Lights, Camera, Action!

"Everything is by Divine Providence. If a leaf is turned over by a breeze, it is only because this has been specifically ordained by G‑d to serve a particular function within the purpose of creation." - Yisrael "Baal Shem Tov"

Lights! Camera! Action!
CNN cameraman motioning. Massive microphone in my face. A regret for agreeing to this interview begins to mount...

But let's rewind a few hours.
I'm preparing for the long fast of Tisha B'av (see last email), downing as much water as I can get my hands on.
Hearing about my yeshiva's plans to go to the Western Wall for evening services, I'm feeling a bit apprehensive.
"I'll be fasting and will need to conserve my energy and strength for the next 24 hours! Why go?"
In the end though, my holier (and less lazy) side won, and I was off to the Wall to share in my people's pain over this near-2000 year exile.
After a very special service, as I was preparing to leave, a friend comes running over and asks me to take his place for an interview.
With G-d's Help I somehow do the interview, and hopefully make a Kiddush Hashem -an honoring of G-d's Name- in the process.
{The video can be seen here: http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/living/2010/07/21/nat.jewish.holiday.cnn}

After nearly not going at all, I end up perhaps affecting thousands of people worldwide who I will probably never meet.
Afterwards, I felt that this was real Hashgachoh Pratis - Divine Providence, G-d's Directing of the events in my life as part of His Great Plan.
Many of us experience "out of the ordinary" events in our lives. But what is their purpose? Oftentimes they just come and go. Granted, they're pretty cool and inspiring, and they may even cause us to point and say: "wow! That was real Divine Providence!"
But the truth is, that everything that happens in our lives is by Divine Providence. Nothing is up to chance.
G-d Has a Plan for each of us - a very detailed plan that precluded our soul's descent into this particular place & time in history. No moment is ordinary.

So what's with G-d Giving us these moments where we realize for only a moment that something Divinely orchestrated just happened?
WELL, imagine you one day decided to go to Nordstrom. like any high-class store, as you enter you hear a beautiful piano melody playing.
Not paying much attention, you decide it's one of those pianos that are automated to play on their own. As you're perusing the 3rd-floor clothing, you all of a sudden hear a mistake in the melody. Now you realize that there was someone behind the piano - playing the melody the entire time.



G-d Doesn't Make Mistakes, but sometimes He will Change the natural flow of things in our lives. Why? To remind us, that He's REALLY behind the piano the whole time. He's Orchestrating your life & my life from morning until night. Our job is to just be sensitive enough to notice these open acts of Divine Providence - these glitches in the song - and apply that to the rest of the 'ordinary' events of our lives.

'All is in the Hands of Heaven, except for the awe of heaven itself.' - the Talmud
When it comes to moral decisions, that's up to us.
But everything else, from a traffic jam to a baby's diaper - is planned for us from above. WE just have to give every moment our very best shot.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel
CNN Middle East Correspondent to Religious Affairs