Για να το διαβάσετε στα Ελληνικά, κάντε κλικ εδώ
This story happened to my friend Zalman last week in New York, during the international convention of Chabad Shluchim which I attended.
It was the afternoon right before the big banquet concluding the conference. Zalman had rented a car and parked it on a legal spot. Nevertheless, it was on the block adjacent to the one where all the buses to the big banquet were departing, and the police decided to tow away all parked cars for security reasons.
Someone called Zalman to tell him his car was being towed away. As he rushed there, he kept praying: "G-d, please let the car still be there, save me the headache and the money for getting it back, please G-d!". As he arrived, he saw that the block was empty of cars. There was only one car left. His car. As he approached, he discovered why: his car had a respectable flat tire. With the help of a passing fellow rabbi (whom he did not even know), they changed the tire and he took the car away. It was probably the first time in history that someone thanked G-d so profusely for a flat tire!
If Zalman simply had a flat tire, he would be quite upset. But now that he saw that it was for the good, he was delighted.
Not always are we able to see the reason why misfortunes happen to us. But we believe that everything happens for a reason and that G-d sends us only good. Sometimes revealed, and sometimes hidden.
I wish to all of us to only experience revealed good, but then, when a flat tire happens to us, to remember that it is a hidden good.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Mendel and Nehama Hendel