25 May BEHA’LOSCHA

Emunah Resolves the Problems

A mashal is told about someone who was looking through a keyhole. He can’t see everything that is in the room, his range of view is limited, but he sees a pen swiftly writing on paper. The man watched in amazement; it appeared to him that the pen was writing on its own because he couldn’t see that a person was holding the pen. When the door opened and his range of vision broadened, he saw that a man was writing with the pen. The nimshal is, we look at life and we try to understand what’s happening but our range of vision is very limited. One thinks, He did that to me; why did he hurt me? etc. because he doesn’t see that everything is being orchestrated from Above. When one attains the true vision, all of his problems will disappear, for two reasons. First of all, when one knows that it is from Hashem, he also knows that everything is for the good. Secondly, knowing that everything is from Hashem abolishes the hardships and sweetens the dinim (castigations). This is one of the fabulous and wondrous ways that Hashem leads the world; when one knows that Hashem’s hand is in charge and that everything is from Him and for the good, this realization is mesugal to remove all hardships, and to make life good for him again. The Ben Ish Chai said: chov [negative matters, problems] is gematriya 16, while tov [goodness] is gematriya 17. The difference is 1, because troubles disappear and even become good when one strengthens his emunah in the One and only Hashem.3 The Torah tells us that the Jewish nation was moaning and complaining when they were traveling from Har Sinai to Eretz Yisrael. As the Torah says “The nation was complaining…” (11:1) Rashi explains, the nation was saying, “Woe to us! We are going on this long journey for three days and we haven’t yet rested from the tiresome travels.’ Hashem became angry [and said] ‘I intended for their good,4 so that the nation should come to Eretz Yisrael immediately…’” The Chidushei HaRim zt”l asks, Hashem can do anything He desires, so He could have brought them to Eretz Yisrael without any hardship at all! [For example, He could have had them flown to Eretz Yisrael on eagle’s wings.] Why was this long difficult journey necessary? The Chidushei HaRim zt”l answers that some amount of hardship was required because Chazal tell us, “Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave three good presents to the Jewish nation, and each present was given with yesurim. They are: Torah, Eretz Yisrael, and Olam HaBa.” (Brachos 5). Eretz Yisrael is only acquired and inherited after a dose of hardship. The three difficult days of traveling was for their benefit, but the nation, with their limited vision, thought it was bad, and therefore, they complained. The Chidushei HaRim teaches that if the Jewish nation would have believed that this long travel was for their benefit, it would have annulled much of the hardship, and they would have entered Eretz Yisrael in an easier way. Because, as we explained, when one accepts Hashem’s decrees with love, the hardships go away. The Chidushei HaRim’s grandson, the Imrei Emes zt”l continues on with this thought, and explains a difficult passuk in parasahs Ki Savo. In Ki Savo, the Torah writes the tochachah, the curses that will befall the nation chalilah if they transgress the Torah. In the middle of the tochachah, the Torah tells us the reason for all the punishments and suffering: “They are because you didn’t serve Hashem with joy and with a good heart” (28:47). Why is this passuk written in the middle of the tochachah? We would assume that this passuk should be written at the beginning of the tochachah, to tell us why the punishments may come, or at its end, but this passuk is written right in the middle of the tochachah. It seems out of place. The Imrei Emes answers that it is written in the midst of the tochachah to imply that if the Jewish nation will be able to accept with love the hardships of the tochachah, and despite everything, continue to serve Hashem with joy, all the suffering will end. But if they are unable to rejoice with Hashem, the suffering and the tochachah continue.

The Torah says, “The nation were complaining bad… Hashem became angry and His fire burned them…” (11:1). What was their sin? We’ve brought Rashi’s interpretation that the nation was complaining about the travels, because they traveled three days without stop. The Ibn Ezra says that “Mitonenim” is from the word “On” which means sin (in Yirmiyahu 4:14). The Ramban disagrees with the Ibn Ezra because the Torah is always explicit, so why is from the word ïåà which means sin (in Yirmiyahu 4:14). The Ramban disagrees with the Ibn Ezra because the Torah is always explicit, so why doesn’t the Torah tell us what sin was committed here? Therefore, the Ramban writes, “In my opinion, the correct interpretation is that as they were going away from Har Sinai, which was near civilization, and they were going into the large and awesome desert by this first voyage, they were very worried. They said, “What will we do? How can we live in this desert? What will we eat? What will we drink? How can we sustain the hardships? And when will we leave it?…” According to the Ramban, Mitonenim means to mourn, to complain. As in the passuk, “Mah Yitonen Adam Chai”… (Eichah 3:39).

This negative attitude, the moaning and complaining, was “Ra B’eynei Hashem” because a yid should be happy with his lot at all times, and accept the life that Hashem gives us with joy and happiness, and then everything will become better. This week’s parashah has the renowned two upside down nuns around the pesukim “v’hi binsoa ha’aron… vyanusu mishnecha mipanech” which discusses the travels of the Jewish people. Rashi writes, “The Torah places signs before and after to show that this isn’t the correct place [to write these pesukim. It should have been written in perek Bais where the pattern of the travels in the desert is discussed.] So why are these pesukim written here? “In order to separate between one castigation and the next.” The passuk before and the passuk after speak about the sins and the punishments that the Jewish nation endured in the desert. It isn’t good to read them together. In order to separate them, the Torah placed these two pesukim in between, to interrupt the castigations. The Gemara says, the upside nuns show that these two pesukim are its own sefer (Shabbos 116). 7 To summarize, there are three concepts related to the upside nuns.

(1) These pesukim are written out of order (2) They are inserted here to divide between one sin and another. (3) These two pesukim are an entire sefer in their own right. The Imrei Emes connects all of these ideas together: The first point is that these pesukim are written out of order. This resembles life, which often also seems to be out of order. Things aren’t working out the way we hoped and planned it. Parnassah is difficult, shiduchim aren’t as we anticipated, and everything seems to be out of order. 8 But people can mitigate their problems and even stop them by believing that everything is from Hashem and everything is for the good. Rashi writes, “In order to separate between one punishment and the next.” If one has emunah that everything is from Hashem and for the good, this recognition separates and divides the castigations so they shouldn’t happen. The Gemara said that the two pesukim of v’yehi binsoa are its own sefer. Indeed, someone who can believe that everything is for the good, such a person is very precious to Hashem. He can be considered important like a sefer.