When going about our daily lives, we all have our personal stories of emunas Hashem. From time to time if we open our eyes, we can literally see how Hashem runs the world around us! I listen to an audio Daily Bitachon and Rabbi Safdeye discusses this all the time.
I recently witnessed such an event.
If you’ve read my recent articles, besides the ones regarding health and food, you might remember I wrote how we just had the eighteenth yahrzeit of our dear Mother, Bubie Ethel, a”h, on acharon shel Pesach.
I won’t repeat all her special qualities and how she is missed by an expanded family daily. As is our custom on Yom Tov, we say Yizkor, usually in shul for our parents who are in Olam HaEmes after the first year.
Since we were visiting our youngest son Mordy & Laya’s beautiful family in Flatbush for the last days, I surely planned to go to daven at Yeshivas Chaim Berlin. Anyone who davens there will tell you what a beautiful sight it is to see the multitudes of Kohanim there to duchen. The davening really feels special, especially for the women who are in the upper area where we can see all that transpires below, sitting close to the mechitza. The shape is in a ches formation. It is a beautiful site to see!
I was working through a bad cold and was trying really hard to conquer it with the usual hot teas, lemon, etc. I so wanted to go to shul and give my parents especially a heartfelt davening, especially as it was the day of Bubie Ethel’s yahrzeit.
I vividly remember how I got that terrible phone call that morning, from the hospital telling me to hurry there as my mother’s health was failing and would soon be no longer here! I live about an hours walk from the hospital. I quickly put on my sneakers and practically ran there. I told my two daughters the news and went, knowing my husband Yisroel already left to shul at Yeshivas Chaim Berlin. I was worried and wondering how I could get this news to him quickly, so he could join me there with any other family who was in Brooklyn.
Along the way, on Avenue J, I encountered a wonderful woman I knew, who was also going to that shul to daven that morning. I told her my plight and she agreed to get this news to Yisroel through her husband somehow. As I progressed to Ocean Parkway, I then encountered a group of men accompanying a Rebbe to their shul. I asked him for a bracha for my mother. He also gave me a bracha of “Kfitzas haderech” so I should see her alive!
I kept going, and got to see her in the ICU connected to all those miraculous machines that kept her alive. When I arrived, my niece and other family were already there as they live in Boro Park, closer to the hospital. When I asked her the time, I couldn’t believe it when it was a total of only 45 minutes since I left my home! The bracha I received certainly worked! I felt Hashem sent me malachim along the way to help me!
During that day, more family, including Yisroel, did join me for the day to be with Bubie until the end.
When I think back, there were other amazing occurrences that happened that day! There was also a very choshuva Rav in the ICU the same time as my mother, a”h. We were able to get any halachic advice we needed, literally on the spot, through his gabbai, who was constantly there. His choshuva Rebbetzin gave us brochos daily, whenever she saw us there.
There was a minyan of men around her bed as her neshama departed in the afternoon on that beautiful spring day. Our tefillos were surely heard from on high to receive her special neshama!
Also in that ICU, was a very ill Russian woman dying, but all alone. Once my mother’s neshama went to Olam HaEmes our minyan of men proceeded to that women’s bed to daven for her, too.
I truly feel my mother’s neshama benefited from this good deed!
Back to this year’s yahrzeit, I got to the ezras nashim and looked around for a seat, hoping to get a seat in the first row close to the mechitza to see the davening clearly. Since I wasn’t there from the start, it was hard to locate one immediately. I walked around the area and was ready to grab a seat from the back and pull it over to a back row, when I noticed in the area facing the Aron below an empty seat in the first row between two women, facing the center. I tapped the woman on the right on the shoulder and asked her if it was taken. She shook her head no, and pointed for me to sit there.
I was totally blown away when I looked to my right, and saw that this woman was the exact “malach” who helped me on that horrible day, eighteen years ago! She acknowledged me and also was surprised to see me there, knowing I don’t live in that neighborhood. Once we could talk, I reminded her of that day and she said “Wow!” Look how Hashem set this up! It was a crowded area to find a seat, let alone THAT one! Of all the woman there, I ended up sitting next the very person who helped me get to my mother before she expired, knowing my husband would be alerted to all that was going on!
This really warmed my heart! I felt a hug from my mother, a”h! I thanked Hashem for this feeling and proceeded to finish my davening.
I related what happened to my family during our seudah, and everyone agreed it was truly Yad Hashem working openly here!
Dear Readers, I wanted to share this with everyone to emphasize how we have to look around us daily and thank Hashem for watching over us and giving us life!
