If you’re a girl who’s looking to get married all you have to do is go to Yoram Mukades’s Tashmishei Kedushah store at Etzel 52, Shchunat Hatikvah, Tel Aviv and buy a tallit. The tallit should fit the kind of guy you want to marry – Ashkenazi, Sepharadi, tall, short, modest, colorful and b’ezrat Hashem you won’t have long to wait.
It all started a few years ago when a non-observant, 35-year-old unmarried girl Sari* went to see a rabbi at her father’s behest. The rabbi, Rabbi Ben Tov, zt”l, told the girl it was a segulah to buy a tallit for her future husband to wear under the chuppah and God-willing when she has the tallit, the husband will come.
So the girl entered Yoram’s store and asked for a tallit and told him why she wanted it. She bought the tallit, and while they’re talking, the phone rings. An associate of Yoram’s asks him if he knows anyone suitable for his nephew who’s an older single and wants to get married. Yoram, sensing the hashgacha pratit, says, “I have just the girl.” The two dated for a few weeks and came back to the store to announce their engagement (and buy another tallit because the one Sari had bought was too small).
The story was publicized.
Another girl walks into the store and buys a tallit for the same reason. Once the tallit is wrapped, she starts looking around the store. Yoram asks her if there’s anything else he can help her with. She says, “No, no. I’m just waiting for the phone to ring.”
Taken aback, Yoram says, “It doesn’t work that way,” but then he decided to do some hishtadlut and called a nearby matchmaker and gave her the girl’s number. And again, a few months later, the girl returned with her chattan.
Well that started a whole movement – towards Yoram’s store. To date, Yoram has sold hundreds of tallitot that have been given to hundreds of grooms who have appeared miraculously in the girls’ lives shortly after they bought tallitot there.
There seems to be something about this particular segulah and this particular store with this particular merchant (no one wants to deal with any of the hired help) with maybe a continued bracha from the Next World from Rabbi Ben Tov. But no one can argue with the resulting success.
Yoram has more stories about other merchandise that brought about miracles. In a related story, a not-yet-observant man came into the store wanting Yoram to give him a free pair of tefillin and he would be a partner in the mitzvah of putting it on. Yoram said he couldn’t do that as this was a business but he was happy to make him a payment plan if he needed. The guy only had a couple of hundred shekels and the tefillin costs six times that. Another non-observant man, who had come into the store, offered to make up the difference. When the first man left, Yoram asked him why he had done it.
The man answered, “I’m not a religious man but I believe in God, I figure this way I’ll have a part in his mitzvah.” The man bought a kippah for five shekels, and when he wrapped it for him, Yoram put the pamphlet in which the story of the girl with the tallit had been published.
A half hour later, the guy calls him on the phone and says, “Listen, I read the story about the girl and the tallit, is it true?” Yoram told him it was. “Look,” he continued, “I want to share something very personal with you. My wife and I have an only daughter, 28 years old, beautiful, a stewardess for EL AL, with a Master’s degree but she’s not married. She finds a reason to reject everyone. We desperately want her to get married, we want grandchildren. Do you think it would help if we bought the tallit?”
Yoram answered, “Look, a tallit is a segulah but tefillin is a mitzvah from the Torah. Buy a pair of tefillin, put them on every day and let that be a merit for your daughter to get married.” The guy wasn’t interested. After further thought, he added, “Look I’ll make you a deal, I’ll buy my daughter a tallit for her future betrothed and if it works and she gets married within a year, I’ll come and buy a pair of tefillin.”
Seven months later he called Yoram back. “Yoram, prepare a pair of tefillin; my daughter didn’t even know about the tallit and it worked, she got engaged.” He came to the store, picked up the tefillin, the customers put on music and danced and threw candies at him.
So the next time you want to go on a tour of kivrei tzaddikim and the Kotel or ask a few rabbis for their blessings, I suggest you add to your itinerary Yoram’s store of religious articles. Shechunat Hatikvah, where a miracle can be bought for the price of a mitzvah.
If you can’t get there personally, there has also been success in ordering the tallit to be sent by mail. Please email Yoram at [email protected] to order. And tell him where you read about it, I also need a shidduch for my son.
* Name has been changed.