Help — I Lost My Job

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A woman from the Tri-State area called me recently. Her voice was trembling.

She told me she just lost her job. And it wasn't just any job she said.

After years of working in a boring, unfulfilling position, she had finally found her dream job.

A place where her creativity was valued. She felt alive.

She earned enough to support her family with dignity. And now it is gone.

She was terrified. My husband might have to leave Coil, she said.

And then came the self-play. Maybe I wasn't efficient enough. Maybe I wasn't friendly enough to my boss.

I just don't have any muscle.

I told her, your words remind me of a story.

There was a man in a Tishral who once said that after their wedding,

he and his friends invested money in real estate and stocks and various business ventures.

His friends became wildly successful. Every investment they touched turned at the gold.

And every investment I touched failed. I just don't have any muscle, he said.

He said, from when I was a little boy, I never won anything in Yishiva, at home, and camp.

I never won a single raffle. I got older and I entered into all these Chinese auctions countless times.

And I never won anything. I applied for government housing lotteries and I never won.

Then he said, actually, I did won one lottery in my life.

When I was a bocher, six friends and I went to Moron for Shabbos.

We rented an apartment with seven beds. We arrived Friday afternoon and we discovered there were only six beds.

One person had to sleep on the floor.

So we made a lottery and guess the one. Me. I slept on the floor that Shabbos. That's my muscle.

At older, we must remember in muzzle these raw. For a Jew, nothing is random. Nothing is coincidence.

Parnasa does not come from employers or markets or investments. They're a boi-nish-loom gives Parnasa.

Sometimes a person invests money and he loses. It's easy to say, I made a bad decision.

But the truth is, you can do all the research, all the due diligence, all the planning, and still, if it's not by share, it will not succeed.

Of course, we must be responsible. If someone promises you 30% guaranteed returns, you should quickly run the other way.

The third does not ask us to be naive. But even when we act wisely, the outcome is not in our hands.

If a person loses a job, it doesn't mean they failed.

Sometimes it means that Hashem is saying, this place was not good for you.

Or perhaps, I have something better waiting for you. With less stress, more dignity, better hours, greater brokha,

we must learn to trust the process. The same Hashem who sustains every creature from the mighty acts that the smallest insect,

from the vast galaxies that the tiniest blade of grass has not forgotten one of his beloved children.

He gives us every breath, every thought, every heartbeat, and of course, he gives us Parnasa as well.

There's a story told about a young man who came to Revshach. He said, Rabi, Mazotov, a baby girl was born to us.

On Monday, I gave her a name, and after Davenik, I made a small kiddish.

Revshach asked him, how long after a wedding was this child born? He said, one year. Revshach then asked him, tell me,

if the child had been born after 10 years, would you have still done what you did? What would have you done differently?

The young man thought for a moment, and he said, after 10 years, I would have made a massive kiddish on Shabbos,

and I would have invited the whole world. Revshach tells him, the Abishters spared you 10 years of agony and waiting,

and doctors visits and procedures, and he gave you a child immediately.

Doesn't he deserve an even bigger kiddish? Doesn't he deserve an even greater Akhara Satayif?

It's not about the cool and the herring. It's about recognizing the gift that you were given.

A few years ago, there was a Yiddin Barapak who had a child 34 years after his wedding.

No words can describe the joy, the tears, the trembling emotion of that moment.

A person must ask themselves, what did Hashem spare me from today?

We don't know his hidden hasad that he gives us on a daily basis.

The hardships, the anguish he spears us on a daily basis.

Lois is a good-doinus in the flow of his lavade. Hashem performs the flow for us, but lavade.

Only he himself knows about it. He doesn't even reveal it to us.

One person goes through tremendous hardships, another is spirit.

One has and one lacks. We don't understand the Abishers' Hashbindus.

But for all the lack, we have to be grateful for what he continues to give us every day.

Things that thousands and millions of people around the world would give anything to have.

Parnasa, family, health, the ability to walk, the think, the quiet miracles that surround us every day.

This pharmacist says, one who thanks Hashem for the past opens the gates for brother for the future.

So when the door closes, it's not proof that we lack Maslow.

It is proof that we are being guided by the hand of Hashem.

When something falls apart, it is not because we failed.

It is because Hashem is rearranging our lives with precision we cannot yet understand.

One day we will look back and realize the job we lost, the investment that failed, the path that collapsed was not a curse.

It was the other Hashem leading us to the place we were always meant to be.

And now we know, have a wonderful day.

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