I am an employee who has been working for the same boss for several years. The conditions are more or less good, the work suits my abilities, and my coworkers are nice and pleasant; but the salary was really not enough. I have a large family, baruch Hashem, and expenses to match. My monthly salary was gone long before the month ended, and the financial strain gave me no peace. In the past, I approached my boss and asked for a raise. I thought that with my experience and years in the field, my request was justified, but the boss was unenthusiastic about the idea and sent me on my way without adding even one cent to my salary.
A year passed, and I tried my luck again. I asked the boss to pay me more, but he answered that it was preferable not to bother him again with requests of this sort. I started looking for different work, but no job appeared that seemed good enough. The following year as well, the story repeated itself, with one difference: The gap between the salary and the amount I need- ed had grown much larger, and this only added to my already pressured state.
But here is where the turning point came. I began strengthen- ing myself in emunah and bitachon. I learned shiurim in Shaar Habitachon, and I told myself again and again that Hakadosh Baruch Hu can do anything. He sees my pain, and He is the only Savior who will help me. Before the new year I told my wife, “I am not going to the boss to ask for a raise. I am going to the Boss of all bosses. I will ask it of Him and no one else.”
I did not approach the boss as in previous years. I spared my- self the unpleasant encounter, in which I would have to show him how successful I am and then get a response that I was overestimating my own worth. Instead, I simply asked Hashem to open the gates of shefa and brachah, from His wide and open Hand and not from the hands of flesh and blood.
What happened next is not at all surprising: When I looked at my phone I discovered that my boss had called a number of times. I called him back, and he started singing praises. About whom? Me! Yes, this time he had internalized that I was truly an asset to the company and that it was worth investing in me. I am considered an excellent worker, and thus it was appropriate to raise my salary – not to add a few
