Shmini 5771

Seeing the Honor of Hashem:

The pasuk in this week's parsha (9:6) says "And Moshe said 'this is the thing that Hashem commanded you to do, and Hashem's Honor will appear to you.'" Rav Aharon Kolter explains in this pasuk that a Jew must always put in the effort first before expecting any results from Hashem.

Let's try to understand the pasuk a little differently. It is only if one follows the mitzvot that one can understand what Hashem does. Meaning, only through the lens of a Torah Jew do the events of the world make sense. With a Torah driven eye, what seems like random events all fit together perfectly. As bad as the world looks to the average person, a person who sees with the right lens can see it is all for the best. It is specifically when the world is filled with so much bad that we must remember that everything is for the good.

At each event that a person witnesses/ hears about they must know that it was for the best, even if it is not what we consider to be good. The question one must ask is how he/ she should react to the events. Hashem has His reasons for why events happen, but He also has reasons for why you must hear about it. Nothing happens for no reason.

There is a famous saying that my father loves to tell me, "it is not what happens to you, but rather how you react to it." If a person sees an event and is unchanged by it then he is missing the whole point. One cannot hear about these events and stand idly by! Each person must do whatever is in his/ her power to make the world better.

If one looks at everything from the Torah perspective and says at each event "how is this suppose to help me get closer to Hashem?" then he/ she is seeing the world the right way.

Have a good Shabbat!