It was about 8:55
in the morning when my phone rang with a name and number that I didn’t
recognize. I usually ignore such calls since they are likely to be from someone
asking me if I’d like solar panels for my home or a pre-approved loan of
$50,000, but for some reason, I answered the call. A man on the other end said
his name was Carlos and that he drives for Uber. He asked to speak to my
husband, saying “I’m trying to reach a Nekemiya Skore. Did he travel to Israel
recently?”
I was sure that my suspicions were correct about this phone
call, but I stayed on the line and told him that he wasn’t available, that he
was talking to his wife, and what exactly could I do for him? He proceeded
to tell me, “I drive for Uber, and I was
cleaning out my car and I found a laptop in the backseat. I don’t go to the
backseat often, so I wasn’t sure who had left it in my car. I opened the
laptop bag, and I found a ticket to Israel with the name Nechemia Schor.”
“Well,
my husband is Nechemia Schor, but he didn’t travel to Israel recently, but it’s
really nice of you to try to return this laptop!” I told him I’d try to think
if I knew anyone else with that name, and he told me he opened the laptop and
found a picture of some children, assuming these were Nechemia Schor’s
children, maybe I’d recognize them. I told him I didn’t know any other Nechemia
Schors but that I’d speak to my husband and call him back if we had any ideas.
My husband was finishing up one of our
morning carpools. I called him right away and told him about the phone call
from Carlos. He said he never met anyone with the same name as his and didn’t
have any ideas. We hung up, and I figured that was it.
However, my husband pulled to the side of
the road as soon as he dropped off the kids at school and downloaded as many
applicable cities as he could from his Smart List app. For those that don’t
know, Smart List is an app that serves as a Jewish phonebook divided by city. (This
is one of the few apps that he has on his “tagged” phone). He downloaded
Williamsburg, Boro Park, the Five Towns, Satmar, Monsey, etc. and finally found
one Nechemia Schor who lived in Boro Park. He called him, and the call went
something like this:
“Hello,” a tired, distracted voice answered
right away.
“Hi, my name is Nechemia Schor. Is your
name Nechemia Schor?”
“Yes...um…what was that? Who is this?”
“I know this sounds funny, but my name is
also Nechemia Schor and I’m trying to find someone by our name that recently
traveled to Israel.” He went on to explain the reason why.
Well, Nechemia Schor #2 said he had a
cousin, Nechemia Schor, in Monsey, but he doubted he recently went to Israel. My
husband told him he could text him a picture of the man’s children so he’d know
if it was his cousin. He said he didn’t have texting, but he could email it to
him...and that his email address was very easy to remember;
it was nechemiaschor@yyyy.com.
“So you are the guy that took that email
address!” my husband exclaimed. They chuckled together at the strangeness
of having the same unusual name. He proceeded to email him the picture and then
drove on his way.
A few minutes later, my husband received a
phone call from Nechemia Schor #3. “Hi! I heard you found my laptop!” said an
excited Nechemia Schor. “My cousin just called and said you found it!”
My husband told him about the kind Uber
driver, Carlos, and gave him his number so he could get in touch with him
directly.
Nechemia Schor #3 was so grateful and told
my husband, “You aren’t going to believe this! Just this morning I realized I
was missing my laptop. You see, I just came back from Eretz Yisrael after
staying there for a week, and I figured I had left my laptop at home. Once I
got home and saw that I had indeed brought it along on my trip, I was heartbroken.
I have everything on that laptop! I have Otzar HaChochma (an expensive
Hebrew library of every sefer ever
written), I have tons of chidushei Torah that I’ve written up – more than
400 pages! – along with all my work-related items, all on that lost laptop! When
I realized about an hour ago that it was really lost, I called my father, who
was still in Eretz Yisrael, and asked him to please daven that I find my lost
laptop! And now, less than an hour later I got a call from my cousin saying an
Uber driver found it!”
I was amazed at how all the parts
of this story came together to make a happy ending. First, the Uber driver took
the trouble to try to trace the owner of the laptop. Second, my husband didn’t
just shrug his shoulders and say, “Forget about it.” And the power of tefillah provided the finishing touch. Indeed,
although the laptop had been lost for a while, Nechemia Schor #3 had just
noticed that it was missing and asked his father to daven for him, and an hour
later he had it back!
