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Sometimes, the experiences that impact us the most are the ones we almost miss.

After finishing my regular army service, I was back in yeshiva, having recently begun my studies for the Israeli Rabbinate, on my way to the beit midrash (study hall) when I encountered a student whose face I did not recognize; he appeared to be upset, and looked as though he had been crying. I asked him if he was OK, and he nodded in the affirmative. He was a new student who had just arrived from England, probably a bit homesick, and I resolved to find him later during dinner to make sure he was OK.

After minchah, Rav Amital, zt”l, the head of the yeshiva, was due to give a lecture that we had been preparing for all morning. I didn’t want to miss it, but I couldn’t get that student off my mind.

I had seen Rav Amital during minchah, but now he was nowhere to be seen, but everyone remained in their seats waiting for him to return to begin his lecture. But I still couldn’t get this student off my mind, and after a few more minutes of waiting, I realized I probably wouldn’t be able to concentrate on the lecture, so I decided to take a risk and see if the boy was downstairs or outside in the large courtyard. When I stepped out into the courtyard I indeed found the student, but he wasn’t alone, and his face was no longer sad. Rav Amital was talking to him, and the two of them were laughing. Much later, when I finally got to know the boy, and was able to ask him what they had been talking about without the risk of embarrassing him, it transpired that he had indeed been incredibly homesick, and was considering leaving the yeshiva.

The thought of sitting through yet another lecture was too much for him, and he decided to go for a walk and do some thinking. Rav Amital, who had apparently gone to the yeshiva office for a moment, was returning to deliver his lecture and noticed the student with the same long face. And with an entire yeshiva of hundreds of students waiting upstairs, he stopped to chat with the boy and cheer him up.