Twenty-eight years after losing his tefillin just before his bar mitzvah, Reb Shmuel Raigorodsky was reunited with them through a chain of unlikely events spanning Los Angeles to Texas. A forgotten bag in a cab, a shliach in Texas, and remarkable timing brought the tefillin back home at last.
By Anash.org reporter
A remarkable story of hashgacha protis recently reunited Reb Shmuel Raigorodsky with the tefillin he lost 28 years ago – just days before his bar mitzvah.
As a young boy in Los Angeles, Shmuel had accidentally left his backpack with his tefillin in the back driveway of his family’s home. By morning, it was gone. He and his family searched everywhere, even checking dumpsters along Fairfax and Melrose Avenue, but the tefillin had vanished. The loss was painful, especially so close to such a significant milestone. Eventually, they gave up hope of ever recovering them.
Fast forward 28 years.
Last Sunday, out of the blue, Reb Shmuel received a call from Rabbi Mendy Kesselman, a shliach in Frisco, Texas.
“Someone just walked into my Chabad House with a pair of tefillin,” he said. “I posted about it in a few groups, and someone passed me your number. Can I send you a picture?”
The non-Jewish man who brought the tefillin in had recently lost his father and was sorting through his father’s belongings. Among the items was a pair of tefillin in the classic Chabad velvet bags, complete with a clear plastic cover, a worn Chitas, and both Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam pairs.
As it turns out, his father had been a cab driver in Los Angeles decades earlier. One night, he apparently found the bag in the back of his cab, didn’t know what it was, and simply put it away. Before he passed, he asked his son to try to return it to its rightful owner.
His son had no idea what tefillin were, but figured a local Jewish center might be able to help, so he brought them to Rabbi Kesselman’s Chabad House in Frisco.
Rabbi Kesselman immediately recognized the tefillin as Lubavitch, and the Los Angeles connection prompted him to reach out to his brother, Rabbi Moshe Kesselman, a shliach in Los Angeles.
“Do you know someone named Shmuel Raigorodsky?” he asked.
“Do I know him? He’s sitting right next to me giving a shiur!” Rabbi Moshe replied.
In disbelief, Reb Shmuel confirmed every detail: yes, he lost his tefillin 28 years ago. Yes, that’s his name on the bag. And yes, it was right before his bar mitzvah.
But the story didn’t end there.
That night, Rabbi Yossi Burston – a friend of Reb Shmuel – received a message from him saying he’d heard he travels to Dallas often and needed a favor. Rabbi Burston hadn’t seen the message until the next morning—but remarkably, he happened to be in Dallas that very day.
“I called him right away,” Rabbi Burston said. “He told me the whole story, and I said, it would be my z’chus to pick them up.”
He arranged to meet Rabbi Kesselman at a midpoint between Dallas and Frisco, picked up the tefillin, and brought them back to Reb Shmuel. Nearly three decades later, the tefillin were finally reunited with their owner.
LISTEN:
Reb Shmuel Rogorotsky
Reb Yossi Burston
I was a Bar Mitzvah around this time. This was the hottest style.
Let’s bring it back.
A basic Chitas and velvet embroidered bags. Why are we spending $600 or more nowadays on Teffilin bags?
Just a correction to the story. The guy who brought the tefillin was a yid. He went to valley torah in Los Angeles in the 80s.
Great story. What a journey!
My friend Leo just told me this story. He is the one who found it and told me to google the story. Wow!