My $1000 Miracle

My $1000 Miracle

I apologize in advance for the TMI, but we Weisbergs have been having lots of toilet trouble. Around February we removed the offending flushing mechanism, so that (theoretically) I could take it to the store and buy a new one that worked. But I hadn’t realized that toilets, and flushing mechanisms in particular, are the snowflakes of household appliances.

That meant that for months I wandered from store to store with my flushing mechanism in a plastic bag, while we Weisbergs and our guests (TMI alert) had to insert our hands into a hole in the wall behind the toilet and pick up the plastic thingamajigg in order to flush. I didn’t enjoy having to explain this to our Shabbat guests between kiddush and handwashing.

But my search for new parts got me nowhere. And anyway, sometime between Purim and Pesach, I lost that plastic bag. It was NOWHERE.
So I ordered new parts online from “The Israeli Center for Toilet Tanks” in Holon. But when the plumber came last week to finally install the new parts, he asked for the original flushing mechanism. Without the contents of that missing plastic bag, he explained, he couldn’t help us. We would have to buy a whole new toilet, which would cost us at least $1000.
I told the plumber that Pesach had come and gone, I had looked everwhere and I hadn’t found that bag. It was hopeless.
But we have a lot of guests. The unsavory explanations between kiddush and handwashing could not continue! I would do anything, ANYTHING necessary to get this fixed.
But $1000?
When the plumber left, I decided to say the special prayer for finding lost objects. I couldn’t find my Aneni, so I searched for “Amar Rebbe Binyamin” online.
I read the words. And then I followed the instructions step by step: give money to charity and light a candle for Rebbe Meir Baal HaNess.
So I took 100 NIS and put it in an envelope for tsedaka. And then I climbed up on a stepladder to reach the cabinet above the stove to get down a candle. And nestled between the oven cleaner and those tealights was a plastic bag.

5 comments

  1. Wowee! That’s amazing! What a great story, so happy for you.

  2. Shira Schreier

    Great story!! Always love a happy ending – especially finding a lost item. Thank you Rebbi Meir Ba’al HaNes!!

  3. So amazing! I keep losing and misplacing stuff lately. Maybe I should give this a try?

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