DIVINE PROVIDENCE

Dear Family,

Hope everyone is well.

Mazal Tov to Shmuly for qualifying as a Dental Therapist. We are all so happy for you that you succeeded after putting in so much effort BH. Wishing you much further success in your career Shmuly, and the bringing up of your Family etc!

Mazal Tov to Baty and Shmueli for your upcoming Anniversary. Wishing you much happiness and success together.

I believe Freida and Mendel are back from their Birthright trip as leaders. What a nice achievement BH.

Mazal Tov again to Shmuly and Devorah Leah for the main Opsher event for Mendel this Sunday. We are already seeing him with a kappel and tzitzis, and we now look forward to seeing him with short hair BEH

An interesting event occurred this week which is also linked to a section of Torah that I have been learning.

In last week's email, I mentioned that Chava was heading to Jhb. SA to be a leader in the Lubavitch Winter Camp.

I then got a nice surprise email from Kerry Lee, saying that her daughter is registered on this camp! The last time I remember seeing you Kerry Lee, was when you were about 9 years old, and I was in SA with some of our family, and you came with us on this steam train ride to Magaliesberg mountains - I bet a lot of our children remember this with fond memories. I think Rivky won this trip for us by writing an essay competition while we were in SA at one of the super-markets! - and now Chava, who probably wasn't even born yet, is going to cross paths again with you and your daughter!!

Some people call this a COINCIDENCE, some say 'ISN'T IT A SMALL WORLD', but Judaism calls it HAShGACHA PRATIS - DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

This period in the month of Tammuz is connected to the liberation from prison of The Frierdike Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, about which there is so much to talk about, but there will not be space for it this week.

However, I have been learning one of his Maamorim this week, 'Hateh elokai oznecha', and there was a section discussing DIVINE PROVIDENCE, so I thought it would be nice to share what I learned.

The Frierdike Rebbe explains that at very high levels of spirituality, spiritual and material are equal.

And this also applies to Divine Providence ie the engagement and care of Hashem with the highest spiritual beings, is exactly the same as His engagement and care for the very, very lowest of physical items, PROVIDING every creation very precisely, with exactly what it needs.

Therefore this applies not only to spiritual beings who have only very fine form and no matter, but also to man (who has speech, intellect etc), animals (who can move from place to place), plants (who have visible life but cannot move from place to place), and the inanimate (which also has life, but this is highly concealed within heavy matter).

The Baal Shem Tov explains that everything that occurs in Creation is for a specific purpose, and he brings the following example:

Hashem has certain reasons to need to effect certain movements, and it is in the middle of summer, and there is an intense heat. Suddenly there arises a big wind which blows leaves off a tree, and whips up straw from the roof and from the grain, and these get swept across the earth from place to place.

And then the wind stops as if it had never existed.

And it was the intention of this wind, which arose from Hashem, to effect the movement of these leaves and straw and grain, to a certain and specific place.

AND IF THIS APPLIES TO PIECES OF STRAW, HOW MUCH MORE SO DOES IT APPLY TO HUMAN BEINGS, AND HOW MUCH MORE SO TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE WHO ARE A NATION CLOSE TO HASHEM! - that everything that happens to us, and everything that what we see and hear, is directly connected to the intention of Hashem in relation to ourselves.

Various sources from Hallel and Tehillim were cited.

And when we will take time to think deeply into this matter, how Hashem provides food for all his creatures, even tiny animals, there will develop within us a bitachon, a trust, that how much more so will it apply to us, and that we do not need to over-confuse our minds with all kinds of schemes to make our livings.

However we do need to create a 'vessel' ie set up a business, for the blessings to be fulfilled. And this business does need to be framed and based on the principles of Torah. ie We do also need to work.

We can therefore, thereafter, have a clear mind to pray to Hashem with a full heart and set aside times to learn His Torah, because the food for our Soul should be as important to us, as the food for our body.

Wishing everyone a Gut Shabbos.