Rachel Imenu, the Matchmaker

Rachel Imenu, the Matchmaker

A few years ago, 4 of my children, 3 older Israeli women, and I were squished inside a hotel Shabbat elevator sloooowly making our way up to 7th floor of my parents hotel, and this is the amazing story one of the women shared along the way…

“I am divorced, and a few years ago my only daughter was 38 years old and still not married. Such a sweet girl, but she’d never met the right one.

“I was so heartbroken about my daughter that on Rachel Imenu’s yahrzeit I took the bus to her tomb, and as I stood among the crowds of women, even though I was still very far away from the tomb, I cried out so bitterly to Hashem! I prayed ‘Hashem! You are the father of orphans and widows, and I am like a widow because I have no husband! Please, Hashem, have mercy on me and my daughter and help her finally get married this year!

“I was crying so much and became so upset that I fainted right there in the middle of the crowd of women! The crowd cleared to give me air and a policewoman came over to me and helped me get up. She decided to clear a path through the crowds and took me right to the tomb, and she stood by me for a long time, maybe half an hour, while I prayed and cried about my dear daughter to Hashem in the merit of Mama Rachel!

“About two weeks later my daughter was introduced to lovely man, and just two months after I davened at Rachel’s tomb, I danced with my daughter at her wedding!

My daughter told me, “Eema, you know what? Rachel Imenu was my shadchanit!”

🙂

8 comments

  1. Jenny, how do you get people to tell you their stories in the elevator?:)

    • I was also thinking about it– how it’s a miracle that every day Hashem sends me stories to share! in the elevator, at the cell phone shop, on the light rail…

  2. to noga :))!

  3. that was so beautiful, made me cry:)

    A long time ago there was a woman who had a website for the craziest dating stories. I always wondered how she managed to have crazy stories. They just got funnier and funnier and they kept coming! I came to the conclusion — when you have a website for something specific, Hashem helps along the process by bringing the situations to you! You get the stories, because you are the “sharer”. When you set out on a mission to find Hashem in your day — you will find Him!

    • This is so strange, my name is Sara and I was about to write this exact comment. But I have no recollection of ever having read this post before or writing this so I’m assuming this wasn’t me!

      • Scratch that, I see this is an old post that you just re-posted! So that probably was me many years ago!

  4. Beautiful story. Thanks for sharing. I hope your parents enjoyed their visit even with all the tension and violence Hashem Yerachaim.

  5. What brought tears to my eyes in this story, was how the policewoman made way for her to get to the tomb, and gently stood by her for a long time. In this country, we are all sisters. The policewoman felt that woman’s pain.
    We may be strangers to each other, but we are connected, we are one.

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