“I know that you’re a metzuyan,” he said with a smile. “Your mother has told my wife a lot about you!”
Nadav Portal was a star athlete and a member of the Herzliya Maccabi soccer team. A friend brought him along to a session of Lev L’Achim’s Mitchazkim program, and with time he began to grow serious about Judaism, his journey taking him from basic Torah study to shemiras Shabbos and onward. Nadav’s mother, wanting to understand what it was that her son found so interesting about Judaism, embarked on a journey of her own. She signed up to a Lev L’Achim program called Kav L’Lev, where she was connected with a frum mentor, Mrs. Gita Finkel, with whom she would study Torah over the phone.
One day, Mrs. Portal informed Mrs. Finkel that her son was hoping to be accepted into Yeshivas Mir and would be taking a farher in a few days’ time, and that she was very anxious about it. “Mir is a wonderful yeshivah,” Mrs. Finkel informed her. “My husband is an avreich there. We’ll say some chapters of Tehillim together so that Nadav be accepted.”
The big day came. Nadav entered the office of Mir Rosh Yeshivah, Rav Leizer Yudel Finkel, doing his best to hide his nerves.
“M-m-my name is Nadav Portal,” he said. “I would like to join the yeshivah.”
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