Whose house is it?
Imagine you lose your way in the sea and after disembarking on a deserted island you find yourself in a well-stocked house, full of delectable foods and drinks.
As far as you know, there is no one in the house and no signs of any other human as far as your eyes can see.
Clearly however there is someone who built the house and stocked the pantries.
Moreover, on an ongoing basis the food stocks are replenished.
By an invisible hand.
Finally, after searching, you discover that there is a manual on the grand living room table.
‘Rules of living in my house, by the builder and provider’.
Several pages of rules follow.
What would you do?
Would you feel entitled and just use the bounty without giving a second thought to the instructions in the manual written by the provider?
Or would you feel grateful, humble and thankful and graciously respect and give thanks to the beneficent host.
This is exactly the scenario we face in our lives on a daily basis.
G-d says to the Jewish people, I will bring you into a land full of blessing. You will have bountiful food and possessions.
Remember, says the Torah, it is not your great righteousness that ‘earns’ you the gift of the land of Israel. It is the promise that I made to your forefather, to Avraham, Yitschak and Yaakov.
One of the basic ‘rules’ is to give thanks and acknowledgment to the Master of the Universe.
This week’s Parsha explains that it is incumbent upon us to give thanks for anything we partake of in Hashems world. The Torah teaches us to thank G-d after we eat. ‘You shall eat, be satisfied and bless Hashem’.
The Sages taught that we should ask ‘permission’ of G-d before we eat as well.
Based on the verse (Tehillim 24) ‘The world and everything therein belongs to Hashem’, they stated that we should not benefit from anything in this world before blessing Hashem.
When you think about it, it is simply basic good manner and ‘menshlichkeit’.
Would you take something from the fridge in your friend’s house without getting permission?
Don’t you raise your children to say ‘thank you for having me’ after they had a playdate at their friends house?
The world is created by Hashem and every part of it is His and only His.
Hashem has given us the immensely generous gift of allowing us to partake of His world.
We are guests in his world. Whatever we use is rightfully His. And it is He who grants us the permission to enjoy it.
The decent and upright thing to do is to bless and acknowledge him before we partake of His world.
Click here for instruction and information about brachot blessings.
As well as thanking G-d after we eat by saying Birkat Hamazon – Grace after Meals.
From the mystical perspective, the invoking of the name of G-d before imbibing in food and drink or other sensory pleasure is a way of bringing G-d’s holy presence into the earthly world. Joining heaven and earth.
How blessed our lives can be when we reframe our material engagements as opportunities to bring Heaven down to earth!
One of the ways we do this is by eating G-d’s diet – Kosher food. And by asking G-d’s permission before eating by making a bracha – blessings.
I would like to expand this thought to an arena which is more sensitive.
What happens when things go awry and the train of goodness and holiness seems to be derailed?
Recognizing G-d as the Master of the Universe applies across the board for anything that happens to us. Even those things that are antithetical to holiness and goodness.
The great Rabbi Levi Yitschak Schneerson , the Rebbe’s father who was imprisoned by the Soviets in the late 1930’s for his heroic commitment to G-d and His Torah and died in exile, (his yahrtzeit we just marked on Thursday) was a master kabbalist.
Astonishingly, he penned kabalistic notations on the scraps of paper he had, regarding the details of his imprisonment.
Rav Levi Yitschak explained in his shorthand notes (that were later smuggle out of the Soviet Union), how the seemingly incidental details of his ordeal, day he was arrested, the number of tourturous prisons he was transferred to, the day of the verdict to exile him to the farthest wastelands of Khazakhstan, all fit neatly into the kabbalistic algorithms that he presented in his notes.
His son the Rebbe observed that his father was making a very poignant faith-filled point.
While the Soviets were enemies of faith in G-d, which is why they had arrested and were prosecuting the great Rabbi, they were not operating outside of the direct control of G-d.
The great Tzaddik saw in every detail of his incarceration and prolonged suffering, the exactness of Hashem’s Divine Providence.
As excruciatingly tortuous as his ordeal was, he never wavered from his deeply held beliefs that all comes from G-d. He was even able to see it via the Kabbalistic teachings as they aligned with the experiences he had in the seemingly G-dless dungeons of the KGB.
This is a lesson in recognizing the Guiding and ever present ‘Hand of Hashem’ in every single detail of creation.
Even when we cannot fathom or find rhyme or reason as to why the merciful G-d, our loving Father in Heaven is allowing an untenable situation to unfold. There too, where it is impossible to understand, is the unmistakable Divine Providence of the Almighty.
Armed with this belief and knowledge that Hashem is at the helm of our ship, we can traverse the travails and trials of Jewish history with our head held high as we look expectantly forward to the great days ahead.
Let us hope that the time for this kind of sacrifice is behind us and that now we can utilize our spirit of sacrifice to control our desires and direct our efforts towards Hashem and His Torah in a healthy and successful way.
May we merit the immediate and complete redemption, the release of our hostages, the safe homecoming of our soldiers, the healing of our wounded and the absolute end to all war and conflict with the coming of Mashiach, NOW.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Yosef Kantor