Rabbi Avraham Schorr
Growing with Hashem
Living in our day and age, life is fraught with difficult and dark moments. But from time to time Hashem shows us a smile and reminds us that He is always with us. As a loving Father, He will never abandon His children.
Amongst the segulos (auspicious practices) for an individual looking to get married, one is to recite at the conclusion of Shemonah Esrei the words of Tehillim (Ch. 121), “שיר למעלות אשא עיני אל ההרים מאין יבא עזרי, עזרי מעם ד' עושה שמים וארץ” –“A Song to the ascents, I raise my eyes to the mountains, from where does my help come? My help comes from Hashem, Creator of heaven and earth.” Why is reciting this a segulah?
A person sometimes throws up his hand and wonders, “מאין יבא עזרי,” “Where will my help come from? This situation is impossible! There is אין –nothing –left to hope for!” But the answer to such despondency is found in the next Pasuk –“עזרי מעם ד' עושה שמים וארץ” –“My help is from Hashem, Creator of heaven and earth.” From what material did Hashem make the heaven and earth? From nothing – מאין. If Hashem can create an entire world of beauty from nothingness, He certainly can take the nothingness any person feels in his or her life and turn it into something beautiful. A person must therefore never give up hope no matter how depressingly desperate life seems to be.
Praying Shemonah Esrei and realizing that no one can grant us help but Hashem, we will find the strength to optimistically look towards a better and brighter future. Even the bleakest of circumstances which we face can turn around in a moment. If Hashem can create an entire world from nothing, He can certainly take our troubled personal lives and make something from nothing. Coming to terms with this reality serves as a favorable merit for an individual beseeching Hashem.
Years ago, a religious Jew was regrettably sentenced to prison in Rikers Island. Allegedly known to be a prison where maltreatment is rampant and most certainly one’s spiritual, physical and mental health is at great risk, the situation for this Jew looked dismal. All efforts expended in pleading with the judge to change the verdict were to no avail. He simply would not budge from his decision.
There was a man named Feth, however, who was capable of altering this particular judge’s ruling. For Feth himself, he had just suffered the loss of a family relative in North Carolina. Flying there to be with his family during this difficult time, he eventually made his way back to New York. After arriving at Penn Station, Feth began to wait for a taxi amid the blazing heat of day. And then he waited some more. And then some more. But no taxi was available to take him home. Holding two suitcases all by himself, he began to weary.
But then, from nowhere, his help arrived. “Can we help carry your luggage to your house?” They were two fifteen year old yeshiva students who had noticed Feth tirelessly waiting for a taxi, but no one ever picked him up. “Are you sure?” Feth replied, “it’s four blocks to my house from here.” But without further hesitation, the boys carried the suitcases to his home.
Arriving at the front of Feth’s apartment, he profusely thanked the boys for their kind assistance. “No, no,” they said, “we want to take your luggage up to your apartment.” “It’s all the way on the third floor,” Feth said in dissuasion. But the boys insisted that they help him to the very opening of his door. Carrying the bags up, as they placed them down right before his apartment, Feth pulled out of his wallet two twenty-dollar bills. “Here,” he said, “this is for each of you. I cannot thank you enough for what you’ve done.”
But the boys refused to accept any money. “We don’t take money,” they said. “It’s our pleasure to have helped you.” And with that they walked away. Entering his apartment, Feth was beside himself. He could not believe the extent of care and concern these yeshiva boys had shown to an absolute stranger.
Feth immediately called the judge and said, “That Jew you sentenced to prison in Rikers Island is not going there. I never saw such a thing in my life. I never saw anything like the care and sensitivity these Orthodox Jews acted with. You cannot put a Jew into Rikers.”
But this was not the only time Hashem has shown his smiling countenance towards His children.
For a man who was learning in Kollel in Israel and enjoying life, everything changed one day. Unfortunately, he was victim to a poisonous snake bite. Rushing him to a doctor specialist in Ramat Gan, he was operated upon in an attempt to extract the poison and return him to full health. But matters did not seem all too hopeful. After all, with venom of a poisonous snake in his body, his life was at risk.
A number of days later, after trying to remove the poison, the man called his doctor. “Doctor, what are the results?” “Let me tell you something,” began the doctor, “you won’t believe it.”
“I have never believed in G-d my entire life. But today, after seeing the results of your tests, that has all changed. I now believe in G-d. As we were examining you, we noticed to our unfortunate surprise that you had cancer in your lungs. Unbeknownst to you, your life was dangerously threatened. You may not have lived much longer. But now, there is nothing to worry about. The venom of that snake which bit you killed the cancer in your lungs. Had you not been bitten, your life may have ended sooner than later. But thanks to the bite of the snake, you can look forward to many years to come.”
Sometimes, the most dismal of situations is what brings about the most hopeful of situations. In the mind of this man, a poisonous snake bite meant something life-threatening. But in truth, what appeared to be a bite of death was a bite of life. Even amid the darkness of life, Hashem is our light. All odds may appear to be against us, but quite to the contrary, those odds may be the very reason we are given life.
At the end of this week’s Parsha, we learn how the Kohen would ascend to the top of the Mizbeach (Altar) not on steps, but on a plank. Why was this so? Why was there a plank to walk up to the Mizbeach instead of steps?
I once heard the following beautiful explanation. Steps allow a person to pause and take a rest. With a steep plank, on the other hand, any moment you stop, you begin to slide backwards. There is no option of stopping.
The same is true of serving Hashem. We do not ascend in spirituality by way of steps, but rather by means of ramp. We cannot choose to rest and complacently say, “Next year I will move up another step. I will take a break now and resume some time later.” On a ramp, we cannot choose to rest. Otherwise, we will inevitably start slipping backwards. Life is about constant growth and ascent.
What does Hakadosh Baruch Hu do, though, when we begin to slip? He sends a message to wake us up. He sends us a jolt we never expected and reminds us to continue moving up the ramp.
All throughout our lives, Hashem sends us reminders. Daily occurrences of having our car not starting, forgetting money which we needed at home or getting stuck in traffic and missing our appointment are events which we must take to heart. They are there for us to open our eyes. All the subtle messages, obstacles and smiling moments we experience in life are there for our spiritual growth and development. All we must do is open our eyes and ears and recognize the presence and presents of Hashem in our lives.
