My good friend and former professor Dr. James Kallas, in his days at California Lutheran University, used to tell a story from his youth. He would tell the story to teach us the Jewish understanding of faith and how they saw everything as the will of God.

When Jim was a young man he worked in a warehouse for a Jewish man. One day the man asked him to go up to the fourth floor and put a refrigerator on a dolly and bring it down the elevator. Jim did just as he had been told. He put the refrigerator on the dolly and delivered it to the elevator. He pushed the dolly and refrigerator into the elevator and then he heard a loud crash. It seems that the elevator was not where it was supposed to be and the refrigerator fell down the shaft to the floor, smashing into hundreds of pieces. To say the least, Jim was glad that he wasn't backing into the elevator.

After all the noise had subsided the owner of the warehouse came running over to see what had happened. He looked around and saw all the broken pieces. The refrigerator could never be repaired. The man looked up to Jim and said, "God has spoken. Go get another refrigerator."