Providential Cab Ride - Rabbi David Kaplan

rabbi Blumenthal was the head of a coal in Israel he went off to London on a fundraising mission Andy had spent a couple of weeks in England raising money for his very important Colo and he got into a cab on the way back to the airport is heading for Heathrow and as they're sitting in the back of the cab the cab driver looked in the mirror river of mirror and he said well you're a rabbi aren't you says he I says well you know I'm Jewish too you know where Blumenthal said well that's great nice very nice to meet you well terrific he said yeah yeah you know I even have a daughter who became religious and she married a young man who's himself they live in Israel he's studying in a Colo right bloomers well said well that's great yeah they have three kids my grandchildren you know these are their names he starts talking about his family or Blumenthal's thrilled to meet a man was a daughter who even made a commitment to Torah Judaism my son ellos studying in kollel the man wink sedimentary rumors as you know my wife had a reformed conversion so she's not really Jewish but we never told my daughter because we don't want to upset her and the blood in row I blumenthal's veins ran cold because if his wife is in Jewish that means his daughters I Jewish because by torah law Judaism is passed through the maternal line which means that the grandchildren are not Jewish which means a couple can't be married and Rabbi Blumenthal says to him well you know where does your daughter live till she lives in bnei brak he says well that's very interesting because you know I also live in bayrock what Cole does your son-in-law study yet says oh I forgot the name and something I think he said I think he said base Torah and again rabbi Blumenthal got the second shock because that was his Colo that was a call he was collecting for there was a young man studying under him and under his direction the happy ending is he went back to Israel the necessary conversions were taken care of and everybody lives happily ever after but there's a very important lesson for us to keep in mind imagine 20 years down the line when those grandchildren would have wanted to get married themselves and nobody would have known and then there would have been an investigation of their background would have been determined Jewish at that point there would have been a lot of aggravation for rabbi Blumenthal to meet a cab driver in London where they have a shared acquaintance right under his jurisdiction the odds are astronomically against that but the almighty is that limited by the odds you