Chanukah: Hidden Presents

Living Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear

If a person is going through a difficulty and he feels like his world is crashing down around him, the best thing he could do is strengthen himself like a lion and go on with life happily. Hashem is the One who has brought about the difficulty for the person's benefit. If he believes that, it would give him the strength he needs to move on. Initially the person may feel that he has nothing to look forward to and would rather just stay home and mope around. However, usually, there are hidden presents waiting to be given by Hashem in those situations, but in order to access them, we need to do our part first. Although the Greeks tried to defile every jug of oil in the Beit HaMikdash, Hashem hid one from them. That was the hidden present waiting for us to discover. If the Jewish People would make teshuva and want to serve Hashem like they were supposed to, Hashem had that miracle jug sitting and waiting for them. A young woman who grew up in a certain part of Canada went to seminary in Israel after she graduated high school and became very friendly with a nice group of girls from Brooklyn, New York. Many of her siblings had already moved to Brooklyn, and that's where she wanted to be as well. After she finished seminary, she found a job in Brooklyn and a place to live, but she was not yet a U.S. citizen. She would periodically travel back to Canada to visit her parents. The last time she tried to come back into the U.S., she was stopped at the border. She was questioned as to why she had been spending so much time in the U.S. The last time she was there it was for over six months straight. They were not happy with her answers, and they ended up putting her in handcuffs. After a lot of questioning, they eventually let her go, but said she would never be allowed into the U.S. again until she could prove that she was actually living in Canada. They wanted pay-stubs from a job in Canada which she did not have. At that point, her heart dropped. Her whole life was in Brooklyn – her job, her friends, and she was currently trying to find a shidduch there as well. Where she was from there were not so many religious Jews on her level and, besides, she didn't want to live there anyway. She did have one sister who lived in Montreal, and she decided to go live with her until she could figure things out. While at her sister's house, she was very depressed. She didn't want to do anything productive because she thought, what was the point, she didn't want to be there. After two weeks, somebody gave her a lot of chizuk in emunah, and that gave her the strength to pick herself up and continue living life the way she is supposed to. She found a job in the neighborhood there which she enjoyed very much. At that job, she met a woman who suggested a relative of hers as a shidduch . The woman said he is currently in Toronto, but he has dual citizenship, and his life is in Brooklyn. The young woman looked into it and accepted the offer. Last week she got engaged to this boy. Now, she's going to be allowed back into America through marriage. She is going to live in the exact place she wants to be, she is getting her old job back and she is looking forward to being happily married. What she thought was the worst possible thing for her was actually Hashem leading her to the hidden present He had waiting. She needed to pick herself up first to access it. It was the chizuk in emunah which gave her the strength that she needed. It was specifically her getting up and moving on with life that led her to meet the person who would eventually suggest the shidduch she is going to marry. There are hidden presents waiting for us all the time. Very often, it's our emunah in those times of difficulty which help to lead us to finding those presents.