The Long Ride Home
One Friday evening, I hosted a number of unaffiliated Jews at my Shabbat table. Although they were nonobservant, they did have an awareness of a Creator. These people had never before seen how a Shabbat meal can be both physically and spiritually satisfying. After Birkat Hamazon, they found it difficult to leave and return home.
A few of them, unfortunately, ordered taxis to take them home, in spite of the violation involved. But others had been influenced by the sanctity of Shabbat and opted to walk home.
One couple stayed for some time afterward, hesitating as to which way they should get home. On the one hand, they did not want to spoil the atmosphere of serenity, to which they had been exposed these past few hours. On the other hand, the woman said she was afraid to walk home and insisted they travel with their car. Wasn’t personal safety a top priority in Judaism?
Reluctantly, the man followed his wife’s advice. He offered a silent prayer that she should change her mind at the last minute. But he had no such luck. They got into the car and his wife turned on the ignition.
Heaven saw the man’s distress at desecrating Shabbat, and decided to help him out. Although this was a new car, something unexpectedly went wrong. His wife could not get the motor running. The car remained still as stone and would not move. The couple was stunned by this and understood that they were being deterred from desecrating Shabbat. They were left with no choice but to walk home.
When the man told me this story, I encouraged him to continue keeping Shabbat. I quoted Chazal’s words, “In the way a man wishes to go, he is led.” During the meal, this man accepted Torah and mitzvot upon himself. Therefore, he received Heavenly assistance to observe Shabbat.
His wife’s claim that walking home in the dark was dangerous did have credence. But it came from the Yetzer Hara. She had not accepted a Torah lifestyle to the same extent as her husband, therefore, the Yetzer Hara was able to convince her to sin, with the alibi that she was concerned for her safety. It was only in her husband’s merit that she was spared from desecrating Shabbat.
