Real Life

Living Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear

A few days ago, I was leaving a shul that I usually don't pray at, and a young man stopped me, telling me he wanted to relate a story that happened to him. He then told the most amazing story of hashgacha peratit . I thought to myself, if I wasn't there at that time, I most probably would have never heard that story. And just like this man had a story, so too there are millions of people with stories that we will never hear about. Each one of them is most probably more amazing than the next. The hashgacha of Hashem is wondrous and we see it, time and time again. Especially when it comes to parnasa . Sometimes, when an amazing story is related, people say, “That's not real life. It never happens to anyone that I know.” And at first glance, it may seem that they have a good point. But when we hear story after story after story of the unbelievable yeshuot that Hashem brings people, we have to refocus and say, “This is real life, and we only hear a minority of stories. There are millions more that we'll never hear about.” This is how Hashem acts on an everyday basis. Just because a person didn't experience it yet in his own life doesn't mean that it's not happening to millions of other people. Hashem has different calculations for every single person and helps everyone in different ways. For some people He gets them a regular job and they earn their parnasa in a regular way. That's Hashem, every step of the way. For others, He sends them holiday bonuses. For others, a relative helps them out. Every person is dealt with on an individual basis and gets his parnasa exactly the way he is meant to get it for his purpose in this world. This particular young man told me, after he had his fifth child he could no longer fit in his very small two-bedroom apartment. The time had come for him to try to find a house. After searching he found something perfect, but was not able to afford it, especially since he was still learning in kollel. Nonetheless he made a hishdadlut and inquired of the owner if there would be any way in which they could make a deal. The owner was very nice and seeing that the young man was honest and had Yirat Shamayim, he wanted to help him. He offered to lend him $500,000 for the down payment that needed to be made. He agreed to get paid back $8,000 a month for the next five years. It was a great opportunity for this growing family to get a house, but even that would be way too much for them to afford. The young man asked his father what to do. His father told him, “You need a house, and this is a great opportunity. We'll figure out how to make the payments.” And with that, he signed on the deal. He then went with his father to apply for a home equity loan to be able to pay this man back. In the meantime, there was a parlor meeting for his brother's yeshiva which he was asked to attend. At that meeting a very wealthy man approached him, someone he had never spoken to before. The man said he was looking for someone to be in charge of giving out his tzedaka. He primarily wanted to give to orphans and widows and needed someone to maintain and run this tzedaka fund and asked this young man if he would consider doing it. The young man replied that he would. The wealthy man then asked him what he did on a daily basis. He replied, he learned all day in a kollel. The wealthy man then said he was looking for someone to make a Yissachar-Zevulun deal with and he offered it to him. The young man called his rabbi and asked if he should do it and the rabbi said yes. The wealthy man, on his own, then offered to pay him $8,000 per month to do the Yissachar-Zevulun deal. When the young man heard that number he was in awe of how Hashem was taking care of him. It has now been over two years since that meeting and every month the $8,000 comes in and goes straight to paying the loan back to buy the house. Hashem takes care of everyone in their own way. We have to know that we could always be helped, and tefila and good deeds are the best way to access it.