Description: Defining Our Relationship with Hashem 03
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Volume I Pages 29-31
Let’s develop the comparison between a father-son relationship and our relationship with Hashem a little further.
Soon we will be learning the parshah of how Yosef gets separated from Yaakov Avinu. Then, finally in Parshas Vayigash, they get reunited. The pasuk describes the moment they see each other:
ויאסר יוסף מרכבתו ויעל לקראת ישראל אביו גשנה, וירא אליו ויפל על צואריו ויבך על צואריו עוד
Yosef hitched his chariot, and went to greet his father in Goshen. He appeared to his father and fell upon Yaakov’s neck, and began to cry, and continued to cry even more. Think about this powerful historic moment. How long did this moment last, when Yosef expressed these awesome ‘hergeshim’, which had waited until this moment? Seventeen years had passed, where Yaakov hadn’t seen his beloved son Yosef, Yosef hadn’t seen Yaakov, and they finally meet, and Yosef collapses on Yaakov’s neck and cries. This happens for however long this meeting lasted. This was a moment of ‘giluy’, of revealing the power of their connection. Yaakov and Yosef definitely remained connected and close for the remaining time Yaakov lived, but this moment of powerful expression was just then.
With Hakadosh Baruch Hu, if we want to begin to grasp the power of the connection we have and can appreciate with Him, think about this case for a moment. Whereas Yaakov and Yosef had this special moment for a brief time, we can have that level of connection with Hashem all the time! We can figuratively fall on Hashem’s neck and burst out crying – and He is there at all times, in every situation. With a physical father, this can’t happen at all times. But with Hashem, if we are zocheh to ‘v’shachanti b’sochem,’ that Hashem dwells in our hearts, and we feel this with clarity, we can have an even greater level of constant connection to Him, than described by the pasuk in the meeting of Yaakov and Yosef. This is the life of a Jew who lives a truly inspired and pnimiyus life.
Now, think for a moment, if while Yosef was falling on Yaakov’s neck, his cellphone rang. Would he pick it up? Would he even hear it? Yosef who suffered in Mitzrayim, a foreign country, in solitude and loneliness, abandoned so many years, and the moment when he finally emerges from the state he was in has arrived, he is finally reunited with his father – can anything else possibly be on his mind?
The highest level of a Jew who lives connected with Hashem at all times, would be living with such a state of mind. I am connecting with my father, in such an intense and deep fashion, I don’t have the brain-space for anything else! Of course, we live in this world, and will be forced to do what we need to do to successfully support ourselves and raise our children and make a living. But that won’t prevent that person from being connected, a soul-connection, with Hashem at all times. On the phone, doing work, interacting with people, teaching children – whatever it is, we won’t lose the connection and feeling we have with Hashem. This is what we can strive for!
The relationship we have with Hashem is unique. Every other relationship has limits. Family only accompanies us in this world. One day we will leave them behind and enter the next world alone, and the only connection that will remain is the connection and relationship we have with Hashem. That relationship can never be broken or severed, it remains forever, and everywhere. In the next world we have no way of knowing who we will be placed with. Will we sit with close relatives? Friends? Rebbeim? That’s unknown. One thing is known – we will be living with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That connection is ‘nitzchi’ – infinite.
If we are looking for a true friend – we should choose Hakadosh Baruch Hu as our true friend, because He will be our friend always and everywhere, in Olam Hazeh, in Olam Habah, in Gan Eden – He won’t abandon us for even a second.
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Volume I Pages 29-31
Let’s develop the comparison between a father-son relationship and our relationship with Hashem a little further.
Soon we will be learning the parshah of how Yosef gets separated from Yaakov Avinu. Then, finally in Parshas Vayigash, they get reunited. The pasuk describes the moment they see each other:
ויאסר יוסף מרכבתו ויעל לקראת ישראל אביו גשנה, וירא אליו ויפל על צואריו ויבך על צואריו עוד
Yosef hitched his chariot, and went to greet his father in Goshen. He appeared to his father and fell upon Yaakov’s neck, and began to cry, and continued to cry even more. Think about this powerful historic moment. How long did this moment last, when Yosef expressed these awesome ‘hergeshim’, which had waited until this moment? Seventeen years had passed, where Yaakov hadn’t seen his beloved son Yosef, Yosef hadn’t seen Yaakov, and they finally meet, and Yosef collapses on Yaakov’s neck and cries. This happens for however long this meeting lasted. This was a moment of ‘giluy’, of revealing the power of their connection. Yaakov and Yosef definitely remained connected and close for the remaining time Yaakov lived, but this moment of powerful expression was just then.
With Hakadosh Baruch Hu, if we want to begin to grasp the power of the connection we have and can appreciate with Him, think about this case for a moment. Whereas Yaakov and Yosef had this special moment for a brief time, we can have that level of connection with Hashem all the time! We can figuratively fall on Hashem’s neck and burst out crying – and He is there at all times, in every situation. With a physical father, this can’t happen at all times. But with Hashem, if we are zocheh to ‘v’shachanti b’sochem,’ that Hashem dwells in our hearts, and we feel this with clarity, we can have an even greater level of constant connection to Him, than described by the pasuk in the meeting of Yaakov and Yosef. This is the life of a Jew who lives a truly inspired and pnimiyus life.
Now, think for a moment, if while Yosef was falling on Yaakov’s neck, his cellphone rang. Would he pick it up? Would he even hear it? Yosef who suffered in Mitzrayim, a foreign country, in solitude and loneliness, abandoned so many years, and the moment when he finally emerges from the state he was in has arrived, he is finally reunited with his father – can anything else possibly be on his mind?
The highest level of a Jew who lives connected with Hashem at all times, would be living with such a state of mind. I am connecting with my father, in such an intense and deep fashion, I don’t have the brain-space for anything else! Of course, we live in this world, and will be forced to do what we need to do to successfully support ourselves and raise our children and make a living. But that won’t prevent that person from being connected, a soul-connection, with Hashem at all times. On the phone, doing work, interacting with people, teaching children – whatever it is, we won’t lose the connection and feeling we have with Hashem. This is what we can strive for!
The relationship we have with Hashem is unique. Every other relationship has limits. Family only accompanies us in this world. One day we will leave them behind and enter the next world alone, and the only connection that will remain is the connection and relationship we have with Hashem. That relationship can never be broken or severed, it remains forever, and everywhere. In the next world we have no way of knowing who we will be placed with. Will we sit with close relatives? Friends? Rebbeim? That’s unknown. One thing is known – we will be living with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That connection is ‘nitzchi’ – infinite.
If we are looking for a true friend – we should choose Hakadosh Baruch Hu as our true friend, because He will be our friend always and everywhere, in Olam Hazeh, in Olam Habah, in Gan Eden – He won’t abandon us for even a second.