Kaddish Yatom at the airport
Rabbi Mordechai Gifter said: I was invited by one of my students to his wedding. Since the wedding was held in a place far from where I live, the student sent plane tickets for me and eight other friends who were also invited to the wedding. On the appointed day we set off as soon as possible to reach the Chuppah in time, but when we approached the landing destination, the plane were not able to land there due to very heavy fog. Involuntarily we continued to fly until we arrived at an airport far away from the place where the wedding was held.

When we realized that we wouldn’t be able to reach the Chuppah on time, and we wouldn’t be able to daven Mincha with minyan, we prepared to daven Mincha individually at the airport. We asked one of the porters we met on our way to direct us to a place where we could pray undisturbed, the anonymous porter brought us to a side room at the airport, we started to pray and the porter stayed at the door of the room and looked over the nine of us.

When we finished the prayer, the porter asked to our surprise: “Why didn’t you say Kaddish?”

When we answered him that we lacked the tenth of the minyan, he repeated and asked: “I am not a Jew?…” and immediately stood up and said Kaddish.

Then the man told them excitedly: “Today is the anniversary of my late father’s death. It’s been a long time since I lifted the burden of Torah and mitzvot, and of course I don’t pray either. Last night, my late father appeared to me in a dream and said to me: ‘Today is the day of my Yarzeit, and I command you to say Kaddish for me.’

I told him: ‘I don’t pray, and even if I wanted to say Kaddish I couldn’t, because where I am there are no Jews.’ But father repeated and said: ‘I will see to it that you have a minyan, and you say Kaddish.’ When I got up in the morning I said to myself: ‘I will not say Kaddish! But now that I have seen how my father’s words are being fulfilled, and with the help of God, nine kosher Jews were brought here from a great distance, I could not refrain from saying: יתגדל ויתקדש שמיה רבא…”