Description: Review 06
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Review of Volume I
Let’s now review what we learned about belief in Hashem’s hashgachah – divine providence.
Hashem is involved in every single transaction we make, big or small. Someone wants to buy a desk. They have a couple of option in front of them. They can buy a new desk, or a used desk. They can buy a used good quality desk, or a new cheap desk. There are different kinds of desks, and many different merchants and websites to choose from. What would we do? We would do some research, compare the reviews on the desks, the websites, the merchants, and eventually come to a decision what we want to buy.
Where is Hashem in this picture?
Hashem chooses what we buy. But wait, you say, what kind of choice is Hashem making? Am I not the one making this decision? It definitely feels like I am making this decision, I am going out (or sitting down) and making this purchase? I’m choosing the brand, make, or color?
But think about it. Some people buy a desk and it lasts them for years. Other people buy a desk, and within a year, screws are loosening, parts are chipping off, the finish gets dulled and so on. Same desk, same brand. What’s the difference? Clearly, there was some flaw in one that wasn’t in the other. Who made that call, that one person gets this desk with its unnoticeable flaws and the other gets the perfect desk?
One person buys a car, whatever the make and model, let’s say a Toyota Camry. He has no trouble with his Camry, he loves his car. He drives it for three years before he needs to bring it to a mechanic for any repair. His friend also buys a Camry. Three months later, some of the plastic trim on the door starts popping off. One year later, something is wrong with the air pump. Why? It’s the same car, same make, same model! They both rolled off the same assembly line, yet they aren’t the same. This is Hashem choosing what you get.
Remember a couple of years back, there was this Kollel couple who bought a used desk at an estate sale, and they took out the drawers, and found about 60k in cash! They returned it to the owner, and it became a hit story! Who decided that they get that desk? Hashem did!
Just as we see that Hashem directed those purchases, and we have no question about it, it’s clear to us because the difference is so apparent, we have to internalize that Hashem manages every single transaction we take part in. He cares, it makes a difference to Him, and He is involved.
Therefore, this is our job. Before we go to make a purchase of any kind, we should stop for a moment and think. Who’s going to decide how this purchase goes? Who will make the final call which product I will be bringing home? Hashem will be making those decisions! We might know this, and believe this, but probably rarely think about this. If we give it a moment of thought, we are tying Hashem into all our actions. Our life will be a life suffused with Emunah, and we will live with Hashem.
We can think a little more. If we are married, we can think – who am I living together with? Who made this ‘shidduch?’ Did it happen on its own? Who put the two of us together? When it comes to shidduchim it is very hard to fool ourselves and think that we made it happen. It becomes very clear how Hashem guided each step of the way, sometimes almost openly. Who doesn’t feel, when becoming involved in the issue of getting married, that they are so dependent on the help of Hashem? As my Rosh Yeshiva would say, there’s nothing like shidduchim that brings a person to his knees! Here too, Chazal say, that even before a person is born, their husband or wife is already chosen and predetermined for them! Hashem manipulates the world and all events of our personal lives, starting from even before day one!
When Hashem chooses my wife or husband, and when He determines where I will live, this has major ramifications on every aspect of my life! It affects everything – what kind of life I will live, where I will daven and learn, what kind of job I will eventually do, how I raise my children, what kind of children I will have, who will their friends be, and so on and so forth. This isn’t even a partial list – this is a drop in the bucket. But by Hashem, there’s no such thing, that He would do something without every single repercussion accounted for and measured! Everything is revealed to Him, and He takes everything into account, and manipulates all things to where they are meant to be.
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Review of Volume I
Let’s now review what we learned about belief in Hashem’s hashgachah – divine providence.
Hashem is involved in every single transaction we make, big or small. Someone wants to buy a desk. They have a couple of option in front of them. They can buy a new desk, or a used desk. They can buy a used good quality desk, or a new cheap desk. There are different kinds of desks, and many different merchants and websites to choose from. What would we do? We would do some research, compare the reviews on the desks, the websites, the merchants, and eventually come to a decision what we want to buy.
Where is Hashem in this picture?
Hashem chooses what we buy. But wait, you say, what kind of choice is Hashem making? Am I not the one making this decision? It definitely feels like I am making this decision, I am going out (or sitting down) and making this purchase? I’m choosing the brand, make, or color?
But think about it. Some people buy a desk and it lasts them for years. Other people buy a desk, and within a year, screws are loosening, parts are chipping off, the finish gets dulled and so on. Same desk, same brand. What’s the difference? Clearly, there was some flaw in one that wasn’t in the other. Who made that call, that one person gets this desk with its unnoticeable flaws and the other gets the perfect desk?
One person buys a car, whatever the make and model, let’s say a Toyota Camry. He has no trouble with his Camry, he loves his car. He drives it for three years before he needs to bring it to a mechanic for any repair. His friend also buys a Camry. Three months later, some of the plastic trim on the door starts popping off. One year later, something is wrong with the air pump. Why? It’s the same car, same make, same model! They both rolled off the same assembly line, yet they aren’t the same. This is Hashem choosing what you get.
Remember a couple of years back, there was this Kollel couple who bought a used desk at an estate sale, and they took out the drawers, and found about 60k in cash! They returned it to the owner, and it became a hit story! Who decided that they get that desk? Hashem did!
Just as we see that Hashem directed those purchases, and we have no question about it, it’s clear to us because the difference is so apparent, we have to internalize that Hashem manages every single transaction we take part in. He cares, it makes a difference to Him, and He is involved.
Therefore, this is our job. Before we go to make a purchase of any kind, we should stop for a moment and think. Who’s going to decide how this purchase goes? Who will make the final call which product I will be bringing home? Hashem will be making those decisions! We might know this, and believe this, but probably rarely think about this. If we give it a moment of thought, we are tying Hashem into all our actions. Our life will be a life suffused with Emunah, and we will live with Hashem.
We can think a little more. If we are married, we can think – who am I living together with? Who made this ‘shidduch?’ Did it happen on its own? Who put the two of us together? When it comes to shidduchim it is very hard to fool ourselves and think that we made it happen. It becomes very clear how Hashem guided each step of the way, sometimes almost openly. Who doesn’t feel, when becoming involved in the issue of getting married, that they are so dependent on the help of Hashem? As my Rosh Yeshiva would say, there’s nothing like shidduchim that brings a person to his knees! Here too, Chazal say, that even before a person is born, their husband or wife is already chosen and predetermined for them! Hashem manipulates the world and all events of our personal lives, starting from even before day one!
When Hashem chooses my wife or husband, and when He determines where I will live, this has major ramifications on every aspect of my life! It affects everything – what kind of life I will live, where I will daven and learn, what kind of job I will eventually do, how I raise my children, what kind of children I will have, who will their friends be, and so on and so forth. This isn’t even a partial list – this is a drop in the bucket. But by Hashem, there’s no such thing, that He would do something without every single repercussion accounted for and measured! Everything is revealed to Him, and He takes everything into account, and manipulates all things to where they are meant to be.