By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend,
Words cannot describe the joy that Nechama and I felt at the wedding celebration of our daughter Miriam to her new husband Yosef.
One of the dear friends who attended, wrote to me ‘the simcha (joy) was beautiful, palpable — explosive!’
Come to think of it, there is no other lifecycle celebration that elicits as much joy as a wedding.
Why is that?
Let me first share with you something else extraordinary that happened to me this week.
Just after Yom Kippur earlier this year, my wife and I together with the kids that are still living at home, landed in NY to spend Sukkos in the Rebbe’s synagogue, in conjunction with the Hakhel year.
It was a wonderfully uplifting and inspiring trip.
Except that upon exiting the airport I realized that I had left my Tefillin in the very deep bins of the Cathay Pacific airplane that had transported us from Hong Kong to JFK.
The cleaning crew in NY said that they hadn’t seen it. I tried reaching Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong to no avail.
I bought new Tefillin and tried to get over the disappointment of losing the Tefillin that I had been blessed to receive from my grandfather of blessed memory and that I had prayed with for forty years.
On Tuesday of this week, I was invited to give a class on the topic of leadership to the girls teaching seminary in Crown Heights and I put my phone onto airplane mode. Upon opening my phone, I found a WhatsApp from my cousin who shares the same last name Kantor, and a picture of my Tefillin and Talit bag. ‘Do you recognize this’ he asked. ‘It was found in the lost and found of Israels Ben Gurion airport’ he continued.
Do I recognize it? Yes. It is unmistakably my lost Talit and Tefillin.
My cousin shared with me that someone had posted it on his ‘status’, a friend of my cousin had noticed the last name and asked my cousin if he recognized it. My cousin recognized my name and contacted me.
My heart is full of gratitude to Hashem for orchestrating this find. And I feel most thankful to the person who found it. This special person makes it his duty to visit the lost and found and take pictures of lost items in the hope of finding their rightful owners. What a blessed person this is, to exert so much effort in fulfilling the mitzvah of returning a lost object.
How did my Tefillin land up at Ben Gurion airport?
Perhaps the same airplane after arriving back in HK was used on the HK Tel Aviv flight by Cathay. Could it be that the Tefillin were overlooked when the plane was cleaned in HK (the flights during that time were woefully empty) and only in TLV did the cleaning or security staff find them?
A friend suggested that perhaps they found it in Hong Kong but they must have seen the Hebrew lettering and thought it belonged in Israel.
This would be a good preparation and omen for the beginning of the ‘kibutz galiyot’ ‘ingathering of exiles’. As this story shows how whatever belongs to a Jew goes to the holy land of Israel. When Mashiach comes the Prophets prophesized that every Jew will come back to the land of Israel.
I don’t know if I will ever know exactly how it landed up in Israels airport lost and found. One thing I do know.
I am very happy and elated at this totally unexpected find.
Much more excited than the dollar value that the Tefillin are worth.
Why am I so excited?
It dawned on me.
Finding something that is dear to you, almost a part of you, that has been lost is a source of real joy.
This, our Sages say, is the reason for the incredibly joyous celebrations at weddings. It is based on what the teaching of Kabala tell us about marriage.
Initially the soul is created comprised of two parts. A feminine part and a masculine part. Upon birth, every part of the soul becomes enclothed in its respective masculine or feminine body.
Marriage is about the reunification of those two parts of the soul that were initially one.
(There are various caveats and nuances to this concept, but the general idea is as stated).
The joy of the finding one’s ‘bashert’ (Divinely intended) partner in marriage is thus the joy of reunion.
Finding a wholesomeness that was lost has a special dynamic of energy to it.
Weddings are thus the most expressively joyous events in the Jewish lifecycle.
How do the two parts of the soul meet up?
This is G-d’s domain.
Hashem runs the world with detailed Divine Providence.
I have no idea of how He orchestrates it all, but if we but open our eyes we see that He is pulling the strings.
It sometimes takes longer to see the outcome than our naturally impatient selves are comfortable with, but that too may be for the very important reason of working on our faith.
It is a mitzvah to have faith in Hashem that He is in charge and that everything will work out for the best. For He truly wants our good, He is omnipotent and can do whatever He wants, and He knows everything that was, is and will be.
(It is a very good practice to exercise the muscle of faith by reading the treatise of R’ Bachya Shaar Habitachon – Gate of Trust. Click here for a website that has a wealth of knowledge and information about faith.
Here is a blurb from the webstite:
Your life is an entire book; a story waiting to be told. But in an increasingly uncertain world, you cannot always write your own plot. Instead of walking the path of your own choosing, you often find yourself swimming in a sea of suspense, bobbing up and down amidst its waves of worry. How you wonder, do you find solid footing?
A millennium ago, Rabbeinu Bachya ibn Pekudah addressed this question in Chovot Halevavot, Shaar Habitachon, a comprehensive work that patiently charts the Jewish path of bitachon. It is the rock-solid trust in G-d, developed when we learn to see past the screen of human control and hold onto the hand of G-d that lies behind it. Released from the dictates of the world, we discover the serenity of a profound relationship with G-d.
May Hashem bless all those who are looking for their ‘soulmate’ to find their respective spouses very soon and have the clarity of knowing that ‘this is the one’.
And for all of us who are searching for meaningfulness and for ever deeper levels of connection, may we all be blessed with the wholesomeness of being reunited with our inner self.
Ultimately the only way once can truly live a healthy life, is by following in the path of G-d’s instructions.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yosef Kantor