The Tefillin Were Stolen And Then Miraculously Returned

A heartfelt story of faith, divine timing, and a prayer answered through the merit of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes

When Baruch Salzberg, a Jewish man from the United States, discovered someone had broken into his car and stolen his tefillin and tallit bag, his heart sank. He sighed, accepted what happened, and figured he’d have to order new ones. The police had more pressing matters to deal with than stolen religious items, and he didn’t expect to ever see them again.

That very evening, Baruch went to visit the local sofer (Torah scribe) to order new tefillin. After hearing what happened, the scribe handed Baruch a small card. Printed on it was a short prayer known for helping recover lost items, connected to the merit of the great Tanna (sage) Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes. The scribe explained the custom: make a small pledge to give charity in Rabbi Meir’s merit and say “Eloka d’Meir aneini” (G-d of Meir, answer me) three times.

Baruch, who considered himself a rational and practical man, had heard of the prayer before but never tried it. He was skeptical. The scribe smiled and said gently, “What do you have to lose?”

Baruch chuckled. “Fine. I’ll say the prayer and give tzedakah (charity), but I don’t really believe it’ll help.” He placed his order for new tefillin and added with a smile, “If a miracle happens and the old ones come back, I’ll donate the new ones to someone in need.”

When Baruch got home, he said the prayer three times, pledged to give tzedakah in Rabbi Meir’s honor, and put the matter out of his mind.

The next day, at around two o’clock in the afternoon, Baruch’s phone rang. On the line was Meir Kleiner, a religious Jew from Baltimore whom Baruch knew only slightly. Meir’s father-in-law prayed at the same synagogue as Baruch’s father-in-law in Monsey, New York. Because of that connection, they’d occasionally run into each other during holidays or Shabbat visits.

Meir Kleiner, who worked in business and occasionally dealt with pawn shops, had received a call earlier that morning from someone named Meir Glazer. Glazer, a non-observant Jew, ran a pawn shop in downtown Baltimore. That morning, a regular customer had come into the store holding a tallit and tefillin bag. “I found this in an alley,” the man told Glazer. “It looks like something religious, right?”

Glazer didn’t keep mitzvot himself, but he recognized the items as Jewish prayer articles. Not knowing what to do, he called the only religious Jew he knew Meir Kleiner and asked him to come take a look.

When Kleiner arrived and saw the bag, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Embroidered on the tefillin bag was a familiar name: Baruch Salzberg. “I know who this belongs to,” he told Glazer. “His father-in-law davens (prays) with my father-in-law. I can get his number and let him know.”

Glazer, relieved that the bag would be returned to its rightful owner, happily gave Kleiner the tefillin to take with him.

And so, not even a full 24 hours after Baruch said the special prayer and gave his pledge to tzedakah, his tefillin were found and returned to him completely intact and ready to use.

“Just look at all the Divine Providence here,” Baruch reflected afterward. “The thief could’ve tossed the bag in the garbage. But instead, he left it in an alley. The man who found it brought it to a pawn shop owned by a Jew, one of the only ones in that area. That shop owner only knew one observant Jew, and that Jew just happened to know me!”

Baruch didn’t forget the playful promise he had made to the scribe. He could’ve canceled the order for the new tefillin, but after everything that happened, he didn’t want to. “After such an amazing story, I had no desire to back out. I gave the new tefillin to a Jew who was becoming more observant and needed a pair.”

And as for the name of the sofer who encouraged Baruch to try the prayer in the first place?

His name truly is Zion Baal HaNes (Baal HaNes is Hebrew for “Master of the Miracle")