The following story was sent to me from a personal friend, a gentleman who davens netz at the Kosel for the past 2.5 decades and is a familiar face at the Holy Site.
“As usual, I was learning at the Kosel this morning. It was many hours before sunrise. I looked up and saw an unusual scene. Really, I should not say unusual because something unusual is always happening at the Kosel. This time it was an elderly Japanese man with two young Japanese women. They were coming through the gate in the fence that separates the men’s section from the women’s section.
“I went over to them. Recalling my few remaining sentences in Japanese from fifty years ago, I told them that the women were to go to the women’s side and that the man should stay on the men’s side. I told him that he needed a head covering. I took him to the stand where the yarmulkes are kept and went back to learning.
“The man walked over to me and said (in slow English), ‘I am an attorney. I am representing the Jewish boys who are in prison in Japan for carrying drugs into the airport.’
“I remembered the case. It was in the local news a couple of months ago. Apparently, some crook convinced those religious boys to take a few religious items and deliver them to someone in Japan. He gave them free tickets to visit a famous Rebbe for their service. The boys did not know it, but those items were hollowed out and filled with dangerous drugs. It turned out that the crook gave them free tickets to hell. Smuggling drugs anywhere in the world is a serious offense, but in Japan it is particularly serious. They face spending the next twenty years of their precious lives in prison for those “free” tickets.
“He continued speaking very slowly, as if he was measuring every word: ‘They asked me if I would come to the Wailing Wall and have someone pray for them.’
“My heart ached. I immediately called out looking up, asking Hashem to help those poor boys. The man folded his hands respectfully in front of his chest and looked up reverently with me as I beseeched Hashem to help them. When I finished praying he was very happy that he was able to fulfill his mission. I turned to him and said, ‘May G-d bless you so that you will be successful in helping those boys.’
‘He thanked me and said that he knows that the boys are innocent and that he will try as much as he possibly can to have them released.”
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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13 Responses
Please daven for the immediate release of the 3 innoncent boys:
Yoel Zeev ben Mirel Risa Chava
Yaakov Yosef ben Raizel
Yosef ben Yuta Rivka
May hashem answer his prayers before years end
I believe the third boys name is Yosef Ben Ita Rifka
anyone explain what the sensation is behind this story?
the sensation is that the friend actually remebered japanese after 50 years and that the lawyer also got a free plane ticket
and that another jew’s heart ached for someone he didnt know
I dont understand is the Agudah or other big orginizations helping they have political power, its not a terrorist country why cant something be done?
just a dumb question – why couldn’t the lawyer just call someone and make that request? why travel from Japan – This story as its being represented makes little sense to me
tina18: he was probably in israel to meet with officials, and when the boys heard he was going, asked him to stop at the kosel to get someone to daven.
At every airport the first question they ask is whether anyone gave you anything to take along. What did these boys answer? Why would someone give three tickets to carry some objects? Why not just mail them? Who shleps to Japan to drop things off? Very strange
I think some Japanese really love Eretz Yisroel and I’ve seen Japanese tour groups coming to the Kosel and praying there. They wear T shirts or hats that say something like Japanese for Israel. It is said that when a non Jew prays at the Kosel Hashem answers his prayers, so let us hope this lawyer’s prayers will be answered.
Where in Judism is a none jew required to have his head covered. It amazes me when I see non-jewish politicians enter a shul or even go to Yad-vashem wearing a yamulka. I believe the practice has come about because non commited jews (in the askanaz world) who are required by Judism to wear a Yalmakah all the time will pretend to be religious by putting on a Yamalkah in a shul. The part about Yad Vsham really puzzles me.
Considering the boys in Jail are Satmar, why would they send someone to the Kosel?
I have a hard time believing that these boys are innocent. When they were offered free tickets, they must have known that there was something not glatt kosher about the trip. (I can’t say for sure that they are guilty, but neither can any of you say for sure that they are innocent.)
I do have rachmonus for them, but I have even more rachmonus for the families of children whose lives are destroyed by drugs.