Not Just a Shabbos Goy

It’s Friday afternoon and Richardo Virgil Virgo — Virgil for short — a black gentile who moved toNew York from his nativeJamaica in 2001 is busy preparing his shul for Shabbos.

It’s quiet at this hour. While the Jewish families who will come to daven on Friday night and Shabbos morning are home preparing for the Shabbos Queen Virgil is careful not to overlook any details. He’s picked up the wine and groceries from local shops and cholent and kugel from restaurants and delis. Virgil has placed the cooked food in a warmer “so it’s nice and warm for the kiddush” on Shabbos morning he says. He cleans the floors and sorts the seforim lines up the chairs and sets the tables covering them with white tablecloths. Occasionally he picks up a printed pamphlet with Torah material and quietly reads stories to himself for inspiration. He puts the soda and nosh in the rooms where the kids’ program is held Shabbos afternoon.

No one would have known just a few hours earlier before Virgil arrived that this empty space was a shul. Beis Shmuel in the CrownHeightssection of Brooklyn is located in the basement hall of a building that doubles as a boys’ high school. The hall which is often used to hold simchahs events and lectures during the week is now transformed.

One recent Friday afternoon the president of Beis Shmuel Moshe Pinson stopped by the shul and informed Virgil that there would be a larger kiddush that Shabbos. “I saw the cheesecake ” Virgil told him. “So I know it’s Shabbos Mevarchim.”