bernath quickly fired off an email on Motzai Shabbos to his friends and family detailing to story, which quickly began circulating on social media in and messaging apps. CrownHeights.info reached out to Rabbi Bernath and verified the details.

Here is the story in his words:

I’m sure you get those emails as well. Usually it’s from some non-Jewish religion student, asking if they can interview you for their course about Judaism’s view about G-d-knows-what. In our busy schedules we often brush them off or ignore the emails all together.

Early on in our Shlichus, my wife and I decided that no matter how busy life gets we would take the time for those one-off encounters, random emails and facebook messages.

About 3 years ago, I got a call from a 7th grader. He explained that his teacher asked him to interview a religious leader about the traditions of marriage in their religion. Even though he was not Jewish he had chosen to explore Judaism’s view on marriage and asked if he can come interview me.

We scheduled an appointment and a few days later he came to my office together with his nanny, who had driven him to see me. For an hour or so, he drilled me with the questions he had been given by his teacher, and some of his own as well. Quite a serious kid, so much so that this encounter stands out in my mind. The nanny said but 2 words – she just sat in the back of the room, minding her own business. They bid farewell and I thought nothing of this encounter.

Today [Shabbos Afternoon], a Frum-looking woman walked into the Chabad house during Davening. She sat quietly in the last row.

During the kiddush [following davening] she told [a friend of hers a story which she never shared] that occured three years ago. She was a nanny for about 3 months and one day, she had brought a 12 year old boy to ask [Rabbi Bernath questions about Judaisim] for a school project. She sat quietly, listening to our conversation about Jewish marriage. At the time, she was living with a non-Jew and as a result of that random encounter she left him and began her path back to Judaism.

[The woman, who was in Shul to attend the Kiddush in honor of her friends birthday, saw Rabbi Bernath and realized that he was that Rabbi she met three years ago and told this story to her friend who retold it.]

Never forget the power of a random encounter, email or call. There is someone on the other end reaching out to you in their time of need, sometimes its Hashem reaching out to them and you are just the Shliach!

A gut voch!

Speaking to CrownHeights.info Rabbi Bernath said “I think that many of us have these potential encounters and in our haste we don’t hear them. Therefor I wish to share this encounter to remind people that we all have the opportunity to effect these amazing stories.”