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Hashgacha Pratis and My Mobile Phone

Written by Richard Simmons

This year I decided I would go to Yerushalayim for Shavuos to stay in Yeshiva and visit friends. The day I arrived in Yeshiva was Erev Chag and I had to get some shopping in Meir Sharim before hand. So, I got a taxi from the Old City and went to get my shopping. It was a boiling hot day and the question comes to oneself thinking, when rushing around sweating in the boiling heat Is this all worth it? When I got back to Yeshiva I realised I had left my mobile in the taxi and was obviously really frustrated. I told a friend who said he would call the main taxi company and see if anyone had handed it in and that I should keep on trying to call my phone even though it was on silent and I didn’t have much battery left. My friend said he would say the short pray for lost objects and said I would get it back, I wasn’t as confident and didn’t get my hopes up. The taxi driver was religious so it was likely that I was his last customer and that he had gone home to get ready for Chag, which narrowed my chances of getting the phone back even more. I thought Gam Zoo Le Tova but that doesn’t always help

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I had an okay time in Yeshiva but didn’t learn as well as I had wanted as loosing my phone had really annoyed me. Sitting in Yeshiva packed with Bochrim learning, when you could be in a hotel relaxing brings back the question, Is this all worth it? I was considering not staying in Yeshiva for the week and going back to the hotel to stay with my family instead. After Shavuot went out, I went to visit some friends in Ohr Sameach and go out for dinner. I told them what had happened and they said these things happen and to get over it and come and stay with them for the week. I said I would think about it.

Anyway, we left Ohr Sameach to go to town for dinner. Every taxi that went by didn’t stop for us for around fifteen minutes so we decided to get the bus which was coming along. Due to Kibud Av V’aim, I said that my parents don’t really like me getting the bus and would rather I get a taxi. I told the boys and we agreed to wait for one more taxi.
After five minutes of taxis going past we managed to get one that stopped and we got in and went to town. On the journey I realised that this was the drive who took me to Meir Sharim the previous day and due to my lack of Ivrit asked my friend to ask him in Ivrit if he had remembered me and found my phone. He replied no so we tried to call the phone but we couldn’t hear it ring or vibrate so I gave him my number and told him to ring me if he found it.
We arrived in town and I thought I should just check the taxi one more time and right under the seat was my phone, still with battery even though it should have run out. I payed the taxi driver and couldn’t have been more happy. The taxi driver probably found me crazy but I started singing and dancing in the street and he couldn’t stop laughing.

My question was answered, it’s all worth it and that I shouldn’t even question it. I moved into Yeshiva with my friends for the week and had the best week of learning I could have wished for.
My question of, Is this all worth it, to change ones life and try as best as one can, to grow slowly but steadily in the way Hashem wants, was answered, with a clear YES.

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