It was a hectic time in the middle of Tishrei.
My granddaughter was on her way to do some shopping for her mother and she happily agreed to pick up a few things for me and to withdraw some money at the ATM. When she had finished she called and asked if it was OK if she took it all home as her older brothers would be coming round in an hour or two to help build our sukkah and they would bring it all with them.
When the boys arrived …they brought a few younger siblings who loved an excuse use a hammer and nails and be rewarded with some nosh from Bubby and Zeidy. They handed me a bag with the shopping but there was no credit card or cash. I called their father who had brought them and asked if he had them in his pocket.
“No, it’s all in the bag with the shopping.”
“I’m afraid it’s not – just the shopping and two documents from the doctor.”
“But the documents were in an envelope with the money and credit card.”
He quickly called his wife to see if he had left it behind by mistake. No, there was nothing at home. Everyone traced their steps back along the path to the car… to the house.
Nothing.
Then I suddenly remembered the special segulah for finding lost items. I had used it several times with success. I kept a magnet on my refrigerator with the pesukim in Hebrew:
Rabbi Binyamin said, everyone is presumed blind until G-d opens their eyes. We know this from a pasuk in Bereishis ‘G-d opened her eyes and she went and filled up the water skin.’
Then I said three times “G-d of Meir answer me.”
In the merit of the Rabbi Meir Baal Haness and the tzedaka which I am donating may I find the money and credit card which I have lost.
Then I put a few shekels in the tzedaka box and felt confident now that we would find it.
Our older grandsons started to build our sukkah and I suddenly had an idea.
I called my daughter. “ Ask the little boys if they dropped the bag at any time.”
I heard her talking in the background and their reply, “Yes it fell out of the car as we were getting out.”
BINGO – that must be it.
She called her husband and told him to search inside the car and if it wasn’t there to go back to where he had parked car when they came to me and search on the road.
But no – despite my confidence in the segulah after much searching it still wasn’t found.
Now I was hesitating – should I cancel the card. Losing a limited amount of money was one thing but the credit card was something else.
Meanwhile the sukkah was progressing and eventually their father came to pick the boys up and take them home.
From previous experience with this segulah I know that the lost object is almost always found in some place that has already been searched. The principle is that, just like Hagar (in the story in Bereshis 21:19) didn’t see the well which had been there all the time, until Hashem opened her eyes, our lost object was there but until Hashem opens our eyes we don’t see it.
As the boys left I said to them. “ Please search the car again. I know Abba searched it and he’s very reliable but sometimes Hashem doesn’t want it found just then.”
Two minutes later there were running footsteps on the path. “We found it, it was in the car all the time. And Bubby,” my 18-year-old tree-high grandson loomed over me, “Do you know why we found it?”
“Yes – because of my segulah.”
“No Bubby – because of MY segulah.”
Huh?
“While we were building the sukkah,” he declared, “ I remembered the segulah my rebbe told me for finding things. You say ‘ Le’ilui nishmat Rabbi Akiva Baer of Amsterdam I give tzedaka to find… whatever it is.’ I didn’t have any money on me so I called Imma and asked her to put some money in the tzedaka box.”
“Okay” I conceded, “My segulah started off the train of thought of dropping the bag and your segulah finished it off and found it in the car. I guess there’s only one thing better than a segulah….and that’s two segulot.”
P.S. I had never heard of my grandson’s segulah until then but later I discovered that it is in fact also well known and easier to remember than the other longer pesukim.
