Trouble With The Mafia

Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser shared the following story. There was a young man in Eretz Yisrael named Yoram. He wasn’t religious and had little interest in anything spiritual. One evening he happened to pass a building where a large sign announced a public shiur about emunah. Something about it caught his attention, and he decided to step inside.

Rabbi Yosefi was speaking about belief — believing that things can change, believing in Hashem, believing in the future, believing that even when life looks dark, a person must never give up. He said that sometimes a person needs emunah just to get out of bed and face another day.

Then he told the story of King Chizkiyahu. The prophet Yeshayahu had come to him and told him clearly, “Prepare yourself. You are going to die.” Chizkiyahu begged for a merit to save himself, but the prophet said the decree was sealed.

Chizkiyahu refused to accept it.

“I have a tradition from my fathers,” he said, “that even if a sharp sword is resting on a person’s neck, he must never despair from mercy.”

He turned to the wall and cried to Hashem. Before the prophet had even walked away, Chizkiyahu recovered.

Rav Yosefi emphasized: Never give up. Even when the sword is on the neck.

Yoram couldn’t handle it. “This is unrealistic,” he thought. “A sharp sword on the neck? I can’t believe this.” Filled with doubt and frustration, he walked out of the shiur in the middle.

Not long after, he left Eretz Yisrael and traveled to the Far East, like many searching souls. He couldn’t find work. He didn’t know the language. He became desperate. Eventually, he got involved in shady dealings and became a messenger for a local mafia group.

They liked him. He was small, agile, clever. He climbed the ranks.

One day, the head of the mafia handed him a suitcase.

“Deliver this. If you succeed, you get $30,000.”

Yoram understood that if they were paying that much, the contents were extremely dangerous. On the train, he opened the suitcase and saw illegal, life-threatening merchandise. He quietly took some money out and put it in his pocket.

When he arrived, the mafia boss opened the suitcase.

“Something is missing.”

Yoram said nothing.

The boss called his contacts. “It’s missing! I’m going to kill him!”

He grabbed a sword from the wall and pressed the sharp blade against Yoram’s neck.

And suddenly, in that exact moment, the words of Rav Yosefi came back to him:

“Even if a sharp sword is resting on your neck, never despair.”

For the first time in years, Yoram turned to Hashem.

“Ribono Shel Olam, maybe I denied You. Maybe I rejected You. But right now I believe in You completely. If You save me, I will return to You.”

He began to cry.

Suddenly, there was furious knocking on the door.

It was the mafia boss’s wife.

“What are you doing? You’re going to kill him?! Remember the earthquake a couple years ago? The debris trapped me and the children. This man — this man! — was the only one who moved the rubble with his bare hands and saved us!”

The boss was stunned.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said to Yoram. “But if my wife says it, I believe her. You have one day to disappear from this city forever.”

Yoram fled immediately and returned to Yerushalayim.

He ran to Rav Yosefi and told him everything.

“Your words were fulfilled exactly. The sword was on my neck. I believed. And Hashem saved me.”

But the strangest part?

Yoram had never been at the earthquake. He had never saved anyone.

He realized that sometimes Hashem sends help in ways a person cannot even understand.

And that is the power of true emunah — believing when there is no logical explanation left.