COVID-19 Makes A Shidduch As Couple Meet At Hotel For Coronavirus Patients

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — With all the harsh news about the COVID-19 pandemic, it is uplifting sometimes to hear that good things can come from coronavirus. The following post tells the story of an unusual shidduch meeting:

“Hi, this is Shani Yaakovson, aged 29 and Amir Tzioni aged 34. On Erev Rosh Hashana Shani tested positive for coronavirus and went to the Carlton hotel in Nahariya. At exactly the same time Amir, who was working as a nurse in hospital, tested positive and came to the same hotel. Both of us entered Rosh Hashana with a bad feeling. We had gone to the hotel in order not to infect our families and we were a bit dejected from the virus, the isolation and the uncertainty.

On Rosh Hashana, the day which opens the new year, we prayed in the makeshift shul for good news and opening of the gates. During Tekias Shofar we prayed that we merit building a home. We are single, not young and after many meetings and dates but we didn’t believe that in the dining room of the coronavirus hotel we would find salvation.

In the end everything seems strange: Do we have to say thank you to whoever infected us? To thank the Home Command for the shidduch? To thank a few stubborn guests at the hotel who took the initiative and left us alone in the dining room so that we could talk and get to know each other?

We have heard many times the expression of Chazal “A person’s shidduch is like splitting the Red Sea.” This Shabbos when we read in the Torah about the splitting of the Red Sea we felt for ourselves this miracle. We are engaged! We know how outside of our bubble things are hard, painful and frustrating, so we wanted to publicize our story and give hope to people during this terrible period. We saw on ourselves that even from within the darkness a great light can suddenly spread out.”

Amir added that “I didn’t intend to go there (to the hotel), but since a number of our staff was there, I said: why not go. Shani also didn’t intend to come but two hours before Rosh Hashana the Home Command called her and offered to place her there. Even when we met in the dining room and spoke it didn’t yet happen. It took a few stubborn people to create a situation where we would be together and then to disappear leaving me and her alone – and then it finally happened. This wonderful miracle, that from this disease there will be a new house built in Israel, just proves to me that there are still visible miracles.”