פרשת בהעלותך
In this week’s Parsha, the Torah records that the Jews committed two seemingly minor sins, but were dealt with, with extreme severity. The Jews first complained about the roundabout manner in which Hashem appeared to have been taking them out of Egypt. And then shortly afterward, lodged a complaint about the lack of meat in their diet, which they voiced to Moshe, and caused a plague to descend upon the Jews in which many of them perished. Regarding the first complaint, it seems quite natural for the Jews to be upset. Imagine your GPS device in your car took you on a circuitous route which added three days onto your two hour trip. How would you feel? I’m sure some of us might have some colorful expressions for the manufacturer of the GPS. Yet the Jews’ complaint here earned them a severe reprimand. Then they asked for meat. The meat was Glatt Kosher, following every stringency known to man. What was wrong with asking for a little variety in their diet?
The Sfas Emes was bothered by these two difficulties. He explains that every Jew must develop two fundamental foundations, upon which the rest of their Judaism is built. These foundations are first, the concept that everything which befalls us during the course of our lives is from Hashem, and second, no matter what it looks like, it is ultimately for our benefit, since Hashem is not diabolical or malicious. These two foundations are so critical in a Jew’s development, that if there is the tiniest crack in them, or the slightest shred of doubt as to their veracity, the entire building will eventually crumble. When the Jews complained about the route in which Hashem chose for them, and Hashem’s choice in their provisions, what they were essentially doing was questioning Hashem’s judgment, implying that their belief in one of the above mentioned foundations was defective. This was a very dangerous threat indeed, and warranted immediate punishment in order to deracinate any remnants of it from their hearts. Indeed, the route they were taking, and their diet were two essential components into bringing them into the land of Israel, because Israel cannot be acquired but through discomfort, and Hashem was only putting them through these uncomfortable situations out of His unending love for them and His desire to give them their own land. Had they merely trusted in Him a little bit longer, they would have been let into Israel, with Moshe, and lived happily ever after. Such is the power of trusting in Hashem’s goodness, and holding on a little while longer when things seem to not be going our way. It is said about the Tzaddik from Manchester, R’ Segal, who before his death, was bedridden and incapacitated for a great deal of time, that he always seemed extraordinarily happy and pleased, even at the end. One of his students was hesitant to visit him, out of fear of seeing his Rebbi in such a disgraceful state, thereby adding to his level of discomfort. But when he came in, he was shocked to see his Rebbi smiling contentedly. He asked him, “Rebbi, how do you feel?” R’ Segal responded, “I couldn’t be better! I’m feeling exactly what Hashem wants me to feel. Could there be anything nicer in the whole wide world?” Such is the attitude a Jew must foster in order to serve his Creator properly.
R’ Chazka Levinstein would point out that the same idea can be seen from another chapter in this week’s Parsha. The Torah tells us that the Jews would follow the Cloud of Glory, which Hashem used in order to guide the Jews through the desert. For forty years, whenever the cloud began to travel, they had to pack up their tents, and begin to move, never knowing how long they’d be walking for this time, or how long they’d be staying in the place the cloud would stop. R’ Chazkal said that this was Hashem’s way of training the Jews for forty years in this imperative trait of trust. R’ Chazkal would continue to say that if people would work on developing this trait, their lives would not only be happier in the next world, but in this world as well. Jealousy, and discontentment would disappear almost instantaneously if we could drive home the notion that everything Hashem does for us is for our benefit, and nothing He does is ever cruel or unjustified. The verse in Mishle (15:15) says, “All the days of a pauper are miserable”. The Vilna Gaon comments on this verse that a “pauper” is referring to somebody who is always jealous of other people, and always feels that his life is miserable, and indeed, the end of the verse proclaims that his days will be miserable. Whereas somebody who truly believes that everything Hashem does is for his benefit, has the exact opposite result, and all his days are delightful, because nothing can ever go wrong!
I would like to conclude by saying that a person must know that this trait of viewing everything that happens for the good will not come to a person on its own, rather it requires a great deal of work. One trait a person must work on in order to properly appreciate Hashem’s goodness is patience. How many times have we been disappointed over the way something in our lives didn’t work out the way we had hoped or expected, only to find that had it gone the way we wanted, it would have caused us untold harm. Very often, all we need is a little patience in order to appreciate Hashem’s goodness. Another helpful suggestion to inculcate into our hearts the idea that everything that happens in this life is for the best, is to constantly remind ourselves about the amount of goodness Hashem has bestowed upon him from the day he was conceived, until the present day, thereby bolstering his view of the ongoing theme throughout his life which is overwhelmingly positive. By constantly focusing on all the good things Hashem is continually doing for us, even while something is going “wrong”, R’ Avigdor Miller used to hold up an apple, and point to the seed and say, “Look how much kindness Hashem performs through this little seed. Hundreds of generations of apple trees are contained in this tiny, sophisticated creation”. When we look around, it is not difficult to identify the myriads of kindnesses Hashem is constantly performing, and doing so, will help us improve our view when things seem to be going wrong. When R’ Pam was 88 years old, his health was poor and his grandson approached him and said, ”Zayde, I don’t understand. All you have to do is take a pill called Tylenol, and your pain will go away. Why are you hesitant?” R’ Pam explained, “I am now 88 years old. Many of my friends and acquaintances didn’t make it past 50 or 60. In all these years Hashem has given me, nothing has ever gone wrong. Why should I try to change now what he is doing?”
May we all merit to trust in Hashem’s goodness, all of our days!