Lessons In Emunah

I told him that the check was not for us, but for Malka's group. I glanced quickly at the check and I read $1,100. Not bad.

My sister and brother-in-law were among the would-be travelers, but their motivation was to visit our elderly mother, whose health had declined in virtually every respect over the prolonged period of isolation.

David was surprised at the downright refusal, but he didn’t lose hope. He set out to another vendor and another vendor and another…

Now he was putting his faith only in Hashem and that he knew Hashem could help him.

My wonderful machateinista, hearing my tale of woe, took it upon herself to assist in the apartment quest, contacting every realtor she knew and requesting leads.

When the askan heard this, he was devastated. After more than two and a half years of waiting for a kidney, the rabbi missed this opportunity because his 'helper' decided to go to sleep and call later. How would he break this to Rabbi Kerelenstein?!

We had inadvertently parked in the lot of a nearby church...

Though my father lives in another area of Staten Island, he has been intermittently involved with this synagogue since its inception.

One evening, that young man ‘happened’ to leave just as I did, and he chivalrously offered to walk me to my bus stop.

I lost control of my car while driving in Brooklyn when a speeding taxi slammed into me. I thought my life was about to end when my car slammed directly into a tree. Baruch Hashem I survived, even though the taxi driver never stopped to help me.

Even after all of the medical procedures, both Chaya and Daniel were left with medical problems.

I was relieved and rejoiced to see that the moths did not come back to visit after the renovations were done. I assumed the logical reason is because I had moved my kitchen and the windows have more effective screening.

When Jewish genealogical records became available online, his wife found the gravestones of his paternal great-grandfather and of the great-grandfather’s brother. Both tombstones clearly said “ha-Levi” on them!

I then handed her the Shabbos candles and she froze right there. She said, “Now I will light. Thank you very much,” and then proceeded to kiss my wife on both cheeks .

Immediately people went up to him to help him, to find out what the problem was and to solve it as soon as possible.

It was erev Simchas Torah and I had just lit my Yom Tov candles. I was rushing to go to hakafos (dancing with the Torah) at my local shul.

Several months ago, I made a serious effort to find an apartment in the "better" area but, alas, the rents were too high. I felt that I was stuck where I was.

The thunderous, urgently repeated “Ya’amod” precipitated a virtual kibbutz galuyos that made my heart skip a beat and my breath catch in my throat.

As I sit at my home computer typing these words, virtual gale-force winds are blowing through my apartment, filling it with fresh – and free – air. This has not always been the case. In fact the electric bill for the past two months was astronomical, due in large part to our high usage of air conditioning virtually around the clock.

Finding appropriate company for Shabbos was a challenge of its own. No longer a youngster, my mother did not enjoy coming to our homes and she did not appreciate large families with many children coming to hers.

There weren't many people out that night because of the weather but Rabbi Palach continued to approach whoever he saw and asked the same question, offering the same warm invitation to come hear a Torah class.

As is the policy with kidney donations in Israel, if the two are not previously acquainted the donor and recipient don’t meet each other until after the procedure.

She walked into my husband's office, accompanied by her father. They were clearly from Israel's lower socioeconomic class. The father was a large, frightening man who reeked of alcohol, and his daughter was a recent ba'alat teshuvah.

The trip took a bit longer than they expected, which put them a bit off schedule because in addition to wanting to get back to the kids, it was a Monday and that was when Yaakov, at eight o'clock, gave his class to the neighborhood kids.

I love to sing, but venues for frum women who sing are few and far between. I have to settle for kvelling when I listen to the men in my family lead the prayers in shul.

It was in the late 1980s. Retired FBI agent Tim McCarthy, Inspector General for the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, took the call in his office from Kevin Green, the head of the FBI-NYPD Inter-Agency Task Force investigating official corruption in New York State and City government.

In the early 1970's, my father, HaRav Moshe Aharon Shapiro, z"l, served as rabbi of a kosher, shomer Shabbos hotel in the Catskills. During one of those summers, my brother-in-law invited us to use his bungalow over the July 4th weekend. On Sunday we drove from the bungalow colony to visit my parents, arriving at the hotel between Minchah and Ma'ariv.

Recently, I discovered a frum website, www.jewish-e-books.com, that allows one to download hundreds of Jewish books – both in English and Hebrew. Having written a sefer myself, I was able to get it put on their website.

This morning I entered the bank. While waiting on line, I noticed a small commotion. A number of people were standing around a young crying boy who was holding an Israeli 50-shekel note in his hands.

I had no way of seeing it coming - a "quick" traffic light and I was caught in the middle of a sea of cars. The second I started to run I was horrified to see the car closest to me race in my direction. I felt doomed. The few seconds it took me to run past the car were filled with the terrible thought, "This is it. That car is going to hit me."