“We’ve Completed Our Purpose”

By Dovid Lew

My friend Shloime Weinstein and I were on a tram going up a mountain, right alongside Portland, Oregon. The tram is run by the local hospital which is on a mountain. The view of the city and the surrounding mountain range is amazing and although the tram primarily services the hospital staff in getting to and from the hospital, many visitors to the city, and even locals, frequently take it to get a better look at the beautiful scenery.

My chavrusa and I were from the visitors on the tram that day. We had stopped in Portland as a detour on our way back from San Diego, CA, where we had spent the previous few weeks helping the Chabad Jewish community there. We had already made a few detours along our way back, intending to explore and see more cities on the West Coast, and this tram seemed like a great idea to us.

The tram stopped on the top and everyone began disembarking. My Chavrusa wanted to stay on the tram without getting off and take it straight down. I prevailed upon him to wait for the next one so we could get better and clearer pictures from the deck on the top, not muddied by the tram’s glass walls.

As we get off and take the first pictures, an older man walks up to us saying “Shalom,” and proceeds to ask a question about the wording in the first Posuk in Bereishis.

“Are you Jewish?” I ask.

“Of course,” he says, a surprised look on his face. “What else?”

We started talking. His name is Ariel and we found him to be quite knowledgeable in Judaism and Tanach and Pirkei Avot specifically. (He more than once, quoted whole Pesukim and Kapitlach of Tanach in English, from memory!) He was funny and witty. He had many ideas that he shared over our conversation, some of them very interesting and inspiring to me.

At one point, we were talking about being Jewish, as an identity alone vs. practicing Jewish and he was overcome with sadness at his lack of observance.

“I am a bad Jew,” he said. “If I would only have the courage, I would definitely live like you. I know this is the truth.”

I replied that it’s not all or nothing. The good Jew is the one who, however small his step, is moving forward. The not good Jew is the one who, however much he is doing, is moving backward. There are always opportunities to take a small step forward, always a good deed able to be done.

We told him that he is a good Jew because he isn’t satisfied with where he is and seeks to grow. After a bit more conversation, I asked if he wanted to put on Tefillin.

“Phylacteries?” he intoned. “Sure.”

It turns out he never had put Tefillin on before in his life! He never had a Bar Mitzvah. He grew up in Florida. His father (who was Irish Catholic) and his mother, though Jewish, didn’t raise him with much Judaism.

I gave him my Yarmulka and we proceeded to put on Tefillin. He was very pleased. As were putting them on, the next tram arrived. We were still standing right there by the gate and people were about to start exiting near us.

“Be proud of what you’re doing now, as these people pass by,” I advised.

“Ha!” he barks. “I am not worried at all. I learned a long time ago that I can’t care about what others think, lest I become a slave to their opinions.”

“Exactly,” Shloime replied.

The man shouted out with a grin to those now exiting the tram, “Try it once and change your life! Oh, your lives are too perfect to get better.” Laughter.

We told him that this was his Bar Mitzvah and that he should celebrate this opportunity. “This is a step forward,” I said. “You are growing and moving forward.” He hugged us and said he wishes we were his children. I told him that in Judaism, a teacher is like a father and you definitely taught us. We took photos together, him wearing the Tefillin and the beautiful view in the background. We got our pictures after all.

“What are you doing here?” he asked us.

“We actually came just to meet you and put on Tefillin with you. We came all the way from New York just for that.”

“Really,” he asked, “so you believe in Divine intervention?”

“Of course,” we replied. “This is the best example. We came here thinking that the reason we were coming was in order to see the view. The truth, however, was that we were coming for another reason, far more significant.

“There is always a deeper purpose and meaning to everything that happens. It’s like layers. All we see (when we see a purpose at all) is the outside layer – our own purpose for doing whatever we choose to do and being wherever we choose to be. Under that though, lies layer after layer of God’s reasons. We’re not always so lucky to discover the hidden purpose. It’s clear to me that we are here to meet you.”

Ariel was amazed.

“There is another purpose here that is quite obvious to me,” I told him. “All these people who exited the tram before, some of them perhaps Jewish, observed how you put on Tefillin in public courageously and shamelessly. That can have a very powerful and profound effect. Who knows how many people were just inspired to take a step forward themselves.”

The Tefillin were wrapped up. He took off the Yarmulka I had given him, slowly, almost begrudgingly. “I wish I had my own one of these,” he said.

I said he could keep it as I had another one.

He was thrilled.

We spoke a bit more and then the next tram came. He said that he really needed to go. He started hurrying what he was saying, trying to finish his idea.

“You don’t need to rush,” I told him. “We’ll go down with you. We’ve completed our purpose here.”

P.S. While working on writing this up, I emailed Ariel and received the following:
“Shalom,
You and Schlemiel have inspired me to greater study and devotion and have renewed in me a search for spiritual awareness. Forever grateful am I.
Toda Raba, Ariel”