How do we Understand Others' Evil Acts Towards Us as the Hand of Hashem?

Here's a question Army of Achdus posed to me and my non-authoritative thoughts on the matter:

I've been trying to work through an inyan in Emunah and wonder if you can shed light.

I was trying to explain the inyan of Shimi Ben Geirah insulting Dovid HaMelech, and Dovid's reply that H" told him to curse me to someone. I saw this explained in various places, such as Bilvavi Mishkan Evnah and Tanya. I was trying to explain how the Tanya says that if a 3rd Person does something to us, that not only was the action ordained in Shamayim, but that H" even gave the thought to the 3rd P to do the ma'aseh etc...

So then this person gave me the following Kasha - but what if someone does something repeatedly to us? What about a parent that verbally abuses a child etc.. over and over again? Do we say to the child that H" ordained that you receive this verbal abuse, and that you just need to look at your parent as the stick in H"s hand? I didn't know how to answer. Then came the question - so why throughout Tehillim does Dovid HaMelech pray for the downfall and retribution of his enemies? If it's all ordained min HaShamayim, and Kol Mah D'Avid Rachmanah, L'Tov Avid, then we should gladly accept what our enemies do as for our own benefit.

My answer was that "I guess" that it's true, that H" in the case of the parent mentioned, or even with an enemy, l'havdil, is doing this for our own benefit, but that if there's a way within the dalet amos of halachah to deal with the offense, then that would be ratzon H" as well - the defense would then be Razon H".

My answer is chaser - and I'm trying to work through it to help another yid.

Any insight?

Dixie Yid:

The problem lies, I think, in trying to understand others conduct towards me from the perspective of hashgacaha pratis and others conduct, from their own perspective, simultaneously.

As the Rambam writes in hilchos Teshuva (and as I wrote about previously), this is impossible for the human mind to comprehend. So on some level, we have to let go of the expectation that we're going to fully understand.

That being said, I don't see the distinction between one-time verbal abuse and repeating verbal abuse. It's just a matter of degree, not a matter of some sort of difference in kind.

Another distinction that I think is lacking in the question is the distinction between how one views past suffering versus how he should view future suffering. We know that past suffering was decreed by hashgacha pratis because it already happened. But we have no idea if the suffering we may or may not encounter later today or tomorrow is decreed by divine providence. And so I would think that it would be ratzon Hashem, as you said, to daven or take whatever steps necessary to stop it from happening in the future.

Yes, as difficult as it is, you have to look at someone else's actions against you in the past as the stick in the hand of Hashem. But just because it happened 10 or 20or more times in the past doesn't mean that it is decreed to happen again. And I think that when the Tanya says that it is as if Hashem put the thought into the other person's mind to do that to you, he is only saying that this is true from your perspective. But from that person's perspective, he has total bechira, is committing a big aveira and will be punished.

Since we can't understand past and future suffering in the light of both yediah and bechira simultaneously, we are meant to bifurcate our perspectives and use the proper perspective at the proper time. We are to look at our own and others actions in the past from the perspective of hashgacha pratis and we look at our own and others' actions in the future as bechira chofshis that we should act on to improve. But I don't think we can expect to understand both perspectives at the same time.

All we can do is switch back and forth between the two outlooks when it is appropriate to do so. May Hashem help us have the wisdom to know which perspective to use at which time

-Dixie Yid

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Shabbos Shuva - Guest Posting From Mei Hashiloach by R' Zvi Leshem

PARSHAT VAYELECH: The Meaning of Hakhel
Rav Zvi Leshem

In Parshat Vayelech, we read about the mitzvah of Hakhel, in which, on the Sukkot after Shemittah [the Sabbatical year], all of Am Yisrael, men, women, and children, gather in the Temple, where the king reads portions of the Torah to the public. All of the people reaccept the covenant in a ceremony that some commentators describe as a reenactment of the giving of the Torah. If this is the case, why is Hakhel held on Sukkot? Surely Shavuot would have been more appropriate.

