The goal of the Seder is to teach emunah, and a primary aspect of emunah is belief that everything happens for a reason
Why is the alef in “Vayikra” written smaller than the other letters? The Yismach Yisrael ztz”l says this indicates that everything that happens to us, even the small and insignificant matters, is Hashem calling us. The minor struggles of life fluctuate from day to day, and we tend to dismiss such things as chance encounters. But nothing happens by chance. Hashem is calling us through each incident (Rav Elimelech Biderman, Torah Wellsprings).
I know a little girl who swallowed a die… I don’t know why she swallowed the die… But she didn’t cry.
I heard my daughter coughing from across the room. Absently, I glanced up and realized with alarm that her face was turning red as she coughed.
Lunging across the room, I grabbed her off the floor, trying to stick my finger down her throat. “Sweeping motion,” I muttered out loud. My fingers felt something lodged in the back of her throat.
Eighteen years hasn’t dimmed the memory of that moment standing there over my daughter. Sweat beaded on my forehead, while the object wouldn’t budge.
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