Faith
The Meaning of In Your Place They Will Seat You
Question
Hello, honorable rabbi.
My question concerns the statement: By your name you will be called, in your place they will seat you, and from what is yours they will give to you. No person touches what has been prepared for his fellow, and one kingdom does not touch another, אפילו as much as the breadth of a hair (Yoma 38a-b). I wanted to understand exactly what Ben Azzai meant, since it is also said, Lest another precede him in mercy, in connection with marriage. So how far does the matter extend that what is allotted to a person will be his? And in addition, to which topics does this apply: relationships, livelihood, and the like?
Thank you very much, and all the best.
Answer
To the questioner,
I recall that it is brought in works of pnimiyut, that the concern that another may precede him refers only to a woman who is lacking her other half in a spiritual sense, for some reason. According to this, regarding what was decreed from Heaven, so-and-so for so-and-so, the principle of No kingdom touches another by even a hairbreadth still applies; and this does not contradict the fact that what is allotted to a person belongs to him and is due to him.
With blessing,
Rabbi Nachum
