גדלים תעשה לך על ארבע כנפות כסותך אשר תכסה בה ... (כב-יב)
This is the story of a Talis Katan, a remarkable pair of tzitzis that traveled thousands of miles for one sole purpose: to bring a wayward Jew back into the “folds” of Yiddishkeit. When a young Sephardic French Jew by the name of Josef came to Ramat Aviv, he told over an amazing and truly inspiring story.
Josef, or Jo as he was known, was a young man in his twenties when he decided to leave France and tour the world. His goals were to learn about foreign cultures, experience life firsthand - but mostly to have the adventure of a lifetime. Jo was not raised in a religious home, though it was somewhat traditional. He did have a Bar Mitzvah and was even given a pair of tefillin which he wore sporadically throughout his teen years, but observance was not “for him” as he said, and he didn’t pay it much attention. His mother, however, felt that it was important that her son did not forget his Jewish heritage and packed her son’s tefillin into his bag before he left on his journey. She told him that he should never forget that he was a Jew and impressed upon him the importance of saying the “Shema” prayer wherever he found himself.
Jo left France and headed south towards Africa. He started his tour in rural Madagascar and continued on to a number of other countries in the region. One day, he came to a tiny, forsaken, African tribal village where the people lived in huts and walked barefoot. Here and there a donkey or a horse pulling a cart could be seen struggling through the mud. The village seemed utterly removed from the rest of the world. Jo thought it was quaint and decided to spend the night.
In the morning, as Jo was rummaging through his backpack, he came upon the tefillin that his mother had packed for him. He thought it would be interesting to put on tefillin, right in the middle of a forsaken village: surely no one had ever done that before! Jo put the tefillin on his arm and head as he remembered and then began saying Shema. He used the siddur that was inside the bag and he concentrated deeply. When he came to the words, “Speak to the Jewish people and say to them, and they shall make tzitzis,” he thought to himself, “I don’t have tzitzis! How can I stand here and say that I need to wear tzitzis when I don’t even have a pair?” He felt genuinely sad about the lost opportunity - the mitzvah that he was unable to perform. He knew that it would have meant so much to his dear mother back in France.
The next day, he walked down the dirt path leading out of the village, with his heavy backpack on his shoulders. Suddenly, he encountered an African village woman, holding bundles in her hands. He glanced at her and something caught his attention. When he took another look he noticed that she was wearing a shawl that looked just like ..... tzitzis!
Jo approached her and asked to see her shawl. After a bit of gesturing, the woman handed him the shawl. He examined it closely and saw that it was indeed a woolen Talis Katan with the beracha embroidered in gold letters along the top! Amazing! How could a pair of tzitzis miraculously have turned up in an ancient African village? And just when he was looking for a pair!
Jo just couldn’t get over it! This was too strange to be a coincidence. He asked if he could buy the shawl, using his hands to explain what he wanted. The woman thought he was accusing her of having stolen it. Visibly aggravated, the women tried to communicate that it was, in fact, hers. After great effort, Jo managed to convey to her that he wanted to buy the shawl, and even pointed out the Hebrew letters on it. Eventually she agreed to the purchase.
Now that he had miraculously acquired a pair of tzitzis, Jo made sure to put it on every day followed by his tefillin. When he arrived in India, he met a rabbi in New Delhi and told him the story of the tzitzis. The rabbi befriended Jo and began speaking to him about Judaism. Eventually, he convinced him to go to a yeshiva in Israel, in Ramat Aviv.
How did a Talis Katan end up in a little village in Africa? Not long before, food parcels and American aid had arrived in the area. Included in the packages that were sent was one item wrapped in a white material with fringed corners - a Talis Katan. Evidently it had been sent - by Divine Providence - for the sole purpose of transforming Jo, the wandering French Jew.