An Amazing True Story

The following true story is not connected to ayin horah, however it is connected to the shesh mitzvos temidious and it is quite frankly -amazing! 

Two years ago- parshas Bereshis, I am travelling back from Mevaseret Tzion towards Yerusholayim on a Wednesday night, at 11.20 pm. Just by the Castel bridge - I see a chossid in a shtreimel thumbing for a ride. I stop for him and he gets into the back of the car. I ask him if he knows what the shesh mitzvos temidious are and he doesn't! I proceed to tell him the whole vort about TIHEYENOH and the shesh mitzvos.

He is amazed and asks me to speak into his phone so he can record the whole vort. I do so, and during his whole journey with me I never saw his face. I drop him off at rechov Shaarey Hair and proceed towards Shamgar to return home to Ramat Shlomo. I suddenly hear something rattling around on the back seat. I find my passenger had left an 'Osem honey cake' worth 11 shekel seventy in a bag on my back seat. I decide to do a U turn to locate him and when I see a chossid in the street- assuming it was him, I roll down the window and show him the cake....Wrong Chossid! After three different chassidim were shown the cake, I realise there is no way at all I can locate him so I give up and return home. I show my wife the cake that was left in the car and express my frustration at not being able to do anything with it.

The next day, my wife flies to London for a nephew's chasunah. I am looking for a cheap hotel to stay in with four kids for shabbos. I try the Galey Sanz in Netanyah, but no answer all day.....I think they were doing renovations. In the night I call my sister-in-law Miri and ask her if she knows of a cheap hotel I can go to for shabbos. Miri doesn't know that my wife is in England and she thinks I'm simply looking for a family holiday. I thought she did know of my wife's travel, and I was wondering why she didn't invite me and the kids for shabbos!

Anyway, Miri tells me she had stayed a few weeks before in the hotel 'Margoa' in Arad. So I call up the Margoa and they happen to have room for us for shabbos, even though I am calling on a Thursday night. (highly unusual!) Friday morning I am packing my case to go, and I need a bag to put my 'Crocks' in. I see the bag with the cake and realise by now I should be able to use the bag and eat the cake, but something stops me from intending to eat the cake so I leave it behind, even though I use the bag for my Crocks. We arrive at the hotel and when I open my suitcase I see the cake inside!

Then my 9 yr old daughter Sari tells me "Oh- I thought you bought the cake as a treat for us for shabbos, so I packed it!" I tell the kids "NO ONE TOUCH THE CAKE!! it's not ours and I don't know what to do with it!'' I then go downstairs to the lobby and suddenly I hear a voice behind me saying: "Sholom aleychem! TIHEYENOH! Shesh mitzvos temidious!'' I turn around and look at the chossid and tell him "I have your cake, AND the bag upstairs! Wait here!'' I return three minutes later and hand my dumfounded friend the cake in the bag! I tell him "You never dreamed you would ever see that cake again! Nor did I !'' I thought he may say to me "keep the cake!" But he had actually bought it for his hotel stay on shabbos.

The next day I saw him enjoying the cake with his wife! (On a halachick note, I was actually mekayem the mitzvah Min HaTorah of hashovas avedah, because even though we pasken yiush midaas is koneh, however this cake was Beisuroh boh leyodi- in my car, so I was chayev to return it to him- min haTorah!) I never met that man before in my life and I have never met him since!

If you think this was all a 'coincidence', and Hashem had not planned all this -then you must be nuts! Let's think for a second, what needed to happen in order for him to get his 'eleven shekel cake' back.... My nephew needed to get married at that time and my wife needed to decide to go to the wedding. Galey Sanze needed to be doing renovations then. Miri needed to not know that my wife had gone to England. I needed to think that Miri did know of my wife's travel, otherwise I would have told her I was alone with the kids and she would have definitely invited me! Miri needed to have gone to the Margoa weeks before in order to recommend it to me. The Margoa needed to have space for me when I called on Thursday night. I needed to have a necessity for a bag for my 'Crocks', and could find no other bag - otherwise my daughter Sari wouldn't have seen the cake! I needed to decide- for some strange reason- that I could use the bag but not eat the cake! Sari needed to see the cake and decide to pack it without asking me! Finally the chossid needed to have seen my face in the dark so he could recognise me- even though I couldn't recognise him!

And all the above, is just to get me to the Margoa on that shabbos with the cake (I rarely go to a hotel for shabbos, and I haven't been to a hotel for shabbos since!). Who knows how many things 'needed' to happen for that chossid to go to the Margoa that shabbos!!!

Hashem had planned and manipulated all this just so he could get his cake back- that cost 2 dollars, without effecting anyone's free choice!! The chossid forgetting the cake in the car was really a blessing for him because he didn't have to 'shlep' the cake around for three days! Hashem delivered it into his hand in the lobby of the hotel he was staying!!

This story is frankly amazing and amongst many things, it shows how Hashem is doing absolutely everything at every second, and we are only in charge of our choice to do an aveyroh or a mitzvah!