Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

It isn’t every day a matchmaker loses the opportunity to make a $250,000 profit just from an initial meeting. But that is exactly what happened to Ms. Janis Spindel, who suddenly found herself stuck in an elevator that caused her to miss the meeting. Ms. Spindel fits the classical definition of a shlemazal—someone who has only bad luck. By the time she arrived, the billionaire left her in a cloud of dust. Ms. Spindel is considering suing the owner of her apartment building for the loss of income.[1] We wish her luck…

Someone should tell her that “What man proposes, God disposes!” Besides, every match that takes place really comes from God and not just mortals. Rabbinic tradition has long stressed this point since Late Antiquity:

A Roman matron asked R. Jose: “In how many days did the Blessed Holy One, create His world?’’ “In six days,” he answered. “And what has He been doing since then?” “He sits and arranges matches,” he answered, “assigning this man to that woman, and this woman to that
man.” “If that is difficult,” she gibed, “I too can do the same.” She and sent for a thousand male slaves and a thousand female slaves, placed them in rows, and introduced them to their perspective mates. In the morning they came to her; one had a wounded head; another had an eye taken out; another had an elbow crushed; another had a broken leg. One woman said: “I don’t want this man!” Another man protested, “I don’t want that woman.” She immediately summoned R. Jose b. Halafta and said to him: “Rabbi, your Torah is true and excellent; everything that you have said has proven to be accurate.” [2]

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Notes:

[1] Jennifer Gould-Keil, “Upper East Side Matchmaker Stuck In Elevator Says She Lost $10,000 A Minute In Client Fee” (New York Post, Nov. 4th, 2010).

[2] Leviticus Rabbah 8:1. Variants of this story can be seen in; Gen. Rabbah 68:3-4; BT Sotah 2a; BT Moed Katan 18b; BT Sanhedrin 22a; Midrash Shmuel, Chapter 5; Zohar I, 91b.