With overstuffed backpack, Bernie stood ready to pay the clerk of the Cambridge Youth Hostel and leave. "Did you do your duty?" the clerk asked. "My duty? Well, I never served in the army but..." The clerk held out a broom. "Sweep room number seven."

Just my luck - thinks Bernie looking into room seven - There's a big lug fixing his backpack right in the middle of the floor. "Ahem! …excuse me, would you mind moving aside for a minute so I can… Hey, Jake? Is that you? I can't believe it! I've been looking all over Europe for you! Didn't you get my letter in Rome? In Athens? I sent one to Paris, too!" "I changed my itinerary." said Jake. "But what about you? Did you get my letters in Brussels and London?" "No. I changed my itinerary, too! Wow! Here we are in the very same youth hostel, and if not for that clerk telling me to sweep room seven we'd never have met!"

A Jew is obligated to write his own Megillas Esther. So teaches the great contemporary sage Rabbi Sholmo Wolbe. On the surface, Megillas Esther is a wonderful children's tale; but look deeper and you'll find a sophisticated tapestry of hidden miracles, interwoven with the deliverance of the Jewish people and the retribution against their nefarious enemy. So too, we must study our own lives to see the hidden miracles, to follow the thread that Hashem weaves, guiding us towards our personal destiny.

Or as Bernie put it, "You know Jake, sometimes I feel like we're being watched."