Directed by the Rebbe

It was a few days before Pesach, and a chossid from Arizona was passing by the Rebbe. The Rebbe, unexpectedly, stopped the chossid and remarked: “You are going to ____ (here the Rebbe named a small city in Texas), I would like you to bring these 2 pounds of Matzos to ____ (here the Rebbe named a person living in that city).

The chosid made a quick calculation. The small city in Texas that the Rebbe had named did not have direct flights, neither from NY nor to Arizona. To travel there in person would mean to lose 2 complete days, which would result in him arriving home Erev Pesach. He didn’t think that he could manage that. He did, however, attach great importance to the personal shlichus that was given to him by the Rebbe, so he decided that as soon as he would arrive home, he would go straight to the post office and ship the package to the desired destination.

(as if the Rebbe couldn’t have had it shipped without that chossid)

This chossid duly boarded his flight with the precious package, and began his journey to his own hometown. However, en route they encountered an unexpected difficulty: The plane suddenly developed engine trouble, and the captain instructed everyone to fasten their seat belts, because they would need to make an emergency landing. As the passengers complied, the captain got onto the loudspeaker again, and informed them where they would be making their unscheduled stopover for repairs. And – you guessed it – it was none other than in the small municipal airport in the small city in Texas to which the Rebbe had originally sent the chossid!

Now, we can think that, under these circumstances, the chossid would get the message to stop fighting his destiny, and to resolve, instead, to obey his instructions. But our chossid had other ideas: Now he was losing even more time, and a detour was even less feasible (even though he was already in the right locality). He still retained his initial plan, to send the package by post.

While he was in the airport with his fellow passengers, waiting for their aircraft to be declared sky-worthy, he was approached by a local Jew. “Are you Rabbi ___”, he was asked. “Do you have a package for me?”

That’s right, that person was his intended recipient, who came to the chossid to pick up his matzos!