THE PESACH CLEANING THAT BROUGHT GOOD NEWS

Buried deep within the closet behind all the antiques was an old box. When we opened it, we found to our horror that this innocent-looking chest was filled with a collection of … * As Jewish homes are beginning the process of cleaning in preparation for the holiday of Pesach, one of the shluchim in Europe gives us a first-hand account of a thrilling story in connection with these preparations, resulting in a miraculous personal salvation.

Beis Moshiach received the following exciting story via e-mail. It was retold in first person by the one who actually experienced it, save for a few minor changes to maintain the author’s anonymity. This is not only a miracle story; it is also a special cause for reflection, perhaps even a night-long farbrengen…

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“The story I am about to tell here for the first time is absolutely true, without any alterations or embellishments. I drew my own conclusions, and everyone else can learn what they want from this story. Here are the facts:

“Before actually beginning to tell this story, I have to provide a little background. Two years ago, I came to a city in central Europe as an unmarried bachur to serve as a teacher at the local Talmud Torah. During that year, I met my future wife, who had come to the city on a visit. Her sister is the mother of one of my yeshiva classmates. One of the local baalei battim thought it would be a good idea to arrange a meeting between us, two young Israelis in a strange land. We met a few times, and not long afterwards, we decided to establish our Jewish home together. Naturally, we agreed to continue our shlichus right where we were.

“In Menachem Av 5771, we got married in a good and auspicious hour. Then, less than three weeks later, I resumed my shlichus as a teacher in the local cheider while my wife began work as a Hebrew instructor.

“By Divine Providence, just as we were preparing to begin our shlichus, a local Torah observant family returned to Eretz Yisroel, after finishing their own assignment on behalf of the Israel Ministry of Education. Naturally, the apartment where they had lived became available, and we continued their rental contract at a good price with better conditions than what we could have expected from a new contract.

“This was a nice furnished apartment, located very close to our workplaces and the central synagogue. Since the landlady lived overseas, our contact for rental payments and all matters pertaining to the apartment was her close friend, the neighbor across the hall. When we moved into the apartment, the previous tenants told us that there were two closet shelves containing personal property of the landlady, and they were not available for our use. We agreed to accept this condition and moved into the furnished apartment, happy that we had found a comfortable and convenient place to live. That concludes the introduction to my story.

“As mentioned earlier, we got married in Menachem Av 5771, and we naturally were looking forward to having children at the earliest opportunity. However, the months passed, and each month brought a renewed sense of frustration… After several months of disappointment, we made some good resolutions and accepted greater stringencies in our mitzvah observance, but the situation remained unchanged. Then, the turning point came.

“My wife had finally had enough of those unavailable shelves. We were slowly beginning to fill our new home with clothes and various appliances, but this spot was left unused. We turned to the neighbor in charge of the apartment, and she told us that the owner would be arriving in the city in another few days, shortly before Purim. She said that she would ask her to come to our house and tell us what to do with all the things stored on these closet shelves.

“When I told all this to my wife, I added that even if we don’t spend Pesach at home this year, at least we’ll feel the pre-holiday preparations by cleaning out these closets. At that moment, I had no idea what kind of chametz we would be cleaning out…

“Two days before Purim, the owner came to the house, and we started to clear out the closets. There was a wide variety of junk – old irons, broken telephones, board games with missing pieces, tattered dolls, torn posters, and other stuff of absolutely no use whatsoever. Some of these items did seem quite appropriate: We were about to hold a Purim Fair in the cheider, and a few of these old appliances fit the holiday program like a glove. The landlady took a glance at all the clutter coming out of the closet, and after thinking for a moment, she said that she had no problem with throwing everything into the trash.

“The busy landlady left the house, leaving us with the neighbor and the mess we had removed from the packed shelves. We soon got to work putting the things into garbage bags.

“Then, we came upon a discovery that sends chills up my spine to this very day. Buried deep within the closet behind all the antiques was an old box. When we opened it, we found to our horror that this innocent-looking chest was filled with a collection of Christian symbols, pictures, and other idolatrous images. Of course, the box with its repulsive contents was immediately thrown into the trash, and our house was finally cleaned of this spiritual filth.

“The end of the story came nine months later! On the evening of the 16th of Kislev, we were blessed with the birth of our first child, a baby girl…”

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“In the second chapter of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe details at great length about the value and quality of the pure Jewish soul clothed in a body, explaining the importance of preparing a holy garment for this soul. I don’t think that you can make a holier garment for the soul descending into this world than cleaning the house from all signs of avoda zara, and when the house is not clean, the soul probably refuses to descend…”