Lessons In Emunah

It was December of 1980. I was walking towards the Kotel, Judaism's holiest site. I recalled that a Torah friend of mine had explained before I left New York

Hearing the argument, Reb Chaim jumped out of his seat and ran to the front of the bus. He withdrew some cash from his pocket, gave it to the driver on behalf of the anonymous fellow, and then returned to his seat.

Hopefully this story will also strengthen our motivation to try to be mikarev a fellow Jew – even if it seems on the outside like it's a lost cause and there's no use in even trying.

Our son understood that Aviv, up until this point in his life, had failed in everything. The army was his last chance to succeed.

Gone. The money was gone. I bit my lips and felt my eyes fill with tears. This was hard earned money that I received from a client whom I had worked for all month.

I was one very confused middle-aged woman with too many demands on her time and too few hours in her day. And it was not yet 9 a.m.!

It was a hot day in June 1997, the first day of summer vacation for many high school students. The Tel Aviv beach was packed with people. It was a perfect day for Motti Ashkenazi.

He told me that he recognized the system and the color-coding, because he had been the very man who had installed the system!

The scene of thousands and thousands of cranes, as well as other birds, was awesome. I thought that would be the climax of our three-day trip up north.

On August 29, 2011, I took my three kids to a New York Mets baseball game and was sitting in the front row. During the last inning, my 12-year-old son Eliezer was hit in the face by a line drive (the clip is on YouTube, “Baseball hits boy, Mets-Marlins”). He was rushed to the hospital and received eight stitches; he was discharged the next day.

Mommy, please don’t be so sad. Here in the next world Hashem Yisborach’s plan is much clearer.

B’chasdei Hashem, I found precisely enough chicken, prepared meat knishes and various other foods I required.

For quite a few years I have come to realize that when a day presents a lot of problems, it’s probably very good – because Hashem is involved and is offering a special opportunity.

The Rav, who had enjoyed the clear Torah reading expressed his wonder at the beautiful job. He also asked what brought the boy to the hospital over Shabbos.

For all of you readers who think that my husband committed the ultimate offense and forgot the date of our wedding anniversary AND that his issues with Social Security would therefore pale in comparison to his issues with me, allow me to clarify.

So we just turned a blind eye to the sorry state of our chairs and prayed that they would hold up in the meantime, and that no one would get hurt chas v'shalom.

For the two-plus years that I headed our block’s Vaad HaBayit, I was responsible to collect dues from the residents of my street and pay Avraham his monthly salary. I also brought him a drink every week when he swept our block, and I regularly purchased a modest gift for him, at my own expense, in advance of each of the Jewish holidays.

I love to sing, but venues for frum women who sing are few and far between. I have to settle for kvelling when I listen to the men in my family lead the prayers in shul.

They had realized they would be far from civilization and kosher food and had packed plenty of fresh and canned food as well as making sure there was a microwave in their room which they knew how to kasher.

Yom Yerushalayim, a national day of thanksgiving to Hashem for the liberation and reunification of the Holy City of Yerushalayim, is celebrated in Israel with many different meaningful programs. One of them is the annual bike ride from Hebron to Yerushalayim, celebrating the former’s liberation.

This was the moment I was most waiting for. To hear my beautiful son's voice reading in the Torah with the utmost perfection. But instead I found myself completely distracted and absent because of the candies that I myself had forgotten to arrange.

Our daughter and son-in-law looked at each other for a second and then burst out laughing. They knew!

Although the following incident occurred many years ago, it is etched in my mind as if it happened yesterday.

I was instructed to stop all treatment, and I did. However, I insisted on meeting face to face with my doctor.

My husband and I had been trying to have a baby for several years. We'd gone to specialists and come pretty close a few times.

This was a real shock to Dave. He was an excellent worker and was doing fine in the firm, but he thought he could go much farther and succeed much more in Ronnie's new firm.

To my utter amazement, he did have the required part with him! He gave me that astounding news as he re-entered my house with the box, and told me that that was the last one of those particular parts that he had with him!

He had deposited Shlomo’s real, original check into his account, and when it had cleared he had made up this weird story to get an additional 3,600 shekels out of Shlomo!

Once I found the correct hole, the pipe was easily snapped into place and I felt like a conquering hero (with Hashem’s help, of course). Throughout the whole procedure, I asked for His help and he led me to a positive outcome.

Consequently instead of receiving the coveted call from the program organizers, we found ourselves fielding one call after another from our own children, eager to join us for Passover in the Promised Land.