By Rabbi David Ashear
Rabbi Friedman received a phone call from a shadchan who suggested a shidduch for his son. It sounded like an excellent idea, and he hoped the other side would feel the same way. Right after that phone conversation he went to shul, where a man from Eretz Yisrael approached him to unburden himself and ask for chizuk. He told Rabbi Friedman that his 23-year-old daughter had been widowed and was raising a two-year-old daughter.
The rabbi commiserated with him and gave him chizuk. A few minutes later, he had a brainstorm. He suddenly remembered a young rabbinical scholar with excellent middos who lived in Bnei Brak. Tragically, his wife had passed away a few months earlier, leaving him with a six-year-old daughter to raise. Perhaps this could be a match?
Rabbi Friedman looked around the shul. Thankfully, the Israeli man was still there. He told him about the young widower, and then called the young rabbi in Bnei Brak and gave him information about the widow. Over the next week, there was a lot of back-and-forth regarding his son’s shidduch, as well as the shidduch he had suggested.
About a week later, the widow’s father called to say they were interested in proceeding, but first he wanted to meet the young man. As hashgachah would have it, the young man was coming to the USA from Eretz Yisrael for a different reason that Sunday. The father met him, and everyone decided to proceed with the shidduch.
That very same day, Rabbi Friedman received a call from the shadchan saying that the other side was agreeable to move forward with his son. From that point on, the two shidduchim progressed in tandem. The widow and widower became engaged on a Wednesday night, and the very next night, Rabbi Friedman’s son followed suit.
The rabbi saw so clearly how Hashem had given him the opportunity to make a shidduch at the very time he was hoping to find a kallah for his son. It was an exceptional merit for him to bring such a couple together, to find a mother for a bereaved six-year-old girl and a father for a two-year-old. From Lakewood, NJ, Rabbi Friedman was able to make a shidduch between two people who lived in Eretz Yisrael! The rabbi was appreciative that his act of chessed gave him the merit for his son’s shidduch to progress smoothly. (Excerpted from the ArtScroll book – “Living Emunah on Shidduchim”)
Reprinted from the Parshas Noach 5785 email of The Weekly Vort.
