My husband Daniel and I were frantically searching our yard, looking for our Russian tortoise Hershel.
Hershel had escaped before, just like our other tortoise, Mr. Tenenbaum. Tortoises, slow as they are, are actually incredible escape artists and also incredibly hard to find. They are small and blend into everything. I spent many a night in my early tortoise-owning years taking out a flashlight and looking under every car and plant within a three-block radius of my home in search of my little guys.
But this time, Daniel and I had been prepared. We made sure there were no openings in our yard. We had a three-layer fencing system because we’d learned our lesson from previous escapes.
Where was our tortoise?
“Maybe someone stole him,” Daniel said, as we looked behind our trash cans for the third time that day.
“Come on,” I said. “Why would anyone steal a tortoise?”
We then knocked on our Israeli neighbor’s door and told her about our situation.
“Did you say the Rabbi Meir Baal Haness prayer for lost things?” she asked us.
“What’s that?” we said in unison.
“You say this prayer in honor of the rabbi, and you will find what you need. And remember to make a donation. Just Google him.”
We did, and lo and behold, we found the Rabbi Meir Baal Haness website. He was a disciple of Rabbi Akiva in the time of the Mishnah and the second most frequently mentioned sage in the text. The prayer you say when you lose something includes the lines, “God of [Rabbi] Meir, answer me! God of [Rabbi] Meir, answer me! God of [Rabbi] Meir, answer me!” You then donate money on the website, and that money is given to the needy. Hopefully, it works, and you find what you’re looking for.
Daniel and I both said the prayer and donated $18. We walked back to our house and looked again for Hershel, but no luck.
“We tried,” I said, dejected.
Just a few minutes later, I went back outside again and there was Hershel: right on the patio, where we’d looked a thousand times.
“Daniel!” I yelled, excitedly. “It worked!”
We both jumped for joy and thanked Hashem for helping us.
We would continue to use this prayer many times.
Once, Daniel was out of town, and I was home with my two-year-old, who was getting into all the cabinets and moving things around. I couldn’t find my car keys one morning to take her to daycare. I started panicking, since I had no one else to drive her and I had to get to work.
I searched every drawer and cabinet, looked under the bed and sofa and in between cushions, and even went outside to see if my keys had fallen somewhere. I was sweating profusely, crying, receiving texts from her teacher asking me when she was coming, work emails pouring into my inbox, and meanwhile, in the midst of all this, my daughter was yelling and continuing to turn things upside down.
I then went on my local Jewish moms WhatsApp group, typed in, “Can anyone please help me drop my daughter at daycare?” and an angel of a mom came over in 12 minutes. With her help, I got my daughter to school two hours late. As I was leaving her car and thanking her, the mom put her hand on my shoulder and said, “It’ll be OK sweetie. Did you say the Rabbi Meir Baal Haness prayer?”
“No, but I will,” I said, remembering it. “Thank you.”
I went on the website, found the prayer, recited it, and gave charity.
I found my keys 15 minutes later. My daughter had put them under our dogs’ plastic water bowl.
This last event was my biggest challenge yet: this past May, I was supposed to travel to the east coast to visit family. We planned our trip months ago. Daniel and our three kids were going to leave in a week, and, as luck would have it, Daniel’s driver’s license had expired. He promptly got a new temporary one, but the real one wouldn’t be sent in time for the flight.
“We’ll just find my passport,” he said. “Then I can fly.”
We moved to a new place nine months ago, and I thought I’d put all our passports in a certain drawer. I went through that drawer and nope, they weren’t there.
I spent the next four days tearing apart our house, saying the prayer, and emailing the woman at the Rabbi Meir Baal Haness organization about our situation. She was so sweet – she kept checking in on me to see if I’d found the passports yet.
“No luck,” I told her. “But I’m not giving up hope.”
I prayed so hard from week. I pleaded with Hashem. Our trip was coming up in three days, and stil, there was no sign of the passports. I asked my rabbi and our friends to pray for us.
One hour before Shabbat, I said to Daniel, “I have a feeling the passports are in the garage.”
We started going through random bags in the garage as I told him, “I am not giving up hope. I refuse. We will find our passports.”
After 40 minutes of looking, I zipped open some free canvas bag I’d gotten at an event, and there they were: all our passports, including Daniel’s.
I screamed my head off, “Thank you Hashem!” so the entire neighborhood could hear. I sent an overenthusiastic email to the woman at the Rabbi Meir Baal Haness organization thanking her. And you can bet I made a big donation.
Miracles happen every day, but we have to be active participants in them. That’s what these trials and tribulations taught me: Never give up. Put in your effort, your hishtadlut.
But at the same time, always have faith and trust. Then, you just might find what you’re looking for.
Kylie Ora Lobell is an award-winning writer and inspiring public speaker. You can find her on X @KylieOraLobell or Instagram @KylieOraWriter.
