One of the most important lessons in life is to remember that we are not just watching the game of life but rather we are the actors themselves! How often it is do we think that everything bad that happens in life is “for the other guy” but not me. We somehow remove ourselves from the fact that we are also finite within this world.
I was thinking the other day that I work and get paid for me doing the job. But has it ever occurred to someone, that maybe someone is paying your employer just to give you a job and really they are paying your salary? Who knows, maybe it’s all a set-up in order to make me “think” that it is my hard work and effort that got me the job and that I continue to get paid.
Imagine, one day the sustenance and support stops, and only then do we realize that it was coming from someplace else and it really wasn’t “me” who was really making it happen.
We know that for the years that the Jews wandered in the desert, they were provided three things in the merit of three Tzadikim. It was because of Moshe that we had the manna, Aharon brought the Ananei Hakavod/The clouds of glory and Miriam brought forth water from her well. In this week’s Parsha, Parshas Chukas, both Miriam and then Aharon die, as a result the well dried up and the clouds disappeared. There is a question as to why the Jewish people did not cry and eulogize Miriam when she died? The Sefer Simchas Higayon answers that in reality the well stopped giving forth water BECAUSE the Jews did not mourn properly for Miriam. But it started to give water again in the merit of Aharon and Moshe. Unfortunately, because the water resumed after a short while, the Jewish people did not feel the impact of where and from whom the water source was from. I am sure that after so many years, the Jews took it for granted, and forgot in whose merit they benefited from all those years. In fact they may have thought it was in their own merits that they enjoyed the manna, water and protection of the clouds. Then again when Aharon died, the clouds disappeared for only a short while, and resumed in the merit of Moshe Rabbeinu. It was only until Aharon, Miriam and Moshe died did they remember that it was in the merits of those righteous individuals and not themselves that we enjoyed the Manna, Clouds and water. All of a sudden, reality is brought forth and opened up before their eyes.
It is only so clear when the source, the hand that was giving is no longer, that we realize someone behind the scenes is pulling the strings.
Our problem is that we tend to forget that EVERYTHING we have is coming from another source and it is not MY doing but rather from Hashem. We go through life thinking that it is we who are doing everything and even when the true source is sometimes cut off, a new source of merit replaces it. Hashem provides us with everything, for reasons that only He knows. At times we deserve it on our own, and other times because of others. Let us never forget the place that Bracha/Blessing comes from.
We are not in control but rather we are being controlled. There are things happening behind the scenes, and our objective is to remember that Hashem/God is pulling ALL the strings.
Ah Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky
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