The Lost Tefillin — and the Dreams That Brought Them Home

At a recent shiur, Rabbi Shlomo Farhi shared a story that moved the entire room, a story that offers a rare and powerful glimpse of how Hashem sometimes lifts the curtain, just enough, for us to see His hand.

It began with a member of the community, we’ll call him Daniel.

Just days earlier, Daniel had lost his tefillin. He searched everywhere: every drawer, every bag, his car, his office. He even called his mother, hoping maybe he had left them with her. Anyone who’s ever misplaced something precious, especially something as sacred as tefillin, knows the feeling: frustration, anxiety, helplessness.

That night, Daniel went to sleep with a heavy heart.

And then he dreamed.

In the first dream, he was standing in front of a boarded-up Starbucks, trying to get inside. Once in, he saw something completely unexpected, his tefillin, right there in the coffee shop.

He woke up confused. Shook it off. Went back to sleep.

Then came a second dream. Again, the same Starbucks. Again, the tefillin. This time, a woman inside spoke to him, though her words slipped away by morning. Still no answers.

The third dream was different. It felt real. Tangible. In the dream, the woman behind the counter handed him his tefillin. He held them in his hands. It felt like he had recovered part of his soul.

That morning, he knew he couldn’t ignore it.

Daniel got up and went to the Starbucks from his dreams. He searched. Asked around. Nothing.

He came back a second time. Still nothing.

And then, just like in the dream, on the third visit, as he was about to leave, the manager stopped him.

“Excuse me,” she said. “Are you looking for a bag?”

He nodded.

She reached behind the counter and pulled it out.

His tefillin.

Three dreams. Three visits. In the dream, he received them for the third time. In real life, it happened the same way.

There’s no scientific explanation for it. No logical formula. But it happened. And it changed him.

Daniel came back to shul. Back to tefillah. Back to a connection that had somehow grown deeper, because now he had noticed the One guiding him all along.

As Rabbi Farhi concluded, “Hashem guides us whether we see it or not. But when we do see it, when we notice, it becomes something more. It becomes personal.”

Sometimes, we need to search. Sometimes, we need to dream. And sometimes, we just need to go back a third time… to find what was always waiting for us.