Red Lights in Manhattan | Rabbi Joey Haber

I have to share with you this story. So there was a group of a family that was getting together, and they had a business meeting. And they were talking about what they need to do in order to succeed. And one person at the meeting said, You know, maybe we should do Vayimaen. You know how they always talk on the videos how Vayimaen, if you avoid seeing something, Hashem sends Bracha. So someone else who sat at the table said, which most people I think feel, like, Come on. Really? You think it really works? And then someone else at the table says, Listen, I have to share a story that I never shared before. Before I tell the story, I want to make this clear. There are always Segulot, there are always things that work, but Hashem decides when He wants it to work. צדקה תציל ממוות doesn't mean that every Baal Tzedaka is going to live forever. Hashem decides when Tzedaka is תציל ממוות and when not. Tefillah always is heard. Hashem decides when to take it and do what was asked and when not to do what they asked. So let me give you one beautiful little story. The man says at the table, he says: I was driving in Manhattan and it was one of those hectic, it was high time in Manhattan, maybe it was in the middle of the summer, and there's a million people at every street corner. And somehow I was making every red light. You know, sometimes you make every green? He says: I made every red. And the challenges around me were, like, impossible. He says: I made up in my mind, there’s a family member we have who's a 40-year-old girl and she’s not married. He said: On every time I get to a red light, I'm going to take off my glasses and I’ll have in my mind and say a chapter of Tehillim for that girl to get married. And every red light, he did. Every red light, he says, I stopped, I took off my glasses, said a chapter of Tehillim for that girl to get married. In the Zechut that I'm not looking at all the scenery around me, please, Hashem, bless this girl. Five months later, the girl got engaged. The man couldn't believe it. Everyone was so excited. This man was, like, shocked. And he called the Shadchan and he says, When was the Shidduch read? The Shadchan thought back, thought back, thought back, and he realized that if the day he was in the city was a Tuesday, the next morning, Wednesday morning or Wednesday afternoon, within 24 hours, is when this Shidduch was read that led to this girl getting engaged and getting married. She was single for... over 40. It's a long time. Now, you might say that Oh, wow. That's so powerful. That story really works. But Hashem decides when it works. There's other people who maybe gave Tzedaka and Hashem decided still that they should have a challenge. There might be another person who was Vayimaen and still has to have a challenge, but the Zechut and the power that's in Vayimaen is undoubtable. The fact that a person turns away, it gives him so much power, so much strength, and it could lead to so much Bracha, is not doubtable. When Hashem decides to use it, when He doesn’t, that is in Hashem’s hands. We don't run the world, He does. But the fact that when a person turns away, they unleash an incredible Zechut, an incredible merit, something that can have an incredible impact on his life, that there is no doubt.