Your Entire Life Was Setting You Up For This

Many men walk to shul fantasizing about the baal korei going AWOL for the haftarah (for the happiest of reasons, of course).

And then being able to say: "Shul goers, never fear! It’s my bar mitzvah parashah; here I come to save the day!"

What a joy to be someone’s superhero! How bracing when we can clearly see why we were in a particular place at a particular time. 

A gabbai accidentally double-booked two bar mitzvah boys for Parashas Yisro. One of the boys, Shlomo, graciously stepped aside and prepared and leined parashas Mishpatim instead.

Fast forward four years. Shlomo’s mother is suffering from a mysterious illness, and Shlomo is with her in the hospital. Also in the hospital is Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, zt”l. His aides are combing the floor, looking for a baal korei that Shabbos parashas Mishpatim, and Shlomo agrees to lein. Rav Elyashiv compliments him on his beautiful leining–

And dayeinu, we could stop the story right there. But we won’t.

–and asks him why he was there. Shlomo explains why. Rav Elyashiv says, “A specialist flew in to treat me. I will ask him to examine your mother in thanks for your leining.”

The specialist examined Shlomo’s mother and diagnosed her with a rare but treatable disease; baruch Hashem, she recovered.

Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, zt”l, noted that Shlomo’s earlier act of selflessness paved the way for this yeshuah.

It might take years for the puzzle pieces to align. And we may spend those years kicking and screaming. Or, we can learn from Esther HaMalkah how to do it. It took nine years, not four, and the puzzle was still missing a LOT of pieces. Yet the unmistakable outline of something magnificent was emerging. Mordechai told Esther that Hashem placed her in this time and this place to take the leading role in putting the puzzle together.

It was daunting – learn Tehillim 22 (and say it on Taanis Esther and Purim) - but as Esther stepped into her royal garments, she also stepped into and embraced her majestic mission.

The mission didn’t end with saving the Jewish people. Along with Mordechai, she established the four mitzvos of the day, set on a template of utter and complete simchah. Even though she was physically so distant from the Jewish people’s celebrations, she galvanized her generation and those to come to actively rejoice in seeing Hashem’s perfect plan for us through the Purim story. The impact of the Esther moment of the megillah stayed with her long after.

Where did she draw her strength from?

Chazal give us a clue: Rabbi Dovid Forhman teaches that the woman who ruled over 127 provinces descended from Sarah, the woman who ruled over every one of the 127 years of her life and greeted each of life’s circumstances with equanimity.

It’s exciting to be the hero in a dramatic Esther moment. But we can live a life of Esther moments as the emperors of our own lives.

Have a few more minutes? Here’s some inspo to help us recognize and seize those moments so every day of our lives can be momentous.

The mashgiach, Rav Reuven Leuchter, shlita, puts what some might think is a radical spin on bitachon. Bitachon is not a future-oriented mindset all about getting what we want. Bitachon is founded on the one principle that in every situation that Hashem puts us there is something now for us to work on that Hashem is interested in. That work is even more important than whatever we might be hoping for.

Hashem put us on this earth. In every situation in which we find ourselves, we can ask–we must ask–What does Hashem want from us at this moment?

Rebbetzin Tammy Karmel was a teacher, and she continues to teach, even while dealing with advanced ALS. One of her most compelling messages is living chaim birtzono – life according to His terms (Tehillim 30:6). I heard her voice reverberate the day I went to buy a new phone.

I was determined to buy a browser-free phone. The only phone that TAG had on my plan was a touchscreen phone. I couldn’t imagine giving up my keyboard. Any attempt I’d ever made at swipe typing ended in disaster. 

I was frustrated, I was annoyed… and then I laughed. Just that week, I watched Tammy describe life with a hoist. It was painful to hear her describe how dehumanizing it was to be in the air, like a sack of potatoes. “But then I realized, I serve Hashem down there in my chair, and I can serve Him up here in the air just as well.” Well, I served Hashem with my keyboard phone, and now I can serve Him with my swipe phone. Crisis over! 

Aviva* seized the moment: “A few years ago, I was walking to shul on Rosh Hashanah. It's a 25-minute walk, one I usually only take for Yomim Nora'im davening. The rest of the year, I go to a shul closer to home. I was about 20 minutes into the walk when I saw an elderly lady with a walker making her way up the rather hilly street. As I was passing, she called me over and asked if I could walk her to her shul, which was around the corner. I was kind of itching to get to shul on time, but I said of course and we proceeded (very slowly) to the top of the street and then to her shul. She thanked me, and that was it. But it struck me how the timing aligned perfectly, that I was there just when she needed someone. Hashem placed me where I needed to be.”

Sometimes the Esther moments present themselves in ways that are obvious and energizing. Other times, we may find ourselves navigating irritation. Concern. Anxiety. But if we’re smart, we’ll seek perspective, sooner rather than later.