29 Oct NOACH: TEMIMUS – HASHEM KNOWS WHAT’S BEST

The nusach of Yizkor,
is “ Compassionate
Father Who dwells in
heaven.” Also, at a
levayah, people say, “
Hashem Who is full of
compassion and dwells
in heaven.”
Why do we mention in
these tefillos that Hashem
dwells in heaven? It is
because we are saying,
“In this world, Hashem’s
ways might not appear
like rachamim,
compassionate, but Hashem dwells in heaven,
and from that vantage point, it is clear and
evident how everything is compassion and for
the good.
Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem to explain to
him why there are tzaddikim who suffer and
resha’im who prosper (see Brachos 7.)
Hashem responded (Shemos 33) “There is a
place near Me…” Hashem was telling Moshe
that if you will come to My place, in heaven,
you will understand, and you will see that
everything is for the good.
It can be compared to a person on an airplane.
From up there in heaven, he sees so much
further than a person looking from this world.

Hashem told Moshe, come up to heaven, and
you will understand how everything is
compassion and just.
The Chofetz Chaim said that this is the reason
an ehrlicher Yid is often called a “hechere
Yid,” a high Yid. It can be compared to a
person standing near a fence and can’t see over
it. But someone tall can see above the fence.
He sees so much more than others. Similarly, a
hechere Yid is a person who can see the world
from a higher perspective, and such a person
knows that the world is run with chesed and
rachamim.
The Chofetz Chaim told a mashal of a person
who came to a beis medresh for the first time
in his life, and he thought that the gabbai
distributed the aliyos unfairly. The gabbai
called up a young bachur for the first aliyah.
“Why doesn’t he call up a respected person for
the first aliyah? The boy is probably his
relative.” The next aliyah was given to
someone sitting in the back, and the next
aliyah to someone sitting on the left side of the
beis medresh. There didn’t seem to be any
method or order. “These are his friends,” the
man assumed. “But it isn’t fair that he is
choosing on his own. It would be wiser and
fairer to go in order.”
After the tefillah, he rebuked the gabbai. The
gabbai explained to him that he doesn’t know

the entire picture, and that is why he thinks
injustice occurred. He explained that he gave
the first aliyah to a young bachur because he
was the only kohen in the beis medresh. “The
person in the back has yahrzeit, so he got the
second aliyah…”
The Chofetz Chaim explained that Hashem
runs the world with perfect order, and
everything He does is with compassion. If we
don’t understand, it is because we don’t see the
entire picture.
The Chofetz Chaim told another mashal of an
unlearned person who heard someone say in
Ashrei “Hashem protects all who love him and
all the wicked…” The man didn’t understand.
“I understand that Hashem protects the people
who love Him, but why does Hashem protect
the resha’im?”
Then he heard another person say, “For all
those who love Him and all the wicked He will
destroy.” He didn’t understand why Hashem
would destroy, chalilah, those who love Him.
But then he heard the entire pasuk, “Hashem
protects all who love Him, and all the wicked
He will destroy.” Now the pasuk made sense to
him.
When we see the world, we don’t see the
entire picture, and that’s the reason we have
questions. We only see what happens in this
world, but we don’t see what happens after

one’s death, and what happened in previous
gilgulim. We see only part of the picture, and
therefore we don’t understand Hashem’s ways.
But if we could see the entire picture, we
would know that Hashem is just, and all his
ways are compassionate and kind.
These ideas are relevant to the difficult times
we are living in. There are many things that we
don’t understand, but it isn’t expected that we
should understand Hashem’s ways. We are not
in heaven to see the entire picture, but we
believe that everything is only Hashem’s
compassion, everything is kindness, and
everything is exactly as it should be
The Ibn Ezra (Devarim 14:1-2) writes that
just as children rely on their parents to take
care of them in the best way, we are Hashem’s
children, as it states Banim Atem L’Hashem
Elokeichem, and we should trust that Hashem
is leading us with kindness and with
compassion. We don’t always understand, but
like children, we know that it is always good.