Welcome to the daily chizuk (encouragement). The pasuk (verse) says in Tehillim, Hashem shomrecha. Hashem is your guardian. We are so fortunate that Hashem is protecting us all the time, but not like a bodyguard who has to go to sleep. The pasuk says Hashem doesn’t need sleep. He’s watching over us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you’re walking somewhere alone and helpless, have no fear. Hashem shomrecha. Hashem is your guardian. The more a person feels Hashem’s protection, the more Hashem will show you how He’s protecting you.
The pasuk continues: Hashem is your shade. And Rabbi Falk explained that the degree of protection is so absolute and so close that it’s stuck to a person like his shade. Hashem is not a shomer (guardian) who needs to be called on when something comes up or there’s an area of danger. Hashem is on you like your shadow already. We have to be careful. We have a ring of armor around us at all times. Many times, we are totally unaware of how Hashem is being shomer. But sometimes Hashem shows us.
I heard a story that happened last week. There was a flight from New York on the way to Israel. About an hour and a half before landing, the smoke alarm in one of the bathrooms went off. The flight crew checked it out but couldn’t find anything. Fifteen minutes later, the alarm went off again. This time, they decided to make an emergency landing in Athens, which is about an hour from Israel.
While all this was happening, a 39-year-old Hatzalah paramedic from Queens was on the plane, experiencing some chest pains that he didn’t seem too worried about. When they landed in Greece, the pains became more severe, and he approached a medic, who took him to a small medical base, where they took an EKG. When he saw the printout, he turned white. He said, “Oh no, I’m having the big one.” They rushed him to the hospital, but while in the ambulance, he went into cardiac arrest. They shocked him twice. They got to some public hospital where, miraculously, they were able to put in a stent, and he was stable. Baruch Hashem (Blessed is Hashem), he is totally fine now.
It turned out the smoke was caused by a passenger illegally smoking in the bathroom. But that is how Hashem’s shemira (protection) came in, because there was no equipment aboard that aircraft to save his life. It’s only because the plane landed that he is still alive. Many times, it appears to us like Hashem is letting us get hurt. But in essence, He is really protecting us.
Somebody told me the other day that he rented some offices on the fifth floor of a building and was in the middle of construction when, all of a sudden, the power went out. He called Con Edison, and they explained, “You don’t have an account with us. The previous tenants did, and they closed their account.” He said, “Okay, no problem. Let’s open one now.” They said, “We need a copy of your lease, your lease papers.” But he didn’t have them. He called his lawyer, and his lawyer said, “I’m sorry, it’s going to take a week or two till we get them.” The man said, “Baruch Hashem, Hashem knows what he’s doing. I’m not going to get upset.”
Almost two weeks later, the day before Con Ed was going to turn on the power, the man was on a business trip and received a phone call that the whole fifth floor was evacuated because there was a small fire, but everything was okay. They found out someone from the sixth floor threw his cigarette down into a vent, and it burned the condenser units on their floor. They said that if those units had had power, the fire would have been a major fire, and who knows what would have happened.
Interestingly, as a side note, the two stories I heard today, which are totally unrelated, both had to do with a fire from a cigarette. But more importantly, Hashem is looking out for us. We have to feel that Hashem is protecting us, and we should feel comforted knowing that the only one in charge is always looking out for our best interests. Have a great day.