Description: Review 09
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Review of Volume I
At times, even if we are trying to think these thoughts, and internalize this Emunah, the Yetzer Horah will put up a fight, and argue directly. He’ll say, “True, Hashem is trying to do what’s best for us – but couldn’t He find a better way to do good for me without making my car break down on the highway when I’m already late to work?! I’ll take any other kind of good!”
This is a natural reaction. It’s kind of us saying, “Listen, maybe ask me first next time, before you do ‘good things’ for me!” Obviously, this is a lack of Emunah. The belief that Hashem is all-knowing, omniscient and omnipotent, means He takes all into account, and this is the ideal and best way for Hashem to do something good for us!
We are discussing how can we apply the foundations we’ve built, of Emunah in hashgachah, to a situation where someone has hurt us, insulted us, maliciously and intentionally. This is vastly more difficult than attributing a difficult situation we find ourselves in to Hashem. There we recognize, Hashem made the car break down, caused the traffic or whatever. With work we can learn to put Hashem into the picture and temper our frustration and anger with Emunah.
But when someone chooses to hurt us, its very difficult to view this as the hand of Hashem – after all, this person made the choice to hurt me! How can I get past that – he’s malicious! How do we apply Emunah to be able to control our anger and frustration and see the truth?
The Zohar says that when we get angry at a person who has wronged us, it’s like a dog which has the nature to bite the stick when you hit it with a stick. Meaning, it’s a lack of perception. The stick is not the problem – the one holding the stick is the one doing the hitting. If a person has hurt you – he is merely a pawn in the hands of Hashem, who has chosen to inflict this pain upon you for whatever reason. There’s always only one address where everything originates, and true Emunah won’t differentiate between a person hurting you, or a tree falling on you.
We see an amazing demonstration of this in Tanach. Dovid Hamelech is at perhaps the lowest point in his life. He has to run for his life out of his palace with his wives and children, with a few of his staunchest supporters and guards, being pursued by his own son, Avshalom. Avshalom has successfully mounted a rebellion, and turned the hearts of the majority of Klal Yisrael against Dovid Hamelech, and has the support of the wisest people in Eretz Yisrael. They were leaving Yerushalayim at night, like fugitives and were sobbing about the situation they were in. Just then, one of the most important and respected people in Torah, Shimi ben Geirah, who was a Rosh Sanhedrin, one of the leaders of Sanhedrin, and whom would become Shlomo Hamelech’s mentor and Rebbe in Torah, to give you an idea of how great he was, approaches Dovid Hamelech. He doesn’t talk to him or address him, rather he stands on a ridge above Dovid and begins to throw rocks and dirt at him. Ultimate humiliation! At the king of Klal Yisrael. Not only does he do these acts to humiliate Dovid, he begins to curse Dovid and castigate him in the sharpest tones. He accuses Dovid of killing Shaul and his descendents, something which was done by one of Dovid’s soldiers against his wishes. He curses and curses. One of Dovid’s loyal soldiers says, ‘Why should this dead dog curse the anointed of Hashem – let me go and kill him!’ Dovid replies: What do you care that he is cursing me – Hashem told him to curse me!’ Hashem amar lo kalail!
This is the most amazing display of pure Emunah possible. Everything was stacked against Dovid. His situation was deplorable, he was hurting from all sides, from the worst possible betrayal. Shimi was deserving of the death penalty for being ‘moraid b’malchus,’ rebelling against the king. But Dovid stops his soldier from killing him, why? Because Dovid clearly sees – Hashem is trying to communicate something to me. This has nothing to do with Shimi – I hold nothing against him. (Ultimately, Dovid does request from Shlomo Hamelech that Shimi should receive his punishment, but the reason for this was different, and is beyond the scope of our discussion.)
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Review of Volume I
At times, even if we are trying to think these thoughts, and internalize this Emunah, the Yetzer Horah will put up a fight, and argue directly. He’ll say, “True, Hashem is trying to do what’s best for us – but couldn’t He find a better way to do good for me without making my car break down on the highway when I’m already late to work?! I’ll take any other kind of good!”
This is a natural reaction. It’s kind of us saying, “Listen, maybe ask me first next time, before you do ‘good things’ for me!” Obviously, this is a lack of Emunah. The belief that Hashem is all-knowing, omniscient and omnipotent, means He takes all into account, and this is the ideal and best way for Hashem to do something good for us!
We are discussing how can we apply the foundations we’ve built, of Emunah in hashgachah, to a situation where someone has hurt us, insulted us, maliciously and intentionally. This is vastly more difficult than attributing a difficult situation we find ourselves in to Hashem. There we recognize, Hashem made the car break down, caused the traffic or whatever. With work we can learn to put Hashem into the picture and temper our frustration and anger with Emunah.
But when someone chooses to hurt us, its very difficult to view this as the hand of Hashem – after all, this person made the choice to hurt me! How can I get past that – he’s malicious! How do we apply Emunah to be able to control our anger and frustration and see the truth?
The Zohar says that when we get angry at a person who has wronged us, it’s like a dog which has the nature to bite the stick when you hit it with a stick. Meaning, it’s a lack of perception. The stick is not the problem – the one holding the stick is the one doing the hitting. If a person has hurt you – he is merely a pawn in the hands of Hashem, who has chosen to inflict this pain upon you for whatever reason. There’s always only one address where everything originates, and true Emunah won’t differentiate between a person hurting you, or a tree falling on you.
We see an amazing demonstration of this in Tanach. Dovid Hamelech is at perhaps the lowest point in his life. He has to run for his life out of his palace with his wives and children, with a few of his staunchest supporters and guards, being pursued by his own son, Avshalom. Avshalom has successfully mounted a rebellion, and turned the hearts of the majority of Klal Yisrael against Dovid Hamelech, and has the support of the wisest people in Eretz Yisrael. They were leaving Yerushalayim at night, like fugitives and were sobbing about the situation they were in. Just then, one of the most important and respected people in Torah, Shimi ben Geirah, who was a Rosh Sanhedrin, one of the leaders of Sanhedrin, and whom would become Shlomo Hamelech’s mentor and Rebbe in Torah, to give you an idea of how great he was, approaches Dovid Hamelech. He doesn’t talk to him or address him, rather he stands on a ridge above Dovid and begins to throw rocks and dirt at him. Ultimate humiliation! At the king of Klal Yisrael. Not only does he do these acts to humiliate Dovid, he begins to curse Dovid and castigate him in the sharpest tones. He accuses Dovid of killing Shaul and his descendents, something which was done by one of Dovid’s soldiers against his wishes. He curses and curses. One of Dovid’s loyal soldiers says, ‘Why should this dead dog curse the anointed of Hashem – let me go and kill him!’ Dovid replies: What do you care that he is cursing me – Hashem told him to curse me!’ Hashem amar lo kalail!
This is the most amazing display of pure Emunah possible. Everything was stacked against Dovid. His situation was deplorable, he was hurting from all sides, from the worst possible betrayal. Shimi was deserving of the death penalty for being ‘moraid b’malchus,’ rebelling against the king. But Dovid stops his soldier from killing him, why? Because Dovid clearly sees – Hashem is trying to communicate something to me. This has nothing to do with Shimi – I hold nothing against him. (Ultimately, Dovid does request from Shlomo Hamelech that Shimi should receive his punishment, but the reason for this was different, and is beyond the scope of our discussion.)