Changing Colors
I knew a man who married a gentile Ethiopian woman. They had one daughter together.
When I met this man, I explained to him the singularity of Am Yisrael, a nation separate from all of the nations of the world. I warned him, in no uncertain terms, of the severity of intermarriage. The man accepted my words, and, in spite of the difficulty involved, left his gentile wife. He became interested in a Jewish woman, and they decided to marry.
Meanwhile, his non-Jewish daughter from his first marriage grew to maturity. When her father left his wife, his daughter joined him and converted according to Torah law.
The Ethiopian woman met a gentile man and they decided to marry. Meanwhile, the Jewish man married according to the dictates of the Torah.
This man wanted to cling to Hashem. Therefore, he merited siyata di’Shemaya to reject his gentile wife and easily find a fitting match.
The story does not end here. The Ethiopian mother was not pleased that her daughter took the road to Judaism, and she caused her a lot of misery. Hashem took pity on this precious girl and sent her mother a devastating disease, which wracked her entire body and depleted her of any strength with which to disturb her ex-husband and daughter.
When a person truly desires to do teshuvah, Hashem removes all obstacles from his path. This Jewish man wanted to leave his non-Jewish wife and was helped from Heaven. The girl, too, wished to come under the wings of the Shechinah, and was therefore protected by them.
