27 Jun CHUKAS: RECOGNIZING HASHEM

The purpose of
hardship is to help
people remember
Hashem. When
everything goes
smoothly, people tend to
forget about Hashem. It
shouldn’t be that way.
We should remember
Hashem during the
good times as well to
praise Him, but the
nature of people is that
they forget Hashem
when things go well.
But when they are
going through hard
times, they turn to
Hashem.

The Jewish nation was near Eretz Yisrael,
but they couldn’t enter. Edom didn’t let them
pass through their land. The nation worried
they would have to remain in the desert, and
they began complaining about the manna, the
water, etc. As a punishment, Hashem sent
snakes that bit many people.
When the Yidden repented, Hashem told
Moshe (21:8), “Make a snake and put it on a
staff. Whoever was bit will see it and live.”

The Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 29.) explains:
“Could a snake cause death, and could a
snake generate life? [How could looking at
Moshe Rabbeinu’s copper snake heal them?]
The answer is: When Yisrael turned their
eyes to heaven, and connected their heart to
their Father in heaven, they were healed, and
otherwise, they were ill.”
It wasn’t the copper snake that healed them.
But, when the Jewish nation looked up
towards the copper snake, they also turned
their hearts to Hashem and put their trust in
Him, and that is what healed them.
The Or HaChaim (21:8) makes an important
observation:
“Hashem didn’t remove the snakes, He
allowed them to continue biting, and the
nation was healed when they looked up to
their Father in heaven. This is because
Hashem wanted their heart to always be close
to Him, like a son who eats at his father’s
table morning and night.”
Hashem could have removed the snakes, but
this wasn’t Hashem’s plan in creation.
Instead, Hashem wants there to be problems
and that we should turn to Hashem for
salvation because only in that manner we will
remain close to Hashem.
For forty years, Hashem led the nation in a

desert where they were completely
dependent on Him for food and water. He
purposely didn’t lead them through
inhabited areas. This was to train them to
place their trust solely in Him.
The Or HaChaim concludes that a life of
ease causes people to completely lose sight
of Hashem’s hashgachah!
Similarly, the Rabbeinu B’Chaya writes on
the passuk (21:5) “There is no bread and no
water.”:
“This complaint is surprising since they had
man; it fell every single day. They also had
plenty of water because of the miracle of the
sela, where Moshe Rabbeinu brought forth
water from a stone.”
The Rabbeinu B’Chaya answers: “Their
complaint was: Our life is unusual since we
don’t have bread and water like all the other
nations. The other nations – regardless of
whether they are worthy or not – have plenty
of bread to satiate their hunger, and they
certainly have water, too. But we receive our
food and drink in unnatural ways. We only
receive enough food for that day. Even water
– which is free for the entire world and one
cannot live without – also left us when
Miriam died, and the well disappeared. We
are led on a path of reward and punishment.

We are led in a very peculiar way, in
comparison to the nations of the world.”
They didn’t realize that these difficulties
were all for their benefit. As the Rabbeinu
B’Chaya writes:
“Because of the greatness of the dor
hamidbar [the generation who lived in the
desert], they received man every day so that
they should turn their eyes to heaven. The
purpose was to get them accustomed to
having emunah and bitachon in Hashem.”
This is an important lesson: Everyone goes
through some form of struggle in life. We
wish it weren’t there. Of course, we would
prefer not to have these problems. But we
should know that all of these problems help
us. They cause us to turn to Hashem, the most
significant gain possible.