“The friend overheard the conversation and asked the butcher who it was, and he said it was the father of one of the abductees. He tells her the name and she stands there shivering. She approaches the man, asks him if he is the father of that abductee, and takes out the booklet she received from her bag and tells him that “Since yesterday I have been praying for your son”
Yair Tucker, Kikar Hashabat
A Kiryat Malachi resident told her friends a heartwarming story that happened to her recently:
She stated: “I organized a Challa portion ceremony at my home the day before yesterday to pray for the safe return of the hostages A lovely girl from Chabad in Kiryat Malachi sent me pamphlets of Psalms to recite for the hostages’ return. Every participant was given a pamphlet and they all recited the particular chapter corresponding to the particular age of the hostage. The pamphlets were taken home by those who wished who wished to continue praying for the hostages’ return.
“One of the girls went to the supermarket the following day,” she continued. At the meat store, she was waiting in line when the butcher asked for her pardon and moved away for a little while to speak with someone while giving him a strong hug. He inquired about his well-being and whether anything new had happened. The man claimed that three weeks ago, they got a sign indicating he was still alive, and that was it. The friend overheard the conversation and asked who it was. The man identified himself as the father of one of the hostages
When she heard the name of the hostage she shuddered. She walks up to the man, asks him if he is the abducted child’s father, pulls out the pamphlet she was given from her purse, and says she has been praying for his son since yesterday.
“The father starts crying,” the woman continues, “he was unaware that his son was being prayed for and that these pamphlets even existed. How likely is it that, the day following, she happens to run across the father of the captive, for whom she had been praying, while waiting in line at the butcher’s shop at the supermarket? Without realizing it, she was selected to be the angel.”
Rabbi Joseph Gerlitzky, the emissary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the Rabbi of Central Tel Aviv, is the driving force behind the Psalms movement. These are elegant little pamphlets that feature an image of one of the kidnapped individuals and contain passages from the Book of Psalms chapter 20 as well as the abducted person’s particular Psalms chapter, based on their age. “We made the decision to start this effort in accordance with the tradition set by the founder of Hassidsm, Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov that every person both male and female recite everyday the chapter in Psalms which corresponds with his/her age,” declared Rabbi Gerlitzky.
“To ensure that thousands of people would recite Psalms for each abductee every day and at all times, we printed over 100,000 copies of the pamphlets based on the precise age of the respective hostage,” said Rabbi Gerlitzky.
