By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend,
How wonderful it was for the Jewish people traveling from Egypt to Israel just after Exodus.
They had absolute clarity.
They knew when they had to stop to rest and when to travel onward.
This week’s parsha Behaalotcha spells out how the cloud of Hashem traveled in front of the camp and stopped at the location and the time that Hashem wanted the Jewish people to stop at.
Imagine if we had a personal cloud of glory that traveled in front of each of us. And we could know with absolute clarity that Hashem wants us to be in a particular place at a particular time.
Wouldn’t that be great?
The fact of the matter is that while we don’t see the ‘cloud of G-d’ telling us where to live, it is G-d who Divinely orchestrates our movements. Without us consciously knowing it.
The place you are born. The time in history in which you are born. The family you are born to. The opportunities that come your way. All of these things shape your destiny, and they are all chosen by G-d.
I was thinking about this in the context of our anniversary dinner of our arrival in Thailand. We had the heavenly blessing of being able to present a written note to be read the Rebbe by his secretary Rabbi Krinsky.
The Rebbe nodded his holy head in the affirmative that we were to become his Shluchim emissaries to Thailand.
Off we went. With clarity that this is where we are meant to be.
And fortified with all the blessings that are needed to carry out the mission of spreading Torah and preparing Thailand for Mashiach.
Every person has a mission. That mission is G-d given and G-d sees to it that everyone lands up where they need to be and has the faculties and wherewithal to do what they are tasked by the Almighty to do.
It is tempting to look at ‘the grass on the other side of the fence’. Invariably it ‘looks greener’. But ultimately that is simply a distraction from doing and fulfilling the mission G-d has prepared for you.
Usually, our missions are delivered directly to us. We just need to do them.
And sometimes the ‘heavenly cloud’ moves on, and it is time to move.
More than one person has come to me frantic with worry that circumstances may force them to move to a different country. It is unsettling to move from place to place. Especially if you feel very comfortable in the place you are living.
My response to that is ‘if G-d wanted to tell you to move to another place, how would He communicate that’?
‘As believers in G-d, we believe that the circumstances that are causing your move are Divinely ordained’.
When the cloud Hashem rested the people encamped.
When the cloud rose to move onward, the Jewish people moved onward.
Embrace your own personal ‘clouds of glory’ and try and make the best of where you live and the opportunities you have.
Very soon, the enveloping clouds of glory of Hashem will whisk us off to Israel for the coming of Mashiach when the world will become filled with the knowledge of the glory of Hashem.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yosef Kantor