Determine the Outcome

Living Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear

When Hashem makes a decree upon a person, there are many ways in which it can be carried out, and our deeds can change things for the good. The Gemara says, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai had a dream on Rosh Hashana that his relative was destined to lose a certain amount of money. Over the course of the year, he advised his relative to give large sums of money to tzedaka. By year's end, the man had given to tzedaka everything he was destined to lose except six dinarim. The king levied a large tax upon everyone, but this man was only charged six dinarim. He was able to fulfill the decree by giving tzedaka instead of losing it a different way. He got the merit of helping people and gained eternal reward. A man said, This past Elul, his bet midrash was asking people to contribute money to buy air conditioners. The air conditioners would help them be able to concentrate more on their learning and have more kavana in tefila. The man wanted to contribute, but he wasn't sure how much he wanted to give, and eventually he forgot about it. A couple of weeks later, his very own home air conditioner stopped working. He called some people who knew about these things, and they all said it sounded like the problem was not fixable. He then called two different repairmen to come down, and they both said he needed to switch the circuit board inside the unit, which would cost at least eight hundred shekels. The man then realized, this was min hashamayim. They were collecting for air conditioners in the bet midrash, and he hadn't given anything yet. He immediately called the gabbai and said he wanted to donate one entire air conditioner. He was not surprised by the end of this story. He called another air conditioning technician, and he told him to try putting his finger on a certain button for a long time. He tried it, and the air conditioner started working again, as though nothing was ever wrong. It seems like this man was decreed to pay a certain amount of money for an air conditioner, and he fulfilled it by donating the money to tzedaka, and then no longer needed the trouble of fixing his own air conditioner. Another man told me he rented an apartment starting in September, and he received a phone call from someone saying he had been providing the sukka for the tenants of that apartment in the past, and offered it to him now. It was a very large and beautiful sukka, which would cost him fifteen hundred dollars to use, plus six hundred and fifty dollars to build. The man usually rented a sukka for twelve hundred, but it was not that nice. So he told this person he was willing to spend the extra money to do the mitzva in a more beautiful way. The next day the sukka came, and the following day the builder came. The builder asked him where the brackets were. The man didn't know what he was talking about. The builder said he needed at least twenty brackets to put the sukka together. The man immediately called the person who delivered the sukka to inquire about the brackets. He said the brackets should be stored in the apartment somewhere. The man searched the apartment, and there were no brackets. To buy new ones would cost another six hundred and fifty dollars. The man was livid. He wasn't told about the brackets, and now he wanted to back out of the whole thing. He was going to yell at this man for not telling him about the brackets in advance. But then he caught himself. Although he admits he does have a problem with his temper, he wanted to start the new year the right way. He told Hashem he was going to swallow it and go and buy the brackets. This also meant a lot of time with traffic and lines at the sukka store. But he overcame his nature and got in the car to go. When he was just two blocks away from his house, he saw his brother-in-law turning the corner and said hello, and then told him he was going to buy brackets for his sukka. His brother-in-law replied, "Oh, I forgot to tell you. Last week I was driving by your house, and I saw your housekeeper put out a whole bunch of good brackets by the garbage. I took them for you but forgot to tell you about it. Come to my house now, and I'll give you them." The man immediately thanked Hashem.He said to himself, Hashem was testing my anger. Once I passed the test, He gave me the brackets. What were the odds that on the way to buy the brackets, he would see his brother-in-law, the only person in the entire world, who had his brackets at that time? There are many ways things can play out. Our decisions will determine the outcome.