There are times in life when things seem to be going in the opposite direction of what we want or expect and this can be devastating. We don't know the master plan and what G-d really has in store for us which is always our good.

I heard the following story from R'Elimelech Biderman which illustrates this exact point.

The custom on Simchas Torah is that someone is honored with the last Aliyah which reads the end of the Torah and someone else is honored with the Aliyah which starts the new cycle of the Torah reading. These two aliyot are referred to as Chasan Torah (the aliyah which ends the Torah) and Chasan Bereishis (the aliyah which begins the Torah from the start). These aliyot are considered a very big honor and in most congregations these honors are auctioned off for sizeable donations. When the gabbai calls up each of these honorees there is a long and special prayer that blesses the recipient with physical and spiritual success. In one congregation there was a special gabbai who had a very nice voice who was always given the honor to call up the honorees for both of these aliyot. This man performed his duty yearly with great enthusiasm and joy. This was his honor and for over 30 years he was the one who called the honorees up and recited these special prayers.

One year the gabbai of the shul came to the man (the special gabbai) and told him that this year he is only going to be given the honor of calling up the first of the two honorees the Chasan Torah, but Chasan Bereshis was reserved for someone else to call up. The man was devastated, how could they do this to him? After so many years of having this job and he always did a wonderful job, how could they remove him from his post? Furthermore, everyone knew that this was his lifeblood, he waited the whole year for this and now it is being taken away from him at least partially. The man was distraught and his entire Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot was destroyed because of this, he simply couldn't take the rejection.

The day of Simchas Torah came and he arose to call up the Chasan Torah. With his beautiful voice he called up the honoree but afterwards with a heavy heart he went back to his seat as someone else took his post to call up the Chasan Bereishis. The "newbee" began to recite the prayer to call up the next honoree and it was just too much for the special gabbai to handle, his heart was burning inside. Every chance he had to correct the newbee he jumped upon. As the prayer concludes the honoree is called up by name and the special gabbai with his burning heart was shocked when he heard his own name called out. In utter shock, he quickly gathered his bearings,  and went up to receive the great honor of Chasan Bereshis.

After davening he went over to the Gabbai and asked why didn't you tell me all along that the reason I wasn't going to call up the Chasan Bereishis is because I was going to be the honoree (and he obviously couldn't call up himself)? The gabbai answered him that his children decided that they wanted to surprise him with the great honor of Chasan Bereishis and they asked the gabbai not to tell him until the very last minute, which means he wouldn't know until they actually call him up.

The entire time this man was devastated and upset that this great honor was taken away from him, but he didn't realize the entire reason was only in order to give him a much greater honor!

Shabbat Shalom,

Heath