None of us, unless we are navi’im (prophets), have a clue what the future holds in store. We plan, we look forward and we go on with our everyday lives never really believing that something major will occur that might change our plans or impact our lives severely.
During the days when Nina was a travel agent in Montreal she remembers when families would return from their winter holidays to Florida and within a few days call her and ask her to book tickets for the following winter vacation. In most cases, the call was received about eleven months prior to their next proposed trip. Those were the days when computers allowed the reservation to be held for months on end without having to issue the ticket. Today the strict implementation of ticketing rules would never allow that to happen. The norm nowadays is that one must book it and ticket it within a short period of time or lose one’s reservation. As certain days in the calendar were of the utmost importance in terms of squeezing as much time as possible into school breaks, people felt they were fooling the system by ensuring that they could get the flights on the days that they wished. Did anyone wonder if there would by any consequence that could occur during the year that would prevent them from traveling? We would guess in most cases the answer would be no.
Many hours of work went into arranging The Jewish Link’s trip last winter encouraging people to travel to Israel and “Shop ‘til You Drop” in Jerusalem. Our hearts and souls hoped that people would see the need being felt by the Israelis to have support from diaspora Jewry at a time when those horrific stabbing “incidents” were creeping up frequently on the average Israeli, instilling a fear of spending leisure time on the streets or in restaurants. We felt strongly that our trip would provide a needed boost. Did we know that three days prior to our departure our daughter Naama would be admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital where she remained on a respirator for a week? How could this happen? This was definitely not in the plan. The trip went on with only one of us in attendance, under constant stress and concern. At one point one of us questioned why since this was being done as a mitzvah, with only the greatest intentions, why would it happen exactly then that Naama should be so sick?
We have all heard of grandparents and parents dying prior to a simcha, or of a person becoming drastically ill prior to a birthday celebration. None of these things make any sense to us.
We have the luxury of having bitachon (trust) and emunah (faith). We have the blessing of having a relationship with Hashem that trusts him enough for us to believe in his decisions.
A friend mentioned that she had attended her daughter’s chemo therapy sessions every week. She looked at all of the young and old sitting in the room attached to tubes receiving their treatments and she commented that if it weren’t for her faith in Ha Kodesh Baruch Hu she did not know how anyone could get through this experience.
We should all have a peaceful and healthy New Year and should remember how fortunate we are to have a God who has a plan for all of us.
Rabbi Mordechai and Nina Glick
