“I Came Back to Faith Thanks to Rabbi Uri Zohar – Even Though I Never Met Him”

Sometimes a person’s life changes not through a big event or face-to-face encounter, but through a quiet, inner moment of truth. This is the story of a taxi driver who was struggling with a big decision—whether to keep Shabbat, even though it meant giving up a major source of income. But as he discovered, when a person takes a step toward faith, even without knowing exactly where it will lead, amazing things can happen.

“I came back to faith because of Rabbi Uri Zohar,” the taxi driver began, “even though I never met him.”

“It was about a year before Rabbi Uri passed away. At the time, I had already started listening to shiurim (Torah classes) and I felt in my heart that I needed to make a change. But I didn’t know how or where to begin. For me, the hardest thing was keeping Shabbat. You have to understand—during the week I earned fine, but Shabbat? That was the most profitable day. If I made 1,000 shekels on a regular day, on Shabbat it could be double. There’s no public transportation, so people really rely on taxis.”

“One day, I came across an old interview with Rabbi Uri Zohar, zt”l. He spoke about his own journey back to faith. Two things he said hit me deeply. First, when the interviewer asked him why he started wearing a kippah, he answered that it was the hardest thing for him—and he chose to do it specifically because it was hard. That was how he broke the fear of ‘what will people say.’

“The second thing he said moved me even more. He talked about how he began speaking to Hashem just like you’d talk to a close friend. He said something like, ‘Hashem, we just got to know each other. This is all new for me, but help me with this... help me with that…’ It was so real, so honest. And I said to myself, That’s what I’m going to do too.”

He continued:
“I went to my station and told the dispatcher I’m no longer working on Shabbat. He lost it. Said I was crazy, that I’m throwing away the best day of the week. He warned me I’d lose a lot of money. There were other drivers there too, and they laughed at me. But I stood my ground. I told him, ‘I believe in Hashem. I trust that I won’t lose out by keeping Shabbat.’”

“I walked out of there and started talking to Hashem—just like Rabbi Uri said. I asked Him, ‘Please don’t let me lose because of this. And more than that, let everyone at the station see that you don’t lose by keeping Shabbat.’”

The driver paused, then smiled as he shared what happened next.

“I remember the exact date—it was Thursday, the 13th of Sivan, 2021. There was an American Jew trying to fly to Israel for Shabbat and Shavuot, which was Sunday night. His only option was to land Friday afternoon. But because of the war in Gaza at the time, Ben Gurion Airport was closed. His flight was redirected to Ramon Airport, near Eilat.

“He needed to get to Jerusalem before Shabbat, but with possible delays, no one wanted to take the risk of getting stuck and not making it in time. He also didn’t want to ask a driver to do something that would compromise their own observance of Shabbat.

“So what did he do? He called a taxi company and asked if they had a Shabbat-observant driver who could come all the way from Jerusalem. He was willing to pay 3,000 shekels for the ride—on one condition: the driver had to keep Shabbat.

“And where did that call end up? At my station, with the same dispatcher who had laughed at me. He called me in shock and shouted on the phone, ‘There is a G-d!’”

“I already knew that,” the driver said with a grin. “But now, they all knew too. I didn’t lose a thing—and more than that, Hashem showed everyone that keeping Shabbat only brings blessing. A few other drivers even started strengthening their faith after that.”

This powerful story reminds us that even the smallest step toward faith can open amazing doors—and that sometimes, a single honest conversation with Hashem is all it takes to change everything.