The Mai Hashiloach gives a fascinating answer. At the end of the Shemittah year, during which everyone has dedicated themselves to spiritual pursuits, there may be a natural tendency to jump on the tractor, get to work in the field and … forget what one learned during Shemittah. The Torah gives us the mitzvah of Hakhel, precisely when the demands of making a living may cause us to forget the spiritual lessons that took a year to learn. Hakhel reminds us that the work we are setting out to do must also be dedicated to heaven.

Similarly, says the Mai Hashiloach, we are accustomed to continue seudah shlishit [the third Shabbat meal] into the night after Shabbat ends, in case we rush immediately into our weekday activities and forget the spiritual lessons we internalized during Shabbat. For the same reason, the Psalm of the day on Sunday includes the words, "The earth and all of its fullness belong to Hashem." When we recite this psalm we are reminded that while we do make Havdalah and separate between Shabbat and the week, our weekdays must also be days of holiness. Rav Soloveitchik wrote in Al Hateshuvah that while there are plenty of Jews who are shomer Shabbos, there are not enough Jews that are shomer erev Shabbos!

This important message, of bringing the holiness of Shabbat into the week through seudah shlishit, and bringing the holiness of the Yamim Noraim into Sukkot, the Time of our Rejoicing, and the entire year through the mitzvah of Hakhel needs to be internalized, giving meaning to our daily lives.

SHABBAT SHUVAH: The First Act of Teshuvah
Rav Zvi Leshem

While we tend to think of Shabbat Shuvah as the Shabbat that happens to fall out during the Ten Days of Teshuvah, in fact the opposite is true. Based upon the Midrash in Bereishit Rabbah the Pri Tzaddik explains that Adam and Chava were created on Friday (Rosh Hashanah). On that very day they also violated the divine commandment not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and were judged, the sentence being banishment from the Garden of Eden. Nonetheless, they were allowed to spend Shabbat in the Garden of Eden, and were only banished after Shabbat. Why? The Midrash continues that the moment Shabbat began, Adam first grasped the concept of Teshuvah and repented. Hashem knew that Adam would not dare to eat from the Tree of Life on Shabbat, for there is a halachic concept (Aimat HaShabbat) that people are afraid to do the wrong thing on Shabbat.

Every Shabbat has the power to help us do Teshuvah, and we know that even the two words Shabbat and Teshuvah are made up of the same letters. This is a major theme in the Netivot Shalom of the late Slonimer Rebbe.

Shabbat Shuvah, the first Shabbat in the year (i.e. the first of creation), has the greatest power, since on it the first act of Teshuvah in history was performed. Its influence is so great that it lights up the days before and after it, transforming them into the Ten Days of Teshuvah!

We must aspire to reach perfect Teshuvah out of love for Hashem on this holy Day. This will ensure that each of us, together with everyone in our community and all of Am Yisrael will be sealed in the Book of Life for the coming year.

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Reb Tzadok: The Area of Our Greatest Weakness is the Area of Our Greatest Strength

Rav Tzadok Hakohen, in Tzidkus Hatzadik #70, says that the area of one's biggest failings is davka the area of his biggest greatness, and through davka that thing, he will reach very high levels.

He says that the Gemara in Sanhedrin 70a says that "שבדבר שקלקלו בו נתקנו," "in the area in which one has sined, through that area he will be mesukan [repaired]."

This is also why the Gemara says, in Yershalmi Brachos 2:4, that "ביומא דאיתיליד איחרוב בית מוקדשא," that on the day that the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, Moshiach was born. Rav Tzadok seems to be using this Gemara to say that we see that on the very day of the destruction of the Beis Hamikdosh, which personifies our faults, Moshiach was born. That is to say that from the very faults themselves arise the tikun to those faults, Moshiach Tzidkeinu.

He also says that this is the principal which underlies the statement in the Midrash Raba in Parshas Chukas that the Para Aduma, the Red Heiffer, is davka the atonement for the impurity created by the sin of the Golden Calf, the "idolotry" that was done with a baby heiffer.

