This is the story of a miracle granted to a young Israeli couple on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which marks the giving of the Torah to the Jewish People at Mount Sinai, which begins Saturday night at the closing of the Sabbath.
Wednesday night at 8 pm Yonatan from Miami picked up the phone — a chosson (groom) who married two days earlier in Israel and who said he wanted to make sheva brochot, the traditional celebration after a wedding in which seven blessings are recited for a new couple. He and his wife were staying in a hotel at the Dead Sea, he said.
They had planned that at the end of their meal at the hotel they would simply ask for a minyan of Jews to remain and to recite the seven traditional blessings over a cup of wine, but they discovered to their dismay that it was just their luck that the hotel was hosting a Gentile group, and there were no Jews.
Uh oh. “Now what?” they thought.
True Israelis, they quickly realized there had to be a Chabad House in the area, somewhere.
A quick search on Google sent them to Rabbi Shimon Elharar, Chabad-Lubavitch emissary and director of Chabad of the Dead Sea, whom they called immediately (and who told the story in an exclusive interview with JewishPress.com.)
“Can you make sheva brochot for us? We are here at the Dead Sea,” Yonatan asked.
Within two hours, – by 8 pm – Rabbi Elharar’s wife and co-emissary, Rina Elharar had organized a complete, traditional sheva brochot celebration for the new couple, including food, enough Jewish men for the required quorum of ten for a minyan to recite the seven wedding blessings, and guests to celebrate with both husband and wife.
Not one actually knew the couple prior to the celebration, but it didn’t matter at all. “We all know each other from ancient times,” Elharar told JewishPress.com. “We are all one people, and we all stood as one when the Torah was given to us at Mount Sinai, right? That’s all that really matters when Jews gather together. We are one!”