Jeff the Plumber

Yesterday, about an hour before Shabbos, we realized our hot water boiler in the garage was leaking. My husband, being the ever cautious and responsible guy that he is, went on Google and googled the closest plumber in our area.

He called up "Jeff's Plumbing" and within 15 minutes, Jeff, a shortish burly man with a big stomach, short legs and curly strawberry blonde hair and a goatie arrived at our door.
Right away, my hubby told him that it would be our Sabbath in the next 45 minutes and he would not be able to give him any money so he would pay him upfront.

Jeff looked at my candles that were all set up and ready and says, "Oh, I vaguely remember my grandmother used to light candles on Fridays."
This comment definitely sparked mine and my hubby's interest to which we asked him to tell us more about his family.

Turns out, this guy "Jeff" is from Westchester County, NY. (We live about 3000 miles from NY, just to put things in perspective).

He said his grandparents on his mothers side were children in the Holocaust, from Poland and apparently his grandmother and her brother were "traded" for two soldiers and put on a boat to the US.

He said he remembers his grandfather puting on those "black boxes" on his head and arm and how his grandmother always made sure to have "some special part of the chicken" on the Passover table.

He said his two older brothers got "Barmitzvahed" but shortly before his own 13th birthday, his grandfather passed away to which he was rewarded a few hundered dollars on his birthday and told, "Mazel Tov, you are now a man." His Hebrew name is "Pinchas".

He fixed the boiler problem really quickly and we invited him to stay for Kiddish.

He said he hadn't had homemade Challah in over 30 years.

Interesting, the whole story, isn't it?

Then a small little thing happened yesterday as well. I put up an ad on Craigslist to give away an old sofa that we were needing to get rid of. I got a call from a sweet sounding lady and she came over a few hours later to look at it.

As she walked into our house, she see's my hubby and says, "hey, are you a Rabbi?" to which he answered yes. So she tells us that her husband is Jewish and has never been involved in anything Jewish and she would love to encourage him to get back in touch with his roots and asked if it was okay for him to contact us.

Amazing. All these Jews so scattered throughout the world.

You know, it can be so difficult living where we live.

No kosher restaurants or Jewish schools. No Jewish community. My kids have yet to meet a "shomer Shabbos" friend their age.

But I guess its the little stories like these that keep us going.

Looking forward to our trip to NY next month. Should be fun.
A great week to all~