By Rabbi Aharon Seleh
The Sefer Chai be’Emuna brings a story about a religious person who bought a lottery ticket in Israel. He was notified after the drawing that he had the winning numbers! He won millions! He was ecstatic. Soon afterwards he was called with the sad news that they had a made a mistake and he didn’t have the right numbers after all. His children noticed that he was completely unruffled, very at peace with the news. They asked him how he was able to be so composed.
He answered, many times in life we notice that things are working out well and it looks like something good is about to happen and then all of a sudden it just doesn’t happen. The reason is Hashem is always looking to give us an atonement for our sins through different methods in life. At times a financial loss will suffice. But many times we don’t ‘have enough’ for an atonement, so Hashem orchestrates as if we are about to get a windfall and then at the last moment we lose out. Such aggravation! We almost had it! Hashem considers that loss as a real loss to atone for.
Hashem gives in order to take back to give us an atonement! If we would just open our eyes and minds to the myriad details of all the good Hashem is doing for us we would sing in praise all the time! Thank You Hashem!
Shabbat Shalom