Hashgacha Prati 1

Hashgacha Prati (Divine -and Individual - Intervention) is one of the foundations of our faith and something that Rebbe Nachman of Breslov placed tremendous emphasis on. If one's eyes are truly open you will see Heaven's hand playing a very active and recurring role in your life.

I would like to record for posterity 2 simple such events in my "mundane" life to illustrate this point.

CASE 1: A few years ago I had scheduled a job interview in Rechovot, near the Weizman Institute at 10:00AM. To put it mildly, the commute from my home in Hashmonaim is not easy and I wasn't looking forward to the convoluted multi-bus trek. To top it off, I got off to a late start; perfect!

Within 60 seconds of my arriving at my yishuv's "trempiada" - hitchhiker post - ostensibly just to get a lift to the first bus stop I needed, a car pulls up. I asked the driver where he was going. Guess what? He was going to his office which was across the street from the Weizman Institute.

Coincidence? He said that he didn't know what happened top him that morning as he never leaves this late (it was close to 9:00) and I don't recall anyone on any other day headed to that location.

When I arrived (on time) for my interview, my interviewer sheepishly apologized for agreeing to meet with me in the first place as I wasn't at all suited for the spot he needed filled.

Conclusion - This whole scenario was orchestrated from heaven for the express purpose of teaching me (and my driver) an invaluable lesson in Hashgacha Prati.

Case 2: The other day on Tu B'av I had decided that I wanted to make a trip to the Kotel after work. In the morning I estimated that I would leave by 6:30 in order to get there in time for Mincha.

Sure enough by the time 6:00 rolled around I was starting to make excuses in my head why I could go later or maybe even not at all that day. After all, there was still so much work to take care of and I was really beat. The Yetzer Hara has an exhaustive list of excuses.

At exactly 6:20 the company Internet line went down...kaput. No fiddling around on my part could revive her. Without the Internet, there is basically nothing I can do at work. I ended up leaving exactly 6:30 and Baruch Hashem arriving at the kotel just before sunset.

P.S. - lest you think that Internet crashing is a regular event by me, it's not. It happens about once every 2 or 3 months

Lifesavers

I just heard the following "vort" today at my Shiur on Parshat Hahavua. It was mentioned by one of the students and while I don't know the source, it sounds valid:

We know that from that Tisha B'Av that Bnei Yisroel heard and accepted the slanderous report of the spies, they began a 40-year death sentence, where a portion (15,000=1/40 of 600,000) of the nation was killed every subsequent Tisha B'Av until the whole male generation was wiped out...almost. In the 40th year, they lied down in the graves that they dug for themselves on Tisha B'Av (as they had done for the previous 39 years). The next morning, to their surprise, everybody rose up. Thinking they erred in the date, they repeated this "ceremony" each night until the 15th of Av, at which point the moon was full and they were certain that Tisha B'av had passed and that the decree has been rescinded. This is one of the reasons that Tu (ט"ו) B'av is celebrated.

The question is why did they earn a reprieve in that last year.

A possible answer that was offered was that in previous years every Jew that lied down secretly (or openly) prayed that he wouldn't be from those 15000 to die. In other words, he wished that another Jew died instead of himself. That in and of itself was another cause for his death. That last year, there were no "other" Jews left, thus nobody prayed that another Jew should die. As a reward for not having this negative thought G-d spared their lives.

Look at the value of each Jewish life.

Why we don't "harp" on this

על נהרות בבל...על ערבים בתוכה תלינו כנורותינו

Along the rivers of Babylon...because of the Arabs in our midst we hang up our harps

Why should we do this? Simple reason is that since the destruction of the temple and goyim are in our midst, we can't be happy and play music. A possible more direct connection... תיקן חצות is THE best antidote to our temple-less existence. King David also got up at midnite every night to learn and daven. How did he know when to wake up? His harp that was suspended over his bed would begin chiming from the blowing of the North wind exactly at חצות. Thus since ערבים בתוכה we need תלינו כנורותינו to wake up for חצות to rectify the situation.

Rabbi Goldman's comments:

Nice play on words.
That word is also alluding to the other half of our problems in golus - Eisav as follows:
Aravim - in "A-T B-SH" is transformed as follows:
Ayin = Zayin = 7
Reish = Gimmel = 3
Beis = Shin = 300
Yud = Mem = 40
Mem = Yud = 10

Fighting Amalek

I'm going to start posting some random Torah ideas I've had over the last few months - along with the occasional critique/tweak from my long-time friend Rabbi Sol Goldman. By the way "Rebbe z"l" is Rav Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld, my Rabbi who introduced me to Breslov and who I will hopefully talk more about in future posts. He passed away over 30 years ago

1. "צא הלחם בעמלק"

Yehoshua davka was the one designated to fight Amalek, but only thru the power of his Rebbe Moshe Rabenu.

צא is 91 - Yud-keh-vav-keh + Shem Adnei = 26+65 = 91 = סוכה = has aspects of both Shemesh (Torah/Moshe) + Yareach (Shade/Emunah/Yehoshua), but must be mostly the latter. Who is most suited to combat Amalek (doubts in faith)? The צ"א = צדיק אמת just "coincidentally" Rebbe z"l was named צבי אריה

Another use of צא: Chazal said " עשה כל מה שבעל הבית אומר לך חוץ מ-צא" - About the yetzer hara it says that he starts out only asking to hang a nail in your house (meaning do one small sin), but little by little he takes over, until he's the master of the house (בעל הבית) . So even if you give in to every other temptation he throws at you, do not listen to him if it means "coming out" against the Tzadik Emet (צא)

Rabbi Goldman:

See the Imrei Noam - Purim - Paragraph 34
Nice touch about Rebbe Z'L.
The way you interpret the Gemara in Pesachim 86B - "chutz mi'tzeh" it means to imply that the Y"H is the Baa' Habayis. He isn't - he wants to be.

Of Tightropes and Tight Ropes

It's been like forever since I last wrote here. I hope to get back with it more often. This was something I came up with last year

A brief thought that came to me while Superbusing it home to Hashmonaim on Highway 443.

Being the word junkie that I am, it occurred to me that in his shiurim on Shvachei HaRan, Rebbe (Rav Rosenfeld) z"l had used two similar words in describing a Jew's plight and hope; especially if that Jew was a Breslover.

Faced with the ever-increasing & ever-dangerous distractions and temptations of this world (and everyone knows what there own personal demons are), a Jew is constantly walking a tightrope, where even a momentary lapse in concentration can have serious or even fatal consequences. Given that we are all (too-frail) humans, how are expected not to fall at times?

The answer is, we are not.

But we ARE expected to get back up.

How?

Through that tight rope that eternally binds us to Rabbenu z"l, who stressed again and again to his talmidim, that no matter what transpires in a person's life, regardless of how many times or to what depths one may fall, as long as we remain loyal followers and consider ourselves attached to the tzaddik, he will always be there for us, holding tightly the other end of that rope, helping us to climb back.

Ashreinu