Welcome to the Daily Holy Story. In Chicago, recently, there was a very wealthy Jewish man, 63 years old, who was about to do Siyum HaShas, finishing the entire Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud). He decided to have a celebration for his birthday and his Siyum HaShas, and invited all of his children and grandchildren in Chicago. When they heard about the birthday party and the Siyum HaShas, they all got together and decided they had to buy a beautiful gift for their father and grandfather. They consulted with one another and tried to come up with an idea, but they couldn't think of anything. So they decided to go to their father and grandfather and asked him what kind of gift he would like.
The father and grandfather told them, “Baruch Hashem (Blessed is Hashem), I'm a very wealthy man, and there's nothing I really need. But there's one thing I would like that would be very special for me, if you could get it for me.” They asked him what it was, and he told them, “You know, you were all born in Chicago and grew up in Chicago. But when I was a young boy, I didn't live in Chicago. I was born and raised in New York. When I was about 12 years old, I was off my rocker. I was nothing but a menace. I got kicked out from one school to another school. I caused all kinds of damage, until my teachers and principals told my parents that I needed special care and that they couldn't leave me in a regular school. They recommended a very big therapist to my parents, the greatest therapist in New York, who could possibly treat me for my terrible actions and the way I behaved.
“My parents hired the therapist and asked him to take care of me. The therapist interviewed me for about two and a half hours, taking notes after each question and answer I gave him. After two and a half hours, he turned to my parents and told them, ‘In three days, I will give you a report of what my evaluation is of your son.’ After that, on that very day, my father, who had a very good job, got fired from his job, and he had no job. He had a very good friend, a wealthy friend from Chicago, who found out he had been fired and sent him a message to come to Chicago to get a good job with him, with good income. With no choice, after two, three days, my father packed up the luggage, and we all moved to Chicago. The therapist and his report were forgotten.
“I was enlisted into a new yeshiva. I had new friends and new teachers, and nobody knew me. I decided right then and there that it was time for me to turn over a new leaf. I had a very special rabbi who took care of me and developed me, and I became one of the top students in Chicago. My father was doing fantastic, making a good living. His friend started to grow old and put my father in charge of the entire business. He had no children, and when he passed away, the entire business was given to my father. Now he was a very wealthy man, and I became wealthy from that. Not only did I become wealthy, but I became a talmid chacham (Torah scholar) and a God-fearing citizen of Hashem.
“So, my dear children and grandchildren, the one thing I would like is to see the report of that therapist from when I was 12 years old. What did he write to my parents, if anything? And where is that report?” The children and grandchildren went out to find it. The therapist, of course, had passed away, and all his documents had been transferred to another party. They worked very hard and spent some money, good money, to find that letter. They found it: the report was sealed and had not been mailed. On the day of their father's 63rd birthday party and the Siyum HaShas, they gave him the letter and the report. In the middle of the Siyum, when he was about to finish the Gemara, he began opening the letter with trembling hands and read it out loud. The letter said, “To the dear parents of the boy that I interviewed, I am sorry to report to you that after two and a half hours of sitting with your son, I have come to the conclusion that he is out of his mind, and therefore you have to put him in an institution that will lock him up forever so that he can never get out and continue to do the damage that he's been doing for the last year and a half.”
The father turned to his children and grandchildren and told them, “Can you imagine what would have happened if my father hadn't lost his job and had received a report from the therapist? There's no question that my parents would have listened to him and locked me up forever. And you all would not be here, and I would not be here. My Siyum HaShas would not exist, and everything we have here would not exist.” So, my dear children, look how Hashem works: sometimes we think things are negative, but in the end they turn out to be very positive, because the ways of Hashem are only good. Thank you for listening and have a wonderful day.