פרשת דברים ושבת חזון
In this week’s Parsha, Moshe realizes that his death is imminent, and decides to admonish the Jewish people before it is too late, by giving them a very subtle rebuke in which he vaguely hints at the many times they had rebelled against Hashem. However, one of the not so subtle censures Moshe mentions later on in the Parsha is that the Jewish people at one point complained that Hashem hated them and that was why He took them out of Egypt, just to torture them. The obvious difficulty with this scolding that Moshe gave them is that it seems hard to believe. How could anyone think that Hashem hated the Jewish people after all the fantastic miracles he performed for them. His love was apparent in over a dozen occasions during the year that the Jews left Egypt. This being said, it is difficult to swallow the notion that the Jews believed Hashem hated them. Rashi answers this problem by explaining a general rule in human nature. When a person feels a certain way toward his fellow, he will naturally assume that that person feels the same way toward him. This is the way human beings are hard wired. So when the Torah states that Hashem hated the Jewish people, it was only assuming the vantage point of the Jewish people and explaining that since some of them had begun to foster a hatred toward Hashem, they assumed He hated them in return.
However, the Mashgiach, R’ Aryeh Finkel is bothered by a different problem. He doesn’t understand how Rashi knew that the Jewish people hated Hashem. Hashem had always been good to them, as we mentioned, and we don’t really find any evidence of this alleged hatred. How did Rashi feel confident to make such a bold statement? R’ Aryeh explains that love of Hashem is dependent upon accepting every situation we are in, no matter what the circumstances, with complete love and approval. If Hashem wants me here, then by definition, it must be good for me. The verse in Shema says, “And you shall love Hashem with all your might”. Through a play on words, Chazal explain that the word “might” refers to loving Hashem regardless of whether or not the events which He allows to befall us seem pleasant. We have a mandate to love Him unconditionally, with the complete faith a son has in his father that he would never do anything to deliberately hurt him. Hatred of Hashem stems from a breech in this belief, during which a person begins to consider that the pain he may be suffering in life is actually some sort of diabolical plot to torture him, with no rationale other than a sick, sadistic desire to inflict pain on him. This inane belief can eventually consume a person, and cause him to begin to hate his Creator, who has only shown unconditional love toward him from the day he was born until the present, and who sometimes has to impose some uncomfortable situations on him in order to help him, but does so with exact measure and forethought, and never allows any excess hurting to enter his life. Every time a person complains about his situation in life, he is falling prey to one of two Yetzer Hara proposals. Either he doesn’t believe in the basic faith of Jew that everything which befalls us is from Hashem, or he is beginning to believe that Hashem’s decisions are unjust or unfair, and moves a little closer to the camp of people who will ultimately end up believing that Hashem hates them. How careful we must be to always feel happy with our lot!
The Gemorah in Gittin (36b) says, “One who gets insulted, but refuses to insult back, and one who hears his affront, but does not respond, and one who keeps the Torah out of love, and is not fazed by his afflictions, about such a person the verse says, ‘this beloved one’s strength, is comparable to the rising sun’”. The Mashgiach would explain that the reason why this person is called beloved, is because the only way he could have reached the level in which he was able to respond to these scenarios in the way he did, would be if his love for Hashem was so incredibly powerful that he would be able to overcome the natural ego that would be involved with normal people in those situations, and feel fully confident that although the people insulting him may be wrong, Hashem would never have allowed this sequence of events if it weren’t coming to him. Such a commanding trust can only come from a combination of an ironclad faith that Hashem is fully capable of controlling every event in this world, and a prevailing love toward Hashem that He would never cause any Jew unnecessary harm.
A man once came to visit the great Tzadik, R’ Moshe Mendel, and R’ Moshe asked him how he was feeling. He responded with a deep sigh, and said that although he was a young man, he had recently sprouted a number of grey hairs, indicating that his life could certainly be going better. R’ Moshe Mendel gently shared with the man that his beloved wife of his youth had recently passed away, and that he loved her more than he could describe. She was his inseparable companion for scores of years and was a truly exemplary woman. But when Hashem chose to take her, he accepted that decision with complete love, and faith that Hashem had a fully good reason for taking her back. He urged the man to adopt this view as well, and his life would certainly improve drastically.
There is another vital lesson which I feel can be gleaned from the Rashi we quoted above. Rashi explained that because the Jews reached the point where they hated Hashem, they believed that Hashem hated them. When a person hates Hashem, obviously the problem is not in Hashem, it is in the person. Parenthetically, this principle can also be applied to our intrapersonal relationships. When we are experiencing social issues with our peers, it would be a safe wager to assume that the problem is primarily in us, not in them. Like the story R’ Green often told about the man who walked into the psychiatrist’s office wearing nothing but scuba equipment, and with a carrot sticking out of each ear. The psychiatrist really didn’t have to ask, but to be polite, he inquired what the problem was. The man responded, “Oh no doc, I’m actually here to speak with you about my wife, she’s got all the problems”. This principle rings true in our social relationships most of the time, but it is true about Hashem all the time. If this is true, than any issue we have relating to any part of the Torah which is synonymous with Hashem, is only an issue in us which requires self-introspection to solve. This period which we find ourselves in now, it perhaps the most difficult to relate to during the year. A building was destroyed over 2,000 years ago, and we are supposed to sit on the floor, not shower, and fast and cry over this tragedy which most of us, if we are honest with ourselves, couldn’t care less about. In order to begin to solve this problem, we must first recognize that the difficulty in relating is rooted in us, not in Hashem. The Beis Hamikdash, on a practical level, represents our relationship to Hashem on this earth. To the degree that we desire that relationship, that is the degree that we will desire having the Beis Hamikdash. The problem is, most of us don’t want it that much. Why not? One deterrent from seeking out Hashem can be the hatred we described which comes from not really believing that Hashem is looking out for our benefit. The Chovos Halevavos, in his section on love, says that another of the most common deterrents from seeking out spirituality and closeness is our connection with the worldly pleasures. It is difficult to desire Hashem while indulging in a succulent double beef burger. The good news is that if we work on ourselves, and our relationship with Hashem, this esoteric Moed of Tisha B’av will also be able to be celebrated properly by us, and we will have the great pleasure of watching it transform into a day of great joy.
May we all merit to love Hashem boundlessly, and always believe wholeheartedly that everything He does is for our greatest benefit, and see His glory fill the world soon!