The boy mistakenly handed Matti the note he intended to insert into the Kosel

There’s no end to the tales that can be told, the almost implausible Divine Providence merited by those who have visited and poured out their hearts in prayer at the Kosel Hamaaravi. But, as Reb Matti Shtigel of Lev L’Achim can testify, sometimes it can happen even before the prayer is uttered.

Reb Matti is an energetic avreich, who, together with a team from Lev L’Achim, mans the Kosel Plaza, on the lookout for visitors whose cool and confident swagger often mask their enormous, craving neshamos, where the externals peel away and the truth that was there all along comes to the fore. It’s just a precious few moments, and they must act quickly. Reb Matti’s working strategy is to approach them with the proverbial “tap on the shoulder,” introduce himself and offer to set them up with a chavrusa, a group shiur in their neighborhoods, or whatever else might be their preference.

Last week, as Reb Matti was scouting out the Kosel Plaza, he approached a young, secular looking Israeli boy with the pointy Kosel yarmulke perched atop his head. Reb Matti approached and engaged him in conversation. The boy noticed Reb Matti was holding a pen and a pad of paper, and asked if he could take a piece of paper to write a note he wanted to place between the holy stones. Reb Matti happily obliged and handed over the pen and paper. When the boy finished writing, he folded the paper in half and ripped off the remaining, unused part, which he handed back to Matti. Except that it wasn’t the blank part. The boy mistakenly handed Matti the note he intended to insert into the Kosel.

On it, there were no introductory remarks — just a list of earnest requests scrawled in Hebrew: “1) Money; 2) Do you know any Jewish teachers, where they can be found and how to reach them?; 3) Can you help me reach them?”

The note may have bypassed its intended route, but reached its destination.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 899)