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WHO PREPARES THE STEPS OF MAN |
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Welcome to HashgachaPratis.Com Personal accounts of Divine Providence on the web. Thank you for stopping by to read our stories. Share your own story by filling out our online form. The goal is to create an awareness that G-d's all-powerful hand is guiding and carrying us through this intriguing journey called life.
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G-d appoints an angel and tells it to cause a blade of grass to grow. Only then does that tiny blade flourish.° This is true of every minute detail in nature. All the more so, every action or event that happens be it personal or global, occurs only because G-d willed it to happen. It is part of a master plan. 1 °Bereshis Rabbah 10:7 |
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Featured Story |
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Featured Story |
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When my wife was a little girl, her mother wanted to send her to a yeshiva. Although her family was not religious, her mother wanted her to have a Jewish education. Not knowing of any other yeshivas in the area, her mother decided to send her to Bais Yaakov. The problem was that her family did not have enough money to pay and Bais Yaakov did not want to give a scholarship to a girl who isn't religious and chances are would never become.
In despair, her mother was told of a man who might be able to help her because he was very involved in the Jewish community. This man called Bais Yaakov and made them a deal. He would pay for her first year of school. If they felt that she was a good girl and had potential, they would give her a scholarship for the years to follow. They agreed! So my wife went to Bais Yaakov, became religious and is now married to me and we are leading a wonderful religious life together. I was curious as to whom this wonderful man was who did this incredible thing for a total stranger, but my wife and her family had no clue. But then I finally found out who that man was...MY FATHER. For all those who missed that, MY FATHER paid for a stranger to go to yeshiva, in yeshiva she became frum, and now I am married to her. And neither of us knew about this until after we were already engaged. This is a perfect example of Hashem putting everything in motion and setting things up the way it was meant to be. You do a good thing, and it comes back to you, eventually, whether you know it or not, but surely. |
Just a few months ago I spent the summer traveling by car across Israel with my oldest son, 20 year-old, Srulik and his lovely wife Batya. One afternoon we found ourselves near Mt. Chermon. We seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, when suddenly my son said let's make a minyan for mincha (afternoon prayer services). I was very surprised that my son was actually serious. We had been driving for miles and miles without a soul in sight through non-populated areas. Where in the world would we find 8 more male Jews ages 13 and older, I thought to myself he must be joking. But to my surprise he was actually very serious about it.
Suddenly we notice that on the right side of the mountain road was a beautiful look-out point with a breathtaking view of what we thought was the Syrian border. There was no-one there except for two men. They were sitting together facing the breathtaking view and together they were reading from a holy book. I was surprised to see anyone at all for we had been driving for miles without a soul in sight. One of these men was obviously an Admor i.e. Chassidic Rebbi, and the other man seemed to have been his shamish (sexton). Since it wasn't the normal time for gathering a minyan for mincha I highly doubted that any more people would arrive especially since we were in the middle of nowhere. The fact that we even found this Admor and his shamish was already so out of the ordinary it still seemed highly unlikely that there would be a minyan. I couldn't believe what was to happen next. Seemingly out of nowhere cars of Jews started arriving. There was a large family of Chareidim (religious Jews) and also some others all of whom arrived in their cars within minutes after our arrival. Before I knew it the father of the other family was asking us if we wanted to make a minyan for mincha. With their family, my son and I, and the Admor and his shamish we had a minyan. I watched as the other father went over to the Admor to ask him if he would join the minyan. He approached the holy man with reverence. He got closer and closer but the holy man paid no attention to him. The Admor seemed to have been so engrossed in the study of the holy book that he would not interupt to acknowledge this man's presence, so the man just stood there waiting until after several minutes of waiting the Admor finally looked up from the book. The man asked the Admor if he would join our minyan. The Admor agreed to join our minyan but first he must finish his study session, he asked us to wait 5 minutes. We all waited, none of us were in any particular hurry anyway, and it would be an honor to have a holy man joining us for prayers, even though we didn't really know which Admor this was, he seemed to be a very holy man. The shamish led the prayers, and I was deeply moved by everything that was happening. It was also the first time that I have ever seen a group of wild horses. They came very close to us out of nowhere while we were waiting for the Admor. There were colts nursing from their mother, also a sight I had never seen, except maybe on TV. When the prayers were over we asked the Admor for a brocha. The hashgacha pratis was very inspiring to say the least. It's a moment in my life which is etched in my heart and mind, these windows of hashgacha pratis where we get a glimpse that there is someone, unseen, arranging things to happen. When you experience these moments, time and time again, you begin to more than just believe, you begin to know. Rabbi Uri Abrams |
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| 1 For a discussion as to why this doesn't contradict bechira (free-will) see this article by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan Ztz"l. |