The Real Boss

Fear of not having an income is one of the greatest reasons Jews do not make aliyah. In the book “Talking about Eretz Yisroel”, Rav Pinchas Winston deals specifically with this issue.

He writes that in Israel, Hashgacha Pratit (Divine Providence) forces a Jew to be reliant on nothing but Hashem (pg. 132-133). I thought, “Nice idea, but how does that work out in real life?”

I was about to find out…

I work in the Jerusalem site of an international company. The company has several divisions, each with its own Vice President (VP), corporate structure, and product line. For the last 10 years, the Jerusalem site has developed very successful products for our division.

On Israel’s Independence Day, our division VP called an emergency world-wide teleconference to announce that selected sites in his division would be closed. I “happened” to be online when the announcement was made. Due to the holiday however, other Israelis did not know about the teleconference or the announcement.

Later in the day, I learned from colleagues in America that the Jerusalem site was to be closed and its products moved to a site in Poland. The announcement came like ‘a bolt of lightning on a clear day’. The shock was compounded by a feeling of underhandedness about the timing of the announcement. Employees were given the option to relocate to Poland with the product, or to be fired in 3 months. Obviously, neither “option” was an option.

The Jerusalem site managers banded together to find openings in another division that was not closing sites. The goal was to transfer all 60-some employees of the Jerusalem site to a different division, and to develop products of the new division in Jerusalem. No one knew if this goal was feasible because it had never been done within the company.

I took an emunah approach to deal with the uncertainty of my employment. The hardest challenge was to not blame the VP. Only with great effort was I able to see that the VP was a puppet in the hands of Hashem. It was His decision to terminate our employment in the division.

I once read that an employee protects himself from being fired by making himself indispensable to the boss. So, in my hitbodedut, I built a ‘business case’ why my Boss – Hashem – should keep me in His employ:

•  Chomesh (20% tithe) from my salary is invested in outreach, charity, and Jewish education in Israel.
•  The Jerusalem site contributes positive growth to the economy in Israel and employs many new immigrants.
•  The site has every level of Jewish observance, from totally assimilated to ultra-Orthodox. Nevertheless, we work together in a spirit of unity and avoid all forms of gossip.
•  Our reputation for working with other division teams and of developing successful products has created an international Kiddush Hashem (Honor to Hashem).

In hitbodedut I had made it a practice to thank Hashem for my income. Even during the last particularly difficult years, I still thanked Hashem for my job. I reminded myself that Hashem had established a solid pattern of supplying an income for me in Israel every day for over 28 years. Now I thanked Hashem for the stinging shock, the dismissal, and my uncertain future.

Ah, you’re thanking Me in spite of such difficulties?! I’ll move worlds to give you something even better than you can imagine!

And He did!

There was a virtual “news blackout” while the site managers negotiated with the new division VP. After six long weeks, the site managers announced that we would all be transferred to a very prestigious new division in the company. It is a plum assignment, far better than what we’ve been doing until now! Large investments of money and personnel are being funneled into this new division. Its products use cutting-edge technology. And the best part – we continue to work in Jerusalem.

As Rav Winston explains in his book, to succeed in the Diaspora one needs to interact with some physical medium to bring about blessing. Consequently, it’s easy to become self-reliant or reliant on others. “Not so in Eretz Yisrael. In Eretz Yisrael, materialistic success is meant to be achieved in a spiritual manner…  A physical source of success doesn’t have to first exist at the time of need, and often doesn’t for brochah [blessings] to flow to the person. Parnassah [income] often appears out of nowhere ” (pg. 135).

I began to marvel at the Divine Providence that took place over a span of years and continents to make the new division and its job opportunities available exactly when we needed it in Jerusalem:

• The new division was created when my company made a multi-billion dollar acquisition only six months before.
• The company had been doing poorly but was still able to afford such a large expenditure.
• The acquisition created many job openings that filled quickly, yet enough jobs remained open for us.
• A former employee at the Jerusalem site recently returned to the company. In the course of his work, he developed business contacts with the new division. His input and connections helped bring the Jerusalem site and the new division together.

None of my efforts to find other employment panned out. Now I see that this opportunity is far superior to all of the options that I looked into.

Hashem doesn’t abandon us when He brings us to Israel. He tests us to see if we are willing to follow Him and rely on nothing but Him. The spiritual power of emunah, gratitude, tithing, Jewish unity, guarding our speech, and bringing honor to Hashem all came together to bring unimaginable blessings.