“Each of our encounters, each of our stops, without our knowing, is somewhere inscribed, and we are not free to choose the paths leading us there. Each one of us participates in the renewed mystery of creation…”
Elie Wiesel, “The Jew of Saragossa”
Who more than Elie Weisel, famed holocaust survivor and author, knew and felt viscerally that nothing in this world happens by chance.
I was reminded of his words while listening to a shiur on the radio about the weekly parsha by the brilliant and entertaining maggid, HaRav Boruch Rosenblum. At the end of the shiur, HaRav Rosenblum shared with his listeners an amazing phone call he had received that week from a listener in Beitar.
In his previous shiur, the rabbi had spoken about the importance of the month of Elul. He explained how during the month of Elul, when HaKadosh Baruch Hu is especially close to us, it is worthy to take upon ourselves a special mitzvah or stringency, however small, and persist in keeping this mitzvah throughout the month and then throughout the year.
The listener from Beitar related to the rabbi what had transpired on a family outing on the last days of vacation. He had taken the family to the Yarkon Estuary, an area in northern Tel Aviv where the Yarkon River flows into the Mediterranean Sea.
Many other families had had the same idea, so when the sun began to set, calls for “Mincha! Mincha!” rang out as men gathered for ad hoc minyanim. Our listener was about to join a minyan when he remembered that last Elul he had taken upon himself to always wash his hands before davening. During the whole year he had not failed once in executing this act, and he didn’t want to fail now. However, there were no faucets or sprinklers in sight. The blazing sun began to sink and he needed a solution quickly.
As he furtively glanced about, he realized that he could wash his hands in the Yarkon. He grabbed a cup, ran down to the water and bent over to scoop up some water. As he bent down on his knees he saw a little hand floating in the water. At first he thought that it was a doll’s hand, but then he saw a small human head!
Without a moment of hesitation, he jumped into the water, reached out to the listless hand, lifted up the body and brought the little girl to the shore. He pumped her stomach and she vomited out the water she had swallowed. This listener who “happened” to be a volunteer in Hatzalah, proceeded to resuscitate the girl.
He sat down next to the crying child and tried to soothe her. His own erratic breathing became steadier, he peeled off his soaking suit jacket, and tried to digest the enormity of what had just taken place. From a distance he heard a woman’s worried voice calling out, “Shaindaleh, Shaindaleh – where are you?” In another few minutes Shaindaleh would have been washed away into the Mediterranean Sea.
Mitzvah gorreres mitvzah – one good deed leads to another – is a lesson our Sages teach us in Pirkei Avos. Because this man took upon himself a somewhat unpretentious mitzvah, he was rewarded with the mitzvah of saving a life! And our Sages also teach us that he who saves a single Jewish soul, is considered as if he has saved the entire world.
We sometimes think that we know exactly why we do what we have chosen to do, and are aware of the effects of our actions. But as life unfolds, we are often astonished when reality eventually teaches us that there was a different and unexpected plan. Sometimes it may take years. And sometimes we will never know the effects of our actions.
