I finished davening Minchah, and after the final Kaddish, someone came over to me and said, “It’s you I’m looking for!”
“You’re no longer looking,” I told him. “You found me.”
“Yes!” he said with pleasure, and he proceeded to tell me why he was so excited to have found me. He felt that I was the perfect person to fill a certain position.
At the time, I was not looking for this sort of work, or for any other, but when I heard the work conditions and the salary, I said, Why not? I see Hakadosh Baruch Hu sent me this additional, respectable income, and it would come about through carrying out an important mission; so, I decided, I would take the job.
I was quickly accepted, and when I started to work, I got along very well with the boss. Regarding just about everything connected to the job we were pleased, but regarding the salary – there were difficulties. One month passed, then another and a third, and my bank account received no regards at all from my new employer. Before Rosh Hashanah I spoke to the boss about my salary. I reminded him that I had not come to work as a volunteer, and he said, “Of course, of course! I’ll deposit the money right away.” But the money was not deposited.
This started to bother me. Did he really think I was such a find, to be taken on as a free worker? To begin with, I hadn’t really wanted this job, and the whole reason I had gotten involved was because he’d asked me to come help him. Now I was planning to quit.
Nu, how do you do that, in practical terms? Would I actually walk out, or not? Again and again I weighed in my mind the question of whether I should leave or not. I thought about the gain versus the loss, the shlichus involved versus the lack of salary, and I suddenly understood that I was too focused on the boss’s paying me. What did I want from him? He was only the manager. Parnassah was not in my boss’s hands, and his good will alone was not going to pay my bills. Hakadosh Baruch Hu brought me to this job, and He would certainly take care of me so that I would also gain parnassah through it.
I decided to place my trust in Hashem. I would do my part, and He would do His part.
This decision itself brought me serenity, and to my surprise, within a number of days after I made my decision to rely only on Hashem, the salary was deposited in my
