Every Friday morning, after davening in Morah Kasirer’s homeroom class, was set aside as a time for all of us to share hashgachah pratis stories that we experienced over the week. Our class enjoyed this time a lot and naturally began to look out for and notice the hashgachah in our lives so we could share it with the class – and, of course, take as much class time as we could doing so. Morah Kasirer always patiently gave us all the time we wanted, because to her — and eventually to us as well – talking about Hashem’s hashgachah was never a waste of time.
Shortly after Sukkos, she shared the following story with us. This is a story that I think about often – until today, almost ten years later – a story that teaches us so much about how Morah Kasirer lived with Hashem on a constant basis. While the story might seem cute, even trivial at first, that’s exactly what makes it so amazing:
I was in the middle of setting the table for the Yom Tov seudah and took a stack of napkins with me outside to the sukkah. I put a napkin at each place, and believe it or not, I had taken the exact number of napkins I needed for the people at the table without even counting! Hashem loves me so much that He didn’t want me to go through the trouble of going back to get more or even just putting the extras back.
Yes, that was the whole story.
Because Morah Kasirer didn’t need earth-shattering episodes to notice and appreciate the “hug from Hashem,” as she called it. Ever since then, I suddenly started noticing these “hugs from Hashem” wherever I went. When I “happened to” open my chumash to the right place in class, instead of thinking, “That’s so cool!” I noticed it as Hashem’s hashgachah. The same happened countless times since then as I took out the right-color pen from my pencil case without looking, picked nice vegetables from the grocery on my first try, and, of course, took exactly the right number of napkins or plates when setting the table.
Morah Kasirer truly lived with Hashem, and I will never forget the message she taught us with this “little” story she shared.
Her neshamah should have an aliyah, and her life should continue to be an inspiration and z’chus for us all.
