Meeting Eduard

That's Eduard with Maurice Richard!

Zvi here.

I've been in contact for a while with someone named Eduard in Montreal who I met on odnoklassniki.ru when he visited my page, and I asked him if he was Jewish.

No, he answered, his father is Jewish and he wants to convert. He recently arrived in Montreal, can I help him find a Rabbi?

I hooked him up with Rabbi Sirota, of the Jewish Russian Community. 

Anyway, I've been going for Shabbos and Yom Tov to Rabbi Sirota's Shul, and yesterday Eduard was there! He came over all excited. He only speaks Russian and French, but is converting orthodox in about a month!

At the Kiddush, they asked me to speak (I am seen by the Russians there as somewhat of a hero. They had made me speak on Pesach as well, and my status was elevated further this week when an article about me hit the Montreal Russian Jewish newspaper).

I told them (in Russian) a beautiful story I had heard from Avi Richler.

The story (in short): A chossid told the Baal Shem Tov that he wanted to meet Eliahu HaNavi. The Besh"t told him to visit a poor widow with children in a small village for Rosh Hashana.

So the Chossid traveled there, bought tons of food for the family to eat (he was their guest after all, and wanted the home to be fit for Eliahu HaNavi), and spent the entire Rosh HaShana in her home, praying and waiting for Eliahu.

After Rosh HaShana, he traveled back to the Besh"t, and complained that he hadn't seen the prophet at all over Yom Tov.

"Go back for Yom Kippur." He was told.

Returning to the shack with more food a few hours before Yom Kippur, he overheard a conversation between the mother and one of her children.

"Mommy, I'm hungry and there's no food in the house. What will we do?"

The mother answered: "just like Hashem sent Eliahu HaNavi on Rosh HaShana, so too he will send him again on Yom Kippur."

It's a powerful story. I told them that we all can be Eliahu HaNavi's, who we know will welcome Moshiach. How can we do that? by helping tip the scale to the good - doing one more Mitzvah, and more importantly, helping others, and making sure they do Mitzvahs.

Then I told them a story I don't think I ever wrote on this blog.

Before we arrived in Stavropol, we tried calling the community center to have them organize apartments for us to look at when we arrived, so we wouldn't have to spend all our money staying in a hotel for a week.

Unfortunately we never got through, and our emails were never answered, so we were left on our own. (we were left on our own even after we arrived...)

On the plane from Moscow to Stavropol, I saw an ad in the Russian in-flight magazine advertising 'Century 21', a company that sells and rents homes and apartments. I took down their address.

When we arrived, I visited the address, which turned out to be 3 blocks down from our hotel. There I met Alexander Dengin, an English speaking local, who eventually (after over a week) helped us find an apartment.

A month in, we were still settling. We didn't speak Russian, and had no secretary yet. We had barely met anyone in the community, and one evening I got a call from Alexander Dengin, who told me to come to Century 21 now. He's sending the company car.

"Why?"

"The owner of Century 21 in the entire Russia is here and he wants to meet you."

I waited for the car, and was driven over. There I met Nuri Katz, a Moscow businessman who had heard about a Rabbi from Montreal in Stavropol, and wanted to meet since he was also originally from Montreal. He had about 10 minutes to spare.

We ended up chatting for 2 hours. 

At the end I asked him if the following morning I can stop in his hotel room to put on Tefillin. He refused, but after heeing and hawing with him a bit, he finally decided that if I, or someone I know, rents an apartment (or buys a house etc.) from Century 21, I should let him know, and he will put on Tefillin. He left me his number.

That never happened again, but as I told the Russians in Montreal, and now I tell all you blog-readers, if anyone rents or buys an apartment through Century-21, let me know. 

It's an easy way to get a fellow Jew to do another Mitzvah.

Who knows? maybe that Mitzvah will be the one to tip the scale.

P.S. apparently people from the department of religion in Stavropol were at the Seder, and saw for themselves the 137 attendees, and spoke to people about the situation. Finally some truth going around.

P.P.S. I'm in the news again, over here: http://www.stapravda.ru/20090416/ravvin_evreyskoy_obschiny_stavropolya_okazalsya_lozhnym_i_nezako_37033.html 

Not in a good way either. It's a shame Yefim's girlfriend works for this paper. They make me out to be a monster, and also somehow got ahold of an email I privately sent to someone in the community. I gotta be more careful what I write.

This paper: http://www.vechorka.ru/gazeta/?b=view&articleID=13142 is less harsh and more sensible, saying simply that foreign citizens should comply with local law.