Coincidence? D’var Torah for Parshat Ki Teitzei
Every coincidence issues a call to us. We learn this from a fascinating mitzvah in Parshat Ki Teitzei. “Ki yikareh katzipor l’fanecha”, if by chance you come across a bird’s nest and you want to take the eggs or the young, then “shaleach t’shalach et ha’eim”, you must surely send the mother bird away so that it won’t witness this scenario. But, there seems to be a misspelling. ‘Yikareh’, if just by chance you come across the nest, it should have been spelt: ‘yud-kuf-reish-hei’ from the word ‘mikreh’, it happened by chance. But instead, it is spelt ‘yud-kuf-reish-alef’ from the root ‘koreh’, to call. So, what the Torah is saying to us is that this bird’s nest is issuing a call to us. This coincidence is letting us know that Hashem has made it happen so that there will be an opportunity for you to perform a mitzvah.
In Jewish tradition there’s actually no such thing as a coincidence because everything comes from Hashem. Everything that happens is His intention for what should transpire, as part of the divine plan. And what we recognise here is that coincidences – or what we call coincidences – present great opportunities. We can see this from the way that the Torah goes on to describe the result of this mitzvah, “l’maan yitav lach v’arachta yamim”, “so that it will be good for you and you will have length of days”.
You will find that if you squeeze every opportunity out of all that you experience in life, it will be good for you – it will enhance your existence. You will have arichat yamim, you will be able to make the most of every day’s opportunities. How blessed we are that Hashem enables us to deepen our experiences and enhance our lives in the most unexpected of ways.
Shabbat Shalom.
