Flying High 

Simcha Leiner told me about the time he had a wedding in London on a Thursday night a few days after Tishah B’Av. Simcha had booked a flight back to New York that he was to catch as soon as the wedding was over, because he had a Shabbos Nachamu job at the Woodcliff Lake Hilton. In addition, his family was coming to the hotel to join him for Shabbos. Yet when Simcha arrived at Heathrow, they informed him that the flight was canceled, and the next flight would have him landing on Shabbos.

Simcha was visibly upset, but just then a frum-looking man with a beard approached him, asking if he was, in fact Simcha Leiner. He told Simcha that he was a travel agent, and that he happened to know that there was a first-class seat available on another airline that would get him to New York before Shabbos. The ticket cost was more than he had made for the London wedding, but he knew he had no other choice. He landed in Newark eight hours later, and made it to the Woodcliff Hilton with time to spare.

Shloime Dachs recently reminded me of something that happened years ago when I’d organized a concert in Chicago with him together with Dedi Graucher a”h. I booked them economy tickets — but Dedi had this charming way with words and he always managed to talk himself into first class. On the other hand, Shloime ended up in the last row of coach, where he sat down and got ready for the flight. A few minutes after takeoff, a stewardess approached Shlome and said, “Your brother asked that you come to first class. He has a seat for you.”

Shloime quickly figured out who that “brother” was, and when he entered the first-class section, he saw how Dedi had become the center of attention — all the other passengers were cracking up at his exploits and jokes, as if they’d known him for a lifetime.