Description: Chapter 4 - 04
Ahavas Chesed
Chapter 4 – 04
The Chafetz Chaim continues in this footnote to chapter 4, to explain a few other pesukim in a similar fashion.
We say every day in davening, עיני כל אליך ישברו ואתה נותן להם את אכלם בעתו. The eyes of every living thing are to You, and You give them their sustenance in proper time. Here too, the pasuk emphasizes ‘attah,’ meaning Hashem alone makes this decision to provide for every living thing. Chazal say in Maseches Taanis, that three keys weren’t handed over to any shaliach, any proxy or servant of Hashem, Hashem handles these three things alone. One is the key to parnassah, to providing our needs. Hashem handles that alone – that is why this pasuk says, ‘vi’atah,’ and You Hashem alone provide us with food. Why is this? If Hashem would hand over the job of providing sustenance to a shaliach, to an angel, many people would end up going without food! As the pasuk says regarding who will lead Klal Yisrael into Eretz Yisrael,
הנה אנכי שולח מלאך לפניך גו' כי לא ישא לפשעכם – I will send my angel to lead you, and Hashem warns them not to sin, because the malach will be unforgiving! An angel is not capable of acting with mercy, and he won’t tolerate your sins! If an angel would be in charge of providing sustenance, we would only get it if we deserve! That’s why Hashem handles providing for us alone, with an abundance of mercy. The next pasuk in Ashrei is: פותח את ידיך ומשביע לכל חי רצון, Hashem, open your hand and satiate all living things by Your will. We then say, ‘צדיק ה' בכל דרכיו וחסיד בכל מעשיו,’ the fact that Hashem does indeed provide food for every living thing is a testimony to Hashem’s righteousness and His piousness, meaning what He does ‘lifnim mi’shuras hadin,’ giving us all food although according to midas hadin we don’t deserve it!
The other two keys that Hashem does not entrust to a shaliach are the key to techiyas hamaisim, and the key to having children. We emphasize this as well in davening, in the second brachah of Shemonah Esray when we say:
אתה גבור לעולם ה' מחיה מתים אתה רב להושיע
You are mighty Hashem forever, and You are the one who revives the dead, and has great ability to save us. We repeat the word ‘attah’ twice! We are stressing the fact that Hashem alone handles reviving of the dead, and only because of this will we merit that great miracle. We continue saying:
מכלכל חיים בחסד, מחיה מתים ברחמים רבים – You Hashem give sustenance to all life with kindness, and will revive the dead with tremendous mercy, both things which Hashem alone holds the key to, and both things which require great mercy so that all living things should receive the sustenance they need, even though according to midas hadin – they would not!
Every night when we go to sleep, we entrust our neshamos to Hashem alone – not to any angel. בידך אפקיד רוחי פדית אותי – we entrust them only to Hashem, because we are confident that in His great mercy He will find a merit to return them to us, although we might not deserve it. As Chazal say, Hashem finds other ways to exact his judgement so that we can have our neshamos back – wealthy person loses his sheep, and poor people loses his chicken – Hashem takes it out on our possessions, and returns our neshamos to us. That is the meaning of ‘padisah,’ Hashem redeems, meaning our souls are essentially property of middas hadin – it wants to take it’s due of judgement, and Hashem buys us back through finding other methods of punishment, and giving us another chance.
This is what we are saying in Modim: נודה לך ונספר תהלתיך - על נשמותינו הפקודות לך, הטוב כי לא כלו רחמיך – we rely on Hashem’s great mercy which is never ending, to receive our neshamos which were entrusted to Hashem!
Ahavas Chesed
Chapter 4 – 04
The Chafetz Chaim continues in this footnote to chapter 4, to explain a few other pesukim in a similar fashion.
We say every day in davening, עיני כל אליך ישברו ואתה נותן להם את אכלם בעתו. The eyes of every living thing are to You, and You give them their sustenance in proper time. Here too, the pasuk emphasizes ‘attah,’ meaning Hashem alone makes this decision to provide for every living thing. Chazal say in Maseches Taanis, that three keys weren’t handed over to any shaliach, any proxy or servant of Hashem, Hashem handles these three things alone. One is the key to parnassah, to providing our needs. Hashem handles that alone – that is why this pasuk says, ‘vi’atah,’ and You Hashem alone provide us with food. Why is this? If Hashem would hand over the job of providing sustenance to a shaliach, to an angel, many people would end up going without food! As the pasuk says regarding who will lead Klal Yisrael into Eretz Yisrael,
הנה אנכי שולח מלאך לפניך גו' כי לא ישא לפשעכם – I will send my angel to lead you, and Hashem warns them not to sin, because the malach will be unforgiving! An angel is not capable of acting with mercy, and he won’t tolerate your sins! If an angel would be in charge of providing sustenance, we would only get it if we deserve! That’s why Hashem handles providing for us alone, with an abundance of mercy. The next pasuk in Ashrei is: פותח את ידיך ומשביע לכל חי רצון, Hashem, open your hand and satiate all living things by Your will. We then say, ‘צדיק ה' בכל דרכיו וחסיד בכל מעשיו,’ the fact that Hashem does indeed provide food for every living thing is a testimony to Hashem’s righteousness and His piousness, meaning what He does ‘lifnim mi’shuras hadin,’ giving us all food although according to midas hadin we don’t deserve it!
The other two keys that Hashem does not entrust to a shaliach are the key to techiyas hamaisim, and the key to having children. We emphasize this as well in davening, in the second brachah of Shemonah Esray when we say:
אתה גבור לעולם ה' מחיה מתים אתה רב להושיע
You are mighty Hashem forever, and You are the one who revives the dead, and has great ability to save us. We repeat the word ‘attah’ twice! We are stressing the fact that Hashem alone handles reviving of the dead, and only because of this will we merit that great miracle. We continue saying:
מכלכל חיים בחסד, מחיה מתים ברחמים רבים – You Hashem give sustenance to all life with kindness, and will revive the dead with tremendous mercy, both things which Hashem alone holds the key to, and both things which require great mercy so that all living things should receive the sustenance they need, even though according to midas hadin – they would not!
Every night when we go to sleep, we entrust our neshamos to Hashem alone – not to any angel. בידך אפקיד רוחי פדית אותי – we entrust them only to Hashem, because we are confident that in His great mercy He will find a merit to return them to us, although we might not deserve it. As Chazal say, Hashem finds other ways to exact his judgement so that we can have our neshamos back – wealthy person loses his sheep, and poor people loses his chicken – Hashem takes it out on our possessions, and returns our neshamos to us. That is the meaning of ‘padisah,’ Hashem redeems, meaning our souls are essentially property of middas hadin – it wants to take it’s due of judgement, and Hashem buys us back through finding other methods of punishment, and giving us another chance.
This is what we are saying in Modim: נודה לך ונספר תהלתיך - על נשמותינו הפקודות לך, הטוב כי לא כלו רחמיך – we rely on Hashem’s great mercy which is never ending, to receive our neshamos which were entrusted to Hashem!