We arrived in Nigeria on Wednesday morning. We immediately got to work, calling locals, visiting people and inviting them to the Shabbat meal, our “Model Matzah Bakery,” and the seder itself. People were excited to speak to us and many of them were interested in getting shemura matzah as well. All told 150 people reserved matzah with us. While all seemed to be150 people reserved matzah with us going as planned, we suddenly got word that our shipment of matzah and wine was seized by customs. We were able to secure a shipment of matzah and wine from France, but we there was a lot of doubt if there would be enough for everyone who wanted.
Friday came and we prepared for a dozen guests to join us for the meal. We were incredibly disappointed to find out when Shabbat was approaching that some local festival was making it difficult for people to get to us. They were all canceling!
We brought in Shabbat but no one came. After two hours of waiting, we decided to call it a night and daven maariv and eat the Shabbat meal alone. You can’t imagine our shock and delight when an one Israeli guy walked through the door. Unlike the others, he lived close enough to walk, so he was able to avoid the festival traffic!
During the meal we mentioned the issue we were having securing matzah and wine for Passover. We were somewhat surprised that when we mentioned our predicament, he became very excited.
“You won't believe this,” he told us. “I just startedThe Divine providence of this meeting was truly amazing working on importing Israeli wine to Nigeria and the companies I'm working with sent me a batch of sample bottles. I can give you guys whatever I have for the seder!”
The Divine providence of this meeting was truly amazing. Even though our shipment from France arrived on erev Yom Tov, we saw that without his bottles, we would never have had enough matzah and wine for the 60 guests who joined us for the Seder. What’s more, we’ve managed to continue our connection with him, and when he visits New York over Sukkot, he’s going to join us in Crown Heights!
