Rabbi Shalom Schwadron
Examples of hashgachah pratit (the Almighty’s watchfulness and care for each individual) on the path to teshuvah—small “coincidences” that transformed lives…
A husband and wife from Givat Brenner—a completely nonreligious kibbutz where there was not even a synagogue—attended Judaism classes organized in Rehovot by Rabbi Schwartz, who related this story to Rabbi Schwadron. The couple had twin daughters who viewed their parents’ interest in faith with irony: “You’ve grown old and become afraid of dying.” Their parents replied: “Instead of making fun of us, why don’t you come and listen yourselves? Perhaps you’ll like it too.”
At first, the girls only continued their mockery, but after a while their parents managed to persuade them to come once. That first visit was followed by another, and another… Two months passed this way, during which the girls became regular participants in the classes.
But after those two months, they were due to report to the induction center to begin their service in the Israeli army. Their parents understood very well that if their daughters were sent into the army now, soon not the slightest trace would remain of what they had learned in the classes—they had been studying for too short a time. They asked the organizer of the classes for advice, and he suggested that they apply for a deferment. This would allow the girls to study for a while longer and then join the army if they still wanted to.
The girls followed the advice, went to the induction center, requested a deferment—and received one. Then something remarkable came to light. It turned out that their enlistment date had been listed as a month later than that of all the girls in their former class. Had they gone to enlist at the same time as the rest of the class, they would have been too embarrassed to ask for a deferment in front of their friends. Now, thanks to the deferment they had received, they were able to continue attending classes for another year, and as a result began observing the mitzvot. Moreover, another, younger girl from the kibbutz followed their example and went to study at “Bais Yaakov.”
Thus, the bureaucratic error in the enlistment dates had been “prepared” in advance by the Almighty so that three Jewish girls could return to their roots.
Translated by M. Klimovskaya. From the book “Ask Your Father, and He Will Tell You…,” compiled by Rabbi Yisrael Spiegel.