[Avodah] Every Bullet Has Its Address

[Akiva Miller]

"They" say that every bullet has a predestined name and address.
Unfortunately, I don't know who "they" are, and Google wasn't any help
either.

Nevertheless, I found pasuk 19:5 in this week's parsha to be relevant. The
context is a wood-chopper who doesn't realize that his axe is defective:
"If the iron slips off the axe, and it finds [matza] someone and he dies"
then the wood-chopper must go to an Ir Miklat. I find the verb "matza" to
be very significant: "If the iron finds its victim".

The pasuk could so easily have used a different verb, such as "If the iron
*hits* someone and he dies." But no, it specifically chose the word "find",
suggesting sentience, as if to say that the iron was searching for a
specific victim, just like in the metaphor of each bullet having a specific
destination. [Hmmm... it is only at this moment that I have noticed a
connection between "destiny" and "destination".]

Indeed, the next pasuk testifies that the person wielding the axe had no
prior ill will towards the victim. The tree-chopper was not out to get that
guy, but the axe-head *was*. To me, this clearly supports the idea that
Hashem saw fit for this victim to die at this time and in this manner, and
that the tree-chopper was simply Hashem's tool for this to happen.

Any other thoughts?

Akiva Miller
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