I am Aharon from Bnei Brak. My friend from the South related an amazing revelation of hashgachah pratis:
Last Yom Kippur I accepted upon myself not to remove my tefillin before the final Kaddish. I was zocheh to keep to this kabbalah day after day. Then, during bein hazmanim of Av, I was tested. I had arranged with my brother and a friend to leave for Yerushalayim using public transportation. This is a bus line that doesn’t run very frequently. The first bus leaves at 7 a.m., and the next bus doesn’t leave until 1 p.m.
That morning I davened earlier, but by the time it was almost 7, they still hadn’t finished davening. My brother hinted to me that the bus was going to come, and I motioned with my hands to show him that I would continue davening with the minyan.
My brother and friend waited a bit more, but I knew that the final Kaddish would not be recited for several more minutes, and afterward I would have to remove my tefillin properly. So I motioned to them to leave without me.
In the Sephardic nusach the end of davening takes longer, and thus the nisayon. My brother and friend both left, and I knew I’d missed out on a trip.
Davening concluded at 7:02. I removed my tefillin calmly, knowing that no one was waiting for me; but when I went outside, I discovered my brother and friend waiting.
“Why didn’t you go?” I asked.
“Because we didn’t want to go without you.”
“But you missed out. I didn’t want you to miss out because of me!”
This was really unpleasant for me. I’d taken this kabbalah upon myself, but they? Why did they have to suffer because of my kabbalah? I was really upset.
“Let’s go anyway,” my brother said. “We’ll wait at another bus stop, and we’ll try to see if there are other bus lines that could take us to Yerushalayim.”
We were standing at the bus stop while my brother called to see if there was some other way of going, when suddenly we saw “our” bus coming. The driver stopped at the bus stop, and when we got on he told us, “Nothing like this has ever happened to me before! I missed the exit from the city, and I had no choice but to redo part of the route so that I’d be able to leave!”
Our “natural” chances of getting on the 7 a.m. bus in the direction of Yerushalayim were nil. That bus was supposed to be well on its way on the highways of Eretz Yisrael, far from the bus stop where we stood, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu changed the way of the world for me, so I would be able to remove my tefillin properly, after the final Kaddish, and also to go on the trip.
This was an amazing he’ara, and it showed me how important my small, consistent kabbalah was on High.
