Surprising: What Happened When I Asked the Sudanese Cleaner for a Raise

"Not only do we sleep at night. The yetzer hara also has free time and makes good use of it to rest and prepare for the next day," with these words Diti Weinstein, editor of the digital magazine "Coffee Break," opens her weekly column.

"Otherwise, how would you explain the fact that every morning when I plan to take a siddur and pray Shacharit, I remember I have a million tasks that cannot be postponed?

"There is always something urgent that I cannot possibly push off until after Shacharit.

"It’s amazing how each time he improvises tasks for me casually as if they are truly urgent and must be done first thing in the morning, or who knows what will happen.

"And how does he succeed every time? After all, I have been battling him closely for 31 years, have I not learned anything?!" wonders Weinstein, aptly defining: "He realized that telling me not to pray Shacharit is a waste of time, but convincing me to convince myself that in just 5 more minutes I’ll shut the computer and start praying – that is something that might work.

"This week, one morning I sat at the computer and began to work, but nothing proceeded to my satisfaction: a challenging phone call with a client, Chanukah party plans not progressing according to schedule, and a few more unpleasant surprises. A sequence of events that made me say to myself: I'll finish dealing with the urgent matters and then I’ll get to prayer.

"Suddenly it struck me just how absurd it is to handle work tasks and try to advance things with people of flesh and blood, instead of asking Hashem directly for livelihood. It’s about as senseless as asking the Sudanese cleaner who doesn’t understand Hebrew for a raise instead of approaching the boss.

"I have a direct connection with the one who manages our livelihood here, so isn’t it a shame not to use the fresh energies of the morning in the right place?!

"Suddenly I felt awkward, as if the Sudanese cleaner was standing with his mop and rag and laughing at me: 'Go to the boss, ma'am, what do you want from me?!'

"So I put aside all the urgent things and went to ask the boss about livelihood and in general. When I finished praying and returned to work, I found 3 delightful emails in my inbox that were not sent by satisfied clients at all, but directly from the boss who distributes our livelihood," Weinstein concludes her remarks.