By Rabbi David Ashear
People often say to me, "I have emunah; I know that everything that happens is for the best. But, what about what I am going through now? Is that also for the best?"
The people are good people; they are sincere. They do have emunah. But when the time comes to apply it to their own lives, it is not so easy to feel that goodness. Deep down, they really do believe that it is for the best. They just need some reassurance sometimes. Everything that happens is orchestrated by Hashem for our benefit. We don't always see that good, but we know it's true. Many times, it is the tough situations themselves that are the springboards to bring us to the places that we need to be.
Rabbi Reuven Elbaz told a story about one of his oldest students in the Yeshiva who was a Baal Teshuva, and he grew leaps and bounds in Torah and Yirat Shamayim. He was ready to start dating and was set up with a great girl from a respected family. Everything was going great. A few days before they were going to get engaged, the girl broke it off.
The young man was devastated. He thought that he was going start a family and a whole Jewish home with the perfect girl, and now everything was shattered. He went to Rabbi Elbaz who explained to him, "It is all straight from Heaven, don't worry, Hashem will give you the real girl that He has intended for you."
But it was very hard for the young man to accept. He told the Rabbi, "I just want to cry. But I want to channel my tears toward prayer to Hashem, so I am going to go to the Kotel."
On his way to the bus stop, a car pulled over and asked him if he knew how to get to the Kotel. It was a religious man, traveling with some of his family members, so the young man said, "Yes, actually, I am going to the Kotel. If you want, I could come with you and show you how to get there."
He got into the car and they started talking Torah. They spoke Torah the entire way. The driver was very impressed by the things that this young man was saying, and he seemed to have beautiful Middot. In the backseat of the car was the driver's wife and his single sister.
When they arrived at the Kotel, the wife got out of the car and asked the young man if he was dating. She told him that she has a great girl, her sister-in-law, who was actually in the car with them. He agreed to go out, and that night they had their first meeting. Eventually, he married that girl. He told Rabbi Elbaz, "Baruch Hashem that this is the one I am marrying, and not the first girl. Now I see how she is much better for me in every way: Yirat Shamayim, Middot. I fit in perfectly with her family and they are even helping us financially."
When he was crying about that broken Shiduch, Hashem was saying, "Your real Shiduch is on the way to the Kotel now. I have to get you there. This breakup is best for you, trust Me."
Rabbi spoke at his daughter's Sheva Berachot last week and said over that a year ago his daughter came back from studying for a year in Seminary. She was looking to get a teaching job. She was very qualified. She went for her first interview to give a model lesson in a school about forty-five minutes from her house. They absolutely loved her. They told her on the spot, "You got the job." This was at the end of the school year. They told her, that every summer there is usually one teacher who has to leave, you will take the place of that teacher. They called her back at the beginning of August, and they told her that the second grade Morah is leaving, so you are hired for second grade. The girl started to prepare and was excited to start her new position.
Less than a week before the school year started, they called her back and said, "Unfortunately for you, the second grade teacher was only leaving on condition that her other job worked out, but it didn't, so she's back. We're sorry, but we don't have any positions available now."
The girl was now stuck with just a few days left until school and no job. Her initial thoughts were, "How could they do this to me? I could have found a job in ten other schools!" She then calmed herself down and realized that it was all from Hashem.
She ended up getting a secretary job in a business very close to her house. Though it wasn't what she wanted to do, she took what she could get. The other secretary who worked there was so impressed with her that she suggested her for her brother. Recently, she married that boy and became the sister-in-law of the other secretary.
Hashem knew exactly what He was doing the whole time. He prevented the girl from getting a teaching job in a school so that she could find her Shiduch. Hashem always has our best interest in mind. The more we trust Him, the happier we'll be.
