The Wedding Called Off Over Tying a Shoe
Rav Avrohom Pam tells of a wayward Jew who, tying his shoes on his intermarriage wedding day, felt his Yiddishkeit stir and called the wedding off.
Rav Avraham Liss was learning this topic with his long-time chavrusa. His chavrusa asked him why there are halachos even for trivial things like putting on shoes. The next time Rabbi Liss met his Rebbe, HaGaon Avrohom Pam, zt’l, he asked him the question. Rav Pam related the following anecdote: There was a wayward Jew who slowly left the path of Yiddishkeit. He was engaged to be married to a nachriyah. On the day of his wedding, he woke up and got dressed. He was tying his shoes when it dawned on him that he had just put on his right one first. Now he was tying his left shoe first. The realization that Yiddishkeit was so deeply engrained in his very nature hit him with a jolt. Remorse slowly built up for the decisions he had made and he called off the wedding. He returned to Yiddishkeit to become once again an upright member of K’lal Yisrael. These seemingly insignificant acts of halachah that we follow in the morning set the tone for the rest of our day and possibly for the rest of our lives.