Sometimes, huge "coincidences" float above our heads until, one day, they fall smack into our laps. The Baal Shem Tov once told his students, "A leaf doesn't blow in the wind unless the Divine Will commands it." I always wondered what that meant. Of course, the basic meaning is that nothing happens "by chance." If I stub my toe or get a promotion – all come from the same source, the Creator of the World. In Hebrew, it is called "Hashgacha Pratis," or Divine Providence, and it is a mind-boggling concept. Essentially, what an ant will eat for dinner, to which nations will be at war, is monitored deeply and intensely by the Almighty – every second of every day.
This all sounded sweet and dreamy in theory, but I was unable to apply the concept first hand – to really feel what this meant – until last summer, when my own true story of Divine Providence unfolded like a five-part play, scripted, directed and produced by the Master Planner of them all.
It all started like this. Right after Passover, I baked challah with a key inside, which, for kabbalistic reasons, is intended to unlock the gates of sustenance. I stayed up with my husband until 1am baking that challah and, exhausted but hopeful, I returned to work the next day only to "happen" to find a message in my inbox that the managing partner of my firm and direct supervisor wanted to meet with me.
That didn't sound too good. The financial market had crashed worldwide, and although I had been a star employee for eight years, my workload had "happened" to dry to a weak dribble in the early part of 2009. I had raised this concern with my supervisor, but he was busy hoarding the work himself, since there wasn't much to parcel out. He had all but ignored my pleas for more assignments. After reading the email, and without giving it much more thought than panicking, I walked into my supervisor's office and asked him directly about this upcoming meeting.
"Your work has been slow," he "happened" to say, "and your salary is too high – the highest in the office – so I think they want to reduce it." To this day, I always wondered who "they" were. Let's call them the Blue Hats.
I felt my neck muscles constrict and my mouth go dry. As the sole support of six children, and in the middle of building our house, I couldn't afford any reduction in salary. A weird thought "happened" to cross my mind at that moment, and I emphasize this because I am not known for my outlandishly positive attitude. "This is going to be good," I thought.
Where did that come from? I shook my head, but for some reason, the thought calmed me down. I argued a bit with my supervisor, but he said that it was not up to him and that I should wait until the meeting.
The meeting day came. I had been calculating how to live with a five or ten percent pay cut (the salary reductions I had heard about at other companies), and how to earn extra income to compensate. What a surprise awaited me! The Blue Hats did not want to reduce my salary by five or ten percent, but by thirty percent! "You are the only one in the firm who will take a pay cut," the managing partner informed me bluntly. As if the words came from somewhere else, I told him it would be better for me not to work at all than to take that kind of a pay cut. He spoke some other jibberish, but there would have to be a pay cut. We would talk about it further over the next few weeks and reach an agreement, he assured me.
I left his office thinking: "What about the key in the challah?" A week after the meeting, and not having heard back from the Blue Hats, I telephoned a close friend and bemoaned my fate; right away, she "happened" to suggest that I look for another position. The thought had never entered my mind.
"Look for another position?" I pondered. In the world's worst economy since the Great Depression? In Israel, which isn't known for its "golden opportunities"? And with a language barrier to boot? Who would hire me? Who would even look at my resume? I had previously tried for six years to find a position and had sent out hundreds of resumes. In the best of economies, nothing "happened" to come – despite my prayers, tears and efforts. Where would I find a position in the worst of economies?
I sent out three resumes the next day, including one to someone who had worked on the opposing side of a prior transaction in which I had "happened" to serve as a substitute for the vacationing attorney from our firm. Let's call him the "White Hat."
After sending the resumes, I went to a park near the office and sat on a bench. I just looked up at the sky and said, "Master of the World, I don't know what is going on here, but please just give me faith to know that You run the world and everything is for the best." I sat for a while praying to the Almighty, and returned to the office.
There just "happened" to be an email waiting for me – from the White Hat. "Come right away for an interview; we are looking to fill a position and need someone instantly." I rubbed my eyes in disbelief, and after saying a prayer of thanks, I wrote back to arrange a meeting date.
The interview came and went; I was given a test assignment, which I completed quickly. The White Hat told me that I would have an answer in two weeks. In the interim, I spoke with a recruiter, who told me that there were only two positions of which she was aware for someone with my skill set; one with – you guessed it – the White Hat, and one with a company in northern Israel, out of my commute range. Talk about a tight job market.
Three weeks passed, and I had not heard from the Blue Hats or the White Hat. Maybe the Blue Hats gave up, I wondered. Or maybe the White Hat changed his mind about hiring anyone. Suddenly, as if this thought "happened" to trigger the next chain of events, the managing partner "happened" to slither into my office and triumphantly inform me that the other Blue Hats would not reduce my salary by thirty percent, but only by twenty-five percent. How generous, I cringed inwardly. I again resisted the salary reduction, and he said that he would get back with me. Dejected, I stared at the computer and "happened" to find a message in my inbox from the White Hat. Slowly, I took a deep breath and opened it. It read: "Would you like to come back to discuss the job?" I started to wonder if there was a message in all of this.
While this drama was evolving, we were having extreme (and this is an understatement) difficulty completing our house construction, and I didn't anticipate moving in, if at all, until after Sukkot. It was mid-July, and I doubted the White Hat would want to wait that long for me to start.
In short, at the meeting with the White Hat, I sat dumbfounded as I learned that I had been selected from over 25+ candidates, and I received a job offer which was better than my current employment, and they readily agreed that I could start immediately after Sukkot. The White Hat added that I had an extra advantage in the selection process since I "happened" to work opposite him in that earlier transaction.
As I entered my office after accepting my new job offer, still in shock over how the pieces of a well-woven tapestry had fallen into place, my supervisor "happened" to walk into my office to tell me that the Blue Hats were willing to wait until – you guessed it – after Sukkot to reduce my salary. It was really too good to be true.
Above all this – as if this wasn't enough – I was given a generous severance package by the Blue Hats which they were forced to give by law, and which we needed (although I didn't know it in July) in order to complete house construction. The Blue Hats had actually changed the company policy on severance at the beginning of the year, but the method in which they treated me "happened" to require them to give me a much larger severance package with a calculation based on the number of years I had worked there. What a turn of events; the Blue Hats had tried to save pennies, and instead, lost much, much more. Who could have dreamed of such exacting justice?
We did move into our house – one week before I started working, and I had just enough time to unpack and settle in.
In looking back at the incredible Hand that shaped this story, I realized the most powerful lesson of all: the Blue Hats and the White Hat were all on the same side. All of their actions were for the good. G‑d used the frugality of the Blue Hats and the generosity of the White Hat for my own good and, of course, none of them even knew that they were actors on a stage that had already been set.
A person almost never sees the picture this clearly, but sometimes, we are blessed with just a glimmer of the brilliance of Divine Providence. In my case, it was so awe-inspiring that I feel compelled to share it and spread the light. Just look deep enough into your own "happenstances" and you will see that "a leaf doesn't blow unless the Divine Will causes it to happen."
In memory of my father, Yaakov ben Yehuda Leib, and my mother, Annilee Patricia bat Rita.
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