The Torah teaches us that nothing in the world is coincidence. That is the meaning of, "There is none beside Him."

Everything that occurs is ordained and orchestrated by the Almighty Himself. When we recognize the connections between events that occur and the circumstances which caused them to happen, we can often see the Hand of Hashem managing His world.

The following story, written to Rabbi Zilberstein shlita and recorded in in Aleynu Leshabeach, is a good example.

"For more than thirty years, I suffer from shoulder problems. This means that every once in a while, my arm, at the shoulder, falls out of place and must be returned to its proper position. It hasn't occurred for about five years now, but last Friday morning, as I was preparing to go to shul for vosikin (the dawn-time prayers), it suddenly happened again. Usually, when someone experiences this discomfort, he goes to the hospital where trained personnel know how to deal with it. However, since it happens to me so often, my wife learned how to do it and she takes care of me. This time, too, she restored my arm to its proper position, but I was still in a lot of pain and could not attend the regular early minyan.

"Being a devout believer in Hasgachah Peratis (Divine Providence), I wondered why Hashem had prevented me from attending the minyan which I had never missed for so many years.

"At minchah (the afternoon prayers), I met another member of the early Morning Prayer group who is also the local ambulance driver, in times of emergencies. Matter-of-factly, I told him why I hadn't come to the minyan that morning, and I mentioned that my arm had fallen out of place and that my wife had attended to my problem. Actually, it was the first time that I had ever told anyone about my condition which, as I said, had been with me for over thirty years. I was surprised at myself for suddenly telling someone about my personal situation.

"That Shabbos evening, while eating the Shabbos meal, we heard someone knocking at the door. It turned out to be two young men from the neighborhood who were looking for my wife to ask her to come to their home and help their mother whose arm had dislocated! Of course, we immediately stopped eating and ran to their house. When we arrived, they explained to us that they had asked the ambulance driver to drive their mother to the hospital, although it was Shabbos, and, to their great surprise, he had told them that there was someone in the neighborhood who could deal with it on the spot.

"Actually, my wife had some difficulty helping the woman, but I stood at her side and recited Tehillim, confident that Hashem had clearly orchestrated my entire event that morning just so that we could help this woman in distress and prevent the driver from having to travel to the hospital on Shabbos. A few minutes later, my wife announced, happily, that she had succeeded."

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