Welcome to the Daily Chizuk (encouragement). The Rosh wrote an essay to his sons, giving them advice on how to live their lives. It eventually became a book called Orchot Chayim la-Rosh. In that essay, he told them, “Leha'amin behashgachato hapratit,” to believe in Hashem's personal supervision over each of them: all day long, Hashem is watching us, guiding us, and helping us. Every step we take is controlled by Hashem. The Pasuk (verse) says in Mishlei, which means a man's footsteps are from Hashem, but what does a man understand of his way?
There was a story that took place right after the Holocaust in Kovno, Lithuania. There were a lot of Jewish children who needed a Brit Milah (covenant of circumcision), but there weren't that many Mohalim (ritual circumcisers). One day, there was a rabbi, Rabbi Mordechai Pogramansky. He was traveling by train with a Mohel, and they were on their way to a small town to do a Brit Milah. On the train, they got involved in a deep discussion in Torah and realized that they had missed their stop a long time ago. The Mohel started to panic. “We're lost, Rabbi!” The rabbi calmly replied, “Don't worry, a Jew is never lost. There's a reason for everything.” They got off the train at the next stop, and while waiting for the train on the way back, a man approached them and asked, “Do you know where I could find a Mohel? My son needs a Brit Milah. Today is the 8th day, but there are no Mohalim here.” The Mohel looked at the rabbi and said, “Now I know what you meant, Rabbi. A Jew is never lost.” And they did two Brit Milahs that day.
Someone told me his wife's sister was having a little party in Monsey, and his wife wasn't going to be able to attend, so she decided to send a nice cake with someone who was going there for the weekend. She went to the store and bought a big, beautiful cake. But by the time she got there, she had already eaten it. But by the time she got to the house of the person who was driving there, he had already left. He apologized that he had to leave earlier than expected. This woman is a Ma'amin b'Hashem (believer in Hashem). She knows everything is for a reason. She didn't get upset. She said, “For some reason, Hashem wanted me to have this cake,” and she brought it back to her house.
That night, her husband was walking home from shul (synagogue) with their Shabbat guest, who casually mentioned that it was his birthday and that nobody remembered. But Baruch Hashem, they had the perfect cake, and they brought it out for dessert, sang happy birthday, and made their guest feel so special. There are no accidents. Hashem is running the show. We just have to train ourselves to recognize the Yad Hashem (the hand of Hashem).
There's a book called Daughters of Destiny, and in that book, Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein's daughter writes that her father used to tell her to write a paragraph every single day about how she saw the Yad Hashem in her life that day. This trained her for her whole life. It doesn't have to be something major. If you needed to buy something and called your friend to ask where you could get it, and during that conversation you became aware of something else that you needed to do but had totally forgotten, that was Hashem reminding you.
A rabbi said he needed a ride somewhere, but he couldn't find anyone going. Then he got a phone call from someone with a question in halacha (Jewish law), and part of the question was, “Rabbi, if I'm driving to this place, what should...” The rabbi said, “What? You're going there?” That was Hashem's way. That was Hashem's way of getting the rabbi a ride. These things happen all the time. We just have to open our eyes and notice.
A man said last week that the garbage in his kitchen was overflowing, and his little baby knocked it down. There was garbage all over the place. As he started cleaning up, he noticed there was a piece from the kitchen aid there. Then he saw some silverware, and then he looked into the garbage and found a lot of valuables that the baby must have thrown in. That was Hashem saving them.
Another man said his wife told him, “Go outside and turn on the barbecue for dinner, but make sure you spray the grill with PAM spray first.” So he went and got the spray, but there was nothing left in it. He went inside and found another bottle, but the bottle was broken, and he couldn't spray it. So he went out to turn on the grill, and he didn't have any spray. While he was outside, he decided to go and see how his Menorah (lamp) looked from the window. On his way there, he tripped over a metal can that was wedged into the dirt of his front lawn. He picked it up and saw it was a full can of PAM spray that must have fallen there the other day. That was also Hashem. Hashem's hashgacha (providence) is there all day long, day in and day out. If we live with this awareness, besides getting closer to Hashem, we'll have more peaceful lives, always realizing that everything is part of a larger plan. Have a great day.