Believe in Miracles

Jenine Shwekey is in Eretz Yisrael accompanying a student at her beloved Special Children’s Center as he fulfills a dream and Yaakov is holding down the fort.

He’s doing an adequate job with bedtime; a much better job with the positive reinforcement showering his fourteen-year-old daughter with thanks for her impressive attempt at supper. At a certain point he gives up on trying to get the kids to bed. He sighs but his eyes give him away. He’s enjoying himself reveling in the casual ease of his family and home.

“Good ” he says relaxed. If he’s going to be interviewed he doesn’t want to be seen backstage doing last-minute pre-performance prep but right here amidst the happy chaos of his family. To Yaakov Shwekey all of this — the children his home and community in Deal the blessed routine of life — aren’t just gifts. They are the secret of what makes him who he is.

“Yaakov Shwekey,” reflects Rabbi Benzion Shafier of TheShmuz.com and one of Yaakov’s rebbeim from yeshivah, “is a chiddush. When he goes out in public, it’s like whoever the rock stars are today. People want to connect with him. There is adulation and praise, yet he’s so grounded. Sure, it takes work on his end, but if you’d meet his wife and family you’d understand.”

Shwekey appreciates the comment. Part of Hashem’s plan for him, he reflects, included eight years in an intense mussar yeshivah — the perfect setting to prepare him for what was to come.

Yaakov Shwekey was born in Israel, and moved to America with his family when he was seven.

He attended Yeshiva of Brooklyn, but as a teenager, he felt like he wanted a change. “I came into the kitchen one day and heard my mother on the phone. Her friend was telling her about a branch of the Chofetz Chaim yeshivah, and it sounded intriguing.” Yaakov prepared for his bechinah, feeling confident that he knew the designated amud of Gemara, but when he arrived for his meeting, Rosh Yeshivah Rabbi Menachem Davidowitz told him to close the Gemara. “Don’t read. Just answer one question: Do you want to learn?”