A Story of Hashgacha

A Guest Post by Rafi G
(originally posted on LII)

I had to take a watch to be repaired. It needed some quality workmanship so we did not just want to walk into any jeweler for this. The place I usually use, somewhere near work, recently closed down. So I asked for recommendations and decided where I would go.

We head out to our choice. This is a jeweler we never would have gone to - his shop is in a different neighborhood and I just would never have even known about him.

We take in the watch, and the shop is very busy. the father, who fixes the watches, was out, and we chose to wait for him. After a while we step outside and my wife looks in the window. To her surprise she sees a bracelet that she recognizes as being very similar to one owned by a relative that recently had it stolen from them!

We let the relative know - they had some very specific simanim on the bracelet as they had made some changes to the original bracelet. They go down there and see the bracelet and inspect it. Sure enough it is their bracelet.

Obviously the store did not steal the bracelet. Someone else probably did and sold it to the jeweler (selling old jewelery for the gold value is very common nowadays in Israel). The jeweler placed it on display in the window, and we spotted it.

So, we took a recommendation for a jeweler we would never have gone to, spotted our relatives stolen bracelet and now they are in the process of retrieving it via the police and insurance company. And for added measure, that jeweler was not able to fix the watch we had brought in - we ended up taking it to someone else who did fix it.

The only reason we were sent to this place was to find that bracelet.

What do you think? Pure coincidence or hashgacha? If hashgacha, as I think, why would Hashem get so involved in helping us find a stolen bracelet - for what purpose? Just to retrieve it?

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