I want to share an incredible story that I heard third hand. It was told by the great R’ Efrayim Wachsman, about his wife’s grandfather. The story had such a powerful message for me, and I am excited to share it.
The Germans had invaded Poland, and then Belgium, Luxemburg, and Holland. France was next. Many thousands of Jews were trying to escape as far as possible from the German Army, and only Great Britain seemed safe. The journey there could be made easily from Bayeux, a town in the Normandy region of northwestern France, just ten kilometers from the Channel coast, and this became the first destination for many Jews.
R’ Yosef was frantic. It was May, 1940, and the pressure was unbearable. Running from place to place, unsure where he was running to, he knew he simple had to find a way for his wife and three children over the English channel to (relative) safety.
As he was walking near the road to the French beachfront, he noticed a man drinking a beer. He wore all the right clothes – a blue sailor shirt and even an old black cap, tipped to the side. “Are you a sailor? Do you sail to England?” tumbled out the frank and unintroduced statement. “I sure am, Laddie! I’m the captain of a vessel set to sail tomorrow!” R’ Yosef suddenly broke down in front of this complete stranger. “I’m desperate! My wife and kids – we need to get out of here! We’re in grave danger that I can’t begin to describe.”
The captain was taken by this strange but noble man. “Listen. I have an almost empty ship. We set sail in 24 hours. You can bring as many people as you want on board. The only problem is that to get into England you need a Visa stamped into your passport – and EVERYBODY is trying to do that. Go to the main street in Bayeux, you can’t miss the building. Crowds surround it every moment of the day!”
A man with a mission, R’ Yosef started to run the five miles back to town. Without effort he found the main street, and as predicted there was no way he was getting in past the thick crowd. Hundreds surrounded the consulate trying in vain to find a way in. “So close, but so far,” he thought to himself. “I have a way to get there but no way to get a Visa!!”
Out of nowhere the skies opened up! Not regular rain, but a genuine downpour, so hard that after ten minutes people started leaving. Quite unsure whether he’ll get anywhere in this rain, Yosef pushed his way forward through the thinning crowd and somehow managed to find himself INSIDE the consulate! Drenched to the bone, dripping and all, he found himself outside the door that said “The Consulate!” A total neis!
Yosef Knocked and entered. Sitting there, by himself, behind a polished mahogany desk, was the Consul – bi’kvodo uve’atzmo. “Hi and welcome. How can I help you?” asked the official. Yosef was almost speechless. Again, the tension overwhelmed him and he began crying uncontrollably – how his wife and children were stuck and in mortal danger. “England is our only hope. We even have a way of getting there – but just need your approval!”
The Consul looked at Yosef’s, saw the sincerity in his eyes, and thought for some 20 excruciating seconds. “Okay, I can do it! Give me your passport and I’ll get you the stamps you need to get to England!”
Yosef reached into his pocket and was instantly struck with deep horror. There was nothing there. He had left the passports at home!! He had forgotten to bring them! He wasn’t expecting to meet the captain, nor to go to the Consulate. He had no passports!!
This was all too much for R’ Yosef. To find a ship willing to take them and the Consul ready to stamp a visa, but not having the passports and losing everything?! As he fainted, R’ Yosef’s thoughts went along the lines of “This is the absolute worst thing that could have happened! Hashem, why are you bringing me so close just to say no?” He fell to the ground with a bang.
After a few minutes of revival, R’ Yosef came to with a look of resignation in his eyes. “Don’t worry,” said the consul – “I have another solution. You will not leave here empty handed! I am going to write my name on this blank piece of paper and under it I’ll ask for permission to stay in England to be given to anyone bearing this paper. This is an official document, and they will honor it at the border. All you have to do is add the names of your family as they appear on their passports.”
With that, a paper was typed and signed, including spaces to add names. Yosef left the building but started thinking. “Wait a moment! This page is blank. Anybody written on this page will be able to get into England. I have an empty ship leaving tomorrow morning…”
Yosef spent the entire night going from home to home, from street to street – filling EVERY SINGLE INCH of that paper with names, of over two hundred families! Two hundred families!!
The next morning, the captain almost dropped his tobacco onto his newspaper when he looked up to see an entire community of people making their way to his ship! Yosef showed him the paper, and the kind hearted captain smiled broadly as he realised he was going to be the vehicle of life for hundreds of people!
To this very day , thousands of grandchildren of those who escaped Bayeux on that day in May, 1940 have kept in touch with each other. The Visa Paper Community.
***
What a story!! But what is the real message for us, my friends? So many messages!!
If our friend Yosef hadn’t forgotten his passport, what would have happened? The answer is simple: his family would have managed to leave, But the hundreds of others would not have escaped. What seemed like a moment of complete disater was actually a tremendous ge’ula, a true redemption.
As Sefer Bereishis ends and the exile and slavery of Mitzayim starts, these thought should be on our minds. Without Mechiras Yosef there would be no food for the family. Without the slavery of Mitzrayim there would be no Yetziyas Mitzrayim and Matan Torah.
Without chashocha, darkness, there is no recognition of the nehora, light. The trick is to know it in real-time.