It all goes back to the principal that Hashem gives the person his greatest difficulties in a certain area because that is the area in which he has the biggest potential for greatness.

This can be difficult to understand. One could feel that if he takes this advice, then he will put all of his efforts into his area of greatest difficulty in Avodas Hashem. But he could worry that if he does this, then he's just setting himself up for failure when the challenge is too much for him. A person may think that it would be better to put off those big fights and, instead, work on those areas of growth which are easier for him. I definitely think that this is the propper way to go most of the time. The discouragement that can come from failure can do more damage that if the person had just focused on the easier battles.

However, I think that we also have to keep in mind what Rav Tzadok said in Tzidkus Hatzadik #45, about one whose heart has become so closed that Teshuva has been closed off from him. He says that when such a person makes himself humble, and empties himself out until he is like "nothing," then Hashem "creates something from nothing." When a person stops relying on his own "inner strength" to overcome his weakness, that is when the person is ready to realize that it was really Hashem all allong, who gave him the "koach la'asos chayil," the ability to accomplish things in Avodas Hashem. It is only when one makes himself as nothing, that he will be ready to realize that the koach to have his teshuva accepted comes from Hashem and not himself.

May Hashem give us the koach to see our tikun in our area of greatest difficulty and help us be zocheh to true anavah, humility very soon!

-Dixie Yid

(Picture courtesy of Mysterium)

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Reb Tzadok on Why One Must Always Revisit the Sins of the Past

Rav Tzadok Hakohen, in Tzidkus Hatzadik #67, says that no matter how high of a level a person reaches, and even though he has done teshuva for his aveiros, he must always revisit his sins.

This idea comes from Tehilim 51:5, where it says "וְחַטָּאתִי נֶגְדִּי תָמִיד," "and my sin is always before me." Even though Hashem has accepted his teshuva completely, he must still recall and do teshuva for his sins. This is because such a person never remains static. One should always be growing and ascending from level to level.

Therefore, one's conduct in this world should reflect that which the Arizal said about life in Gan Eden. He says that every time one ascends to a highter and greater level in Gan Eden, "they" are more particular with him about his aveiros and he is punished for even the smallest sin. I read this to mean that certain things are not a sin at all, and may even be considered mitzovs to one who is on a lower level. However, the same things which may have been fine for a lower level person are far beneath that same person which he reaches a higher level. Therefore, things which weren't sins earlier in his growth become sins which require kapara and teshuva in the world to come.

Similarly in this world, one can cleanse himself of the "new sins" that develop in one's past by continually doing teshuva for things that may not have been a problem before, but become problematic to have in one's "record" as his level becomes higher.

He says this is the reason for "Yerida l'tzorech aliya." When Shamayim becomes medakdeik on a person for aveiros that only become an issue because of the person's aliya, that is called a time of "yerida." One must do teshuva for those things at such a time, and that will be the aliya that was precipitated by the "yerida."

Furthermore, Rav Tzadok writes in #57 that the regret and anguish that one feels because of his aveiros constitutes the literal punishment of Geheinom. That is why the Gemara says in Brachos 12b, "כל העושה דבר עבירה ומתבייש בו מוחלין לו על כל עונותיו," "Anyone who does an aveira and is embarrased because of it, all of his sins are forgiven." Rav Tzadok explains that this is because of the aforementioned principal that Agmas Nefesh, anguish one feels because of his aveiros, literally consitutes Geheinom.

This principal is why one's teshuva for "newfound" aveiros that only become an issue when he becomes greater is effective in getting rid of those daduskideh, subtle, aveiros. Of course, the same principal would ostensibly apply to regular, gasusdikeh, big time, aveiros as well and one should feel regret and anguish about his aveiros. We should know, based on this Tzidkus Hatzadik, that this feeling its self is mechaper for our aveiros.

Baruch Hashem that He gave us so many ways and opportunities to rid ourselves of our shmootz that keeps us away from Him.

-Dixie Yid

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