I recently came across a story that has not left my mind.

In the days of the Ksav Sofer, a non-Jewish servant in the Governor’s mansion was caught stealing. Fearing for his life, he hid the stolen goods in the home of a poor, innocent Yid. The authorities searched every house and, of course, “found” the evidence exactly where he had planted it. The Jew was immediately arrested and sentenced to death.

The Ksav Sofer exhausted every connection he had — meeting with askanin, pleading with officials, and trying desperately to save this innocent Yid. But every door was shut. The night before the execution, he fell asleep broken-hearted.

That night, his father, the Chasam Sofer, appeared to him in a dream and said: “My son, why are you sleeping? An innocent Yid is about to die!”

The Ksav Sofer replied, “Tatte, I’ve done everything I can. Nothing worked.”

And the Chasam Sofer answered: “Did you gather the whole shtut  (town) for Tehillim and Tefillah?”

He awoke with a start. Before dawn, the Ksav Sofer gathered everyone — men, women, and children — to cry out in tefillah and say Tehillim together. The next morning, the judge — without any apparent reason — decided to question the servant again. Caught off guard, the man broke down and confessed. The innocent Yid was freed.

That was one person, one yid, and one tzaddik who refused to give up — who understood that when all earthly avenues fail, there remains one path that never closes: the gate of Tefillah.

What about us?

Today, in New York (and all our neighbors in New Jersey who think that this does not affect them) we face an existential threat to a city of over a million Yidden. The atmosphere grows darker by the day. We’ve seen candidates and ideologies that openly express disdain for Torah values, for Klal Yisroel, for Eretz Yisroel. We see the winds shifting, policies taking shape that could make life for our community harder, less secure, and less free.

And yet — where is our outcry? Are we gathering for Tehillim? Are we crying out to the Eibishter the way the Ksav Sofer’s kehillah did for one innocent Yid?

We talk politics. We discuss Cuomo versus Mamdani versus Sliwa. We analyze the polls, the endorsements, the numbers. But who among us has said, “Ribono Shel Olam — You run this city. You run this world. You decide what happens”?

Do we believe that a yeshuah comes from politicians? From strategists? From party machines? No. We have one Avinu Shebashamayim. Only one address. Only one power that decides who sits in City Hall, in the governor’s mansion, or in the White House.

It’s time we remembered who we are.

We need Yemei Tehillim and Tefillah in all five boroughs — in shuls, yeshivos, batei midrash, and homes. We need to remind the Eibishter that we know “Ein od milvado.” That we are His nation and we turn only to Him.

If the Ksav Sofer could move Heaven and Earth for one person, what could a million Yidden accomplish if we would unite in tefillah and bitachon?

Politics will run its course. But our destiny is not decided in polling booths — it is decided in Shamayim.

Let us show the Eibishter that we remember that truth. Let us cry out, together: “Shma koleinu Hashem Elokeinu, chus verachem aleinu!”

Now is the time.

Signed,

T.S.

TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to [email protected]