A sense of the divine...

You know those scenes in "It's a Wonderful Life" where the angel Clarence takes Jimmy Stewart around Bedford Falls and shows him how different the
world would be if he had never existed?  Stewart sees the good that he has done and starts to appreciate the fact that his role in the world is not as
tiny and insignificant as he thought it was.

Tamar gave me a book recently by Rabbi Harold Kushner called "Living a LifeThat Matters."  He writes that angels aren't really divine creatures, rather
they are human beings performing divine acts. We each have the opportunity to be an angel in the life of another person.

Sometimes we are angels and we realize it. Other times, we don't.

Last Sunday, my mother, Tamar, and I had this unique opportunity to feel this sense of divine power within us.

We converged in Philadelphia for the wedding of Jason Levitz and Natanya Levin, a beautiful affair by all accounts, but were it not for my existence,
it would not have come to pass.

You see, Natanya and I were classmates in 7th grade, before her family moved to Philadelphia and she and I, as well as our families have maintained a
relationship over the years.

Jason (Jay) and I became friendly during our freshman year at Hopkins. Over the ensuing three years at college, a rendezvous in Tel Aviv, and then some
dinners in New York (and of course, thanks to email) we stayed in touch as fairly good friends.

On June 18, 2000, Tamar and I had been dating for three months, when Natanya and I were seated next to each other at the wedding of a mutual friend,
Emily Ebner (nee Waldman).

It was still early enough in my relationship with Tamar that she had not been invited to the wedding (in fact, her sister Aviva was getting married
the same day) and though the signs were very positive, I was still a bit nervous that it wouldn't go right, having had more failures than successes.

Natanya was the only other person I knew at my table and we spent most of the night talking about the, dare I say, miserable state of her social life.
Depressed is a strong word, but she was very down about her prospects. 

Fast-forward 8 months and the planning for my wedding...

Tamar says to me "I am determined to have another wedding come out of our wedding. We need to think about seating arrangements for our single
friends."

In my typical style, I pull out the spreadsheet, list all of the singles coming to the wedding with information such as age, geographic location,
gender, and degree of Jewish religious observance.

We sort the list and Jay Levitz and Natanya Levin line up EXACTLY next to each other.

About the same time, my mother calls me up and says, basically out of the blue, "I want your friend Jason to be at Natanya's table. I think they would
work out."

So, with both the instinctive and scientific approaches, we do seat them at the same table.

At this point, I check out of the attempt to match them up, since Tamar and I have a few other coals in the fire for the big day and frankly at our
wedding, we're focused on a few other things.

The legend is that the wedding is coming to a close and my mother goes up to Jason and asks if he's talked to Natanya yet.  Apparently not.  He'd spent
the whole evening talking to other people.

She tells him (really nags from what I gather and based on experience!) "You can't leave until you've spoken to her."

He agrees to and the connection between them is immediate.

Next thing we know, the two of them are caught on our wedding video, dancing their first dance together ever.

A few days later, we get a call from Jason saying "this is it."  An email from Natanya a few weeks later echoes the same thought. Within days, these
two knew they were meant for each other.

We followed the progress of the relationship. Jason called me as he walked out of the store after buying the engagement ring and he then called to
consult me after 9/11 since he had planned to propose on 9/15 and wondered if it was still appropriate to go forward. My advice...definitely.  If we've
learned anything this week, it's that life is too short to wait on sharing your love and feelings.

So this brings us to last Sunday. I don't think I've ever felt such sincere gratitude ever before.

Have you ever been to a wedding where the bride is departing the ceremony after having just gotten married and she turns to you and mouths a big
"Thank you!"

Have you ever had the fathers of the bride and groom give you a big hug and say "Thank you so much!"?

I am not trying to toot my own horn here, though it may sound that way. What I'm trying to get across is that I felt so fortunate to be able to play a
role in G-d's beautiful play that made two wonderful people so happy.

The pride I felt was not a false pride, not an ego, but truly a sense of the divine power within me and really within all of us to make beautiful,
positive impacts on the lives of people wherever we go in ways which we can never anticipate.