By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend,
Have you ever heard people using the term ‘making sense of the madness’
That is what it feels like sometimes in this world. Especially when things don’t turn out the way you anticipated and hoped.
Some people dismissively say, don’t bother trying to making sense of it. Its madness after all. It doesn’t have to make sense.
Others say its not ‘madness’. Nothing happens by ‘chance’.
Everything is from G-d. Therefore, quite obviously it is not madness. It DOES make sense.
As believers in G-d -
By the way, the Torah states unequivocally that all the people of ‘Israel, are believers the children of believers’. Which is why if a Jew tells me that they don’t believe in G-d. I respond that because I do believe in G-d and His Torah, ‘I don’t believe you that you don’t believe’.
- should we be trying to figure things out, or just go with the flow without meditating too deeply on why things unfold the way that they do.
To be honest, I used to think that it’s better not to try and search for meaning in those haphazard things that seem to make no sense. Hashem knows what He is doing, and he doesn’t need me to try to understand.
But is this the case?
Is it really showing that I trust fully in G-d’s supervision of every single things when I DON’T look for reason, or perhaps when I DO look for a pattern in the world, it highlights the depth of my believe in G-d’s presence in every detail of life.
Let me give you a scenario (pre mobile phone days) and you decide.
Scenario: You live out of town, and you have just come to your doting parents’ home after not visiting them for some time. You have told them that you are arriving on this and this day. They confirmed that this is suitable for them and that they will be expectantly awaiting you. You travel to their home, show up to their front door and surprisingly the house is dark! No one answers the doorbell. You let yourself in, and find that your parents aren’t there.
Would you just shrug your shoulders and say ‘this is pretty random’ and go about your life without a second thought? Or would you look around to see if your parents left a note about where they may be. Perhaps you would call one of your siblings to see if they have heard from your parents lately while you were in transit to them. (Remember, no mobile phones in this parable).
I daresay that every single one of you who is reading this article would be uneasy or at the very least inquisitive about why your parents aren’t home as they said they would be.
Why? Because you know that your parents are responsible people. You know that they love you. You had confirmed your time of arrival in advance. They are usually dependable in their scheduling. It can’t just be carelessness. There must be a reason that they are not home.
When they walk in ten minutes later with your favorite desert that they picked up at the store, and describe the unusual traffic on the way home, you now understand why they weren’t home when you arrived.
Do you get where I am headed with this?
Believing in the Almighty as taught by our Torah means that every single aspect of the universe is created and directed by G-d.
It is not just ‘madness’ or ‘chaos’ or ‘random’.
When we search for reasons WHY things happen, we are acknowledging that there IS a supreme being who makes everything happen.
As created beings who are finite, we also know that we cannot always be privy to WHY things are happening.
So that when we don’t understand things that are happening we don’t doubt that Hashem is here, we simply know that His thoughts are infinitely higher than ours and we humbly submit to His will.
Yet, many times Hashem does give us a window into His wondrous workings by showing us blatant acts of ‘Divine Providence’.
I am referring to seemingly ‘random’ things that happen and somehow fit in and form part of a mosaic in which there is a clear pattern. From what seemed to be something random, you now are able to see that there is rhyme and reason to what seemed before to be haphazard unrelated events.
Let’s face it. Hashem doesn’t get ‘stuck in traffic’ or have to deal with any other unforeseen event. He knows everything in advance, for He directs everything. Thus, there is truly nothing ‘random’.
Searching for Him, and possible reasons that He has for the events that happen to us in the details of life is the strongest statement of belief in His Presence.
When you reframe your life, seeing it from this perspective, miracles start to happen. You come to a deeper understanding of how G-d works through the multiple layers of ‘nature’ that He has created. Nature no longer obscures Him, rather it highlights Him.
I am going to share an example that someone just shared with me after hearing a talk where I shared this concept. it’s a little thing. It may even sound childish. But it’s precisely in the ‘small stuff’ where we can often find the guiding ‘hand of Hashem’.
Rabbi, thanks for your class. In the spirit of what you taught; I too just had an interesting Divine Providence story that I would like to share. There was an issue with some of the catered food we ordered. We unintentionally over-ordered potato knishes. I got in touch with someone who delivers food to people in the community in need to see if they could use it. I got this response
‘Just letting you know of Hashem's beautiful ways. A family who hasn't requested food from us in a while reached out today and asked specifically if I had potato knishes available for them. Hashem always provides for his children before we even know that we have the need. Thank you for helping us be a part of the mitzvah.
That incident was special because it happened so instantaneously. Things don’t always happen so quickly. It may take many years to see why things happen.
In this weeks Parsha it took more than twenty years till the story of the sale of Yosef was understood. It seemed like a simple case of jealousy that led to Yosef’s sale to the Egyptians. After many twists and turns, Yosef becomes the second-to- the-king of Egypt and is positioned to save and support his entire family.
Now, after all of this unfolds, Yosef said to his brothers
Though all of you together intended me harm, God intended it for the good, in order to bring things to their present state and to save the lives of many people.
Ultimately, Yosef’s being positioned as the man in charge of Egypt actually contributed to the fact that the Exodus from Egypt was sooner than it otherwise would have been. Ultimately the things happening in our day and age are also leading up to a redemption. THE Redemption. With Mashiach. Amen.
On a practical note, here is what I would like to propose.
May I humbly suggest, that if you are ready to put on transformational glasses and embark on this journey, you will not regret it.
Adopt this approach. Recognize that the Almighty is in ‘charge’. Then open your eyes and search actively for the things in your life that come together in symmetry. Particularly the unplanned things.
When you open your eyes and mind to seeing life in this way, you too will have many stories. ‘Small miracles’ you could call them.
They are always there. Everybody has these things happen to them. But like anything else in life you have to develop a sensitivity to see and hear them.
It behooves us, as believing Jews to ACTIVELY search for these ‘Divine Providence’ points.
(For those reading this who are familiar with Hebrew, here is a link to the letter of the Rebbe that clearly teaches this concept. To me, it was something new. The importance of proactively looking for ways that Hashem’s Providence can be found in your life).
Once you do, your life will not be the same. It will be like a form of ‘alchemy’. Turning mundane life into excitement and curiosity about how Hashem is working miracles and wonders through the happenings of the world.
And lo and behold, once you get those special glasses, you will be blessed to have even more loads and loads of inspiring and positive things that unfold before your eyes. And then you will be blessed to have wagonloads of amazing things to give thanks to Hashem for!
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Yosef Kantor
PS on a personal note, Nechama and I are blessed to give gratitude to Hashem for the upcoming Bar Mitzvah of our youngest, Leibel. See below.