Managing Expectations

Everything happens for a reason. Whatever we do, wherever we go, whenever it happens - there is a reason for everything.

Everything happens for a reason. Whatever we do, wherever we go, whenever it happens - there is a reason for everything. 

As a student in the Mir Yeshiva, I would often go to the Kotel on Thursday nights to daven/ learn/ kumzitz. It was about 3 AM on Erev Shabbos Vayetzei and I was sitting saying Tehillim in one of the small tunnels adjacent to the Kotel. All of a sudden the man sitting next to me said “Oy we need to daven for the Yidden in Mumbai”. The news of the terror attack in Mumbai had just reached his phone. We said some Tehillim and then we started schmoozing as we awaited Netz Hachama. He introduced himself to me as Gil Locks, told me a bit about his story including how he had once spent a year looking at the tip of his nose for 23 hours a day, amongst other interesting things.  

In the course of the conversation, he taught me an unforgettable lesson from the Parashah. Yaakov is on the run, away from his brother Esav and in search of his uncle Lavan. Finally, he meets up with …