Visions of Greatness - vol.3

Jewish inspirational stories

by Rabbi Yosef Weiss

C.I.S. PUBLISHERS
(732) 905-3000 Fax (732)367-6666

ISBN 1-56062-318-7

Special Delivery

"We are now beginning our descent into the Atlanta airport. Please fasten your seatbelts."

Chaim Fine (name has been changed) checked his seatbelt and luggage, then sat back in his seat. The young man had just started a promising job with a telecommunications company, and a large part of his work involved traveling to various parts of the country for sales trips and meetings. Since Chaim had an appointment in Atlanta on Monday morning, he had taken a Sunday afternoon flight. His plan was to stay over in a Holiday Inn for the night so he could get a fresh start on Monday morning.

The plane landed uneventfully, and Chaim made his way over to the motel.

"Here you go, Mr. Finer. Room 11A is just down the hall, on the ground floor."

Chaim settled down and tried to get some sleep. But the longer he tried, the more restless he became. He tossed from side to side, trying to get comfortable, but he just couldn't fall asleep. Finally, out of sheer exhaustion, he managed to doze off.

The ringing of the phone jerked Chaim awake.

"What's going on?" he mumbled, still half asleep. He reached for the phone. "Yes, hello?"

"Mr. Finer?"

"Yes, speaking."

"This is the front desk. A package was just delivered here for you."

"What? No, it must be a mistake. Forget it/' Chaim mumbled, hanging up the phone.

Chaim turned over and immediately dozed off. But two minutes later, the phone rang again.

"Mr. Finer, this is the desk again. Please come now to take your package."

Now Chaim was wide awake. And he was annoyed.

"What's going on? I'm not taking any package now. It's the middle of the night!"

Chaim banged the phone down. Sure enough, it rang again.

"Please come get your package now, Mr. Finer."

Chaim sighed. What was the matter with that clerk? Couldn't it have waited until the morning? Well, it was already three o'clock, and he was wide awake. "I may as well go and get the package," he grumbled.

Throwing on some clothes, Chaim stumbled out into the hall and made his way over to the front desk. The entire lobby was deserted at this late hour. The clerk was sitting behind his desk, reading a newspaper.

"Okay, I'm Finer," Chaim snapped. "Where's this important package?"

The clerk looked up, startled.

"Excuse me, sir? Was there something you wanted?"

"Yes, the package!" Chaim said impatiently. "You've been calling and telling me about the package, and I came to get it."

The clerk looked bewildered. "I don't know what you're talking about, sir. I don't know about any package here for you, and I certainly haven't been calling anyone."

Now it was Chaim's turn to look puzzled. Had he dreamed the whole thing? But it had felt so real. And he certainly wasn't walking in his sleep now! No, he definitely had talked to someone on the phone. Who could have called him in the middle of the night?

A sudden loud crash down the hall made both men jump. Scores of screaming people began running out of their rooms.

"What's going on?" Chaim yelled. He and the clerk joined the crowd, pushing their way down the hallway to see what was happening.

Chaim finally broke through the crowd. He was standing at the door to his room or rather, at what used to be his room. Now, two of the walls were barely standing, while a third wall had been demolished completely. And there was a wreckage of metal and machinery strewn across the floor, plowing into Chaim's bed, right where he had been sleeping just a few minutes earlier.

Slowly, the story came out. A guest at the hotel had spent the night drinking more than what was good for him. Coming home in a highly intoxicated state, the man had lost control of his car, which had crashed through the wall of the motel, straight into Chaim's bedroom.

Chaim simply couldn't believe it. He whispered a silent thanks to Hashem for the tremendous hashgacha he had just experienced. And Chaim wasn't the only one who understood what had happened. As he raised his eyes, Chaim noticed that the clerk, too, was overcome by what had just transpired. He was staring at Chaim, a look of awe on his face.

When Chaim returned home and related the story to his former rosh yeshiva, his rosh yeshiva remarked, "I'm not enough of a chassid to tell you that you had a revelation of Eliyohu Hanavi. But..."

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