Search

Home > Daily Emunah Podcast - Daily Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear > Parashat Vayechi: The Right Mindset
Podcast: Daily Emunah Podcast - Daily Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear
Episode:

Parashat Vayechi: The Right Mindset
Category: Religion & Spirituality
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2020-01-10 07:00:00
Description: This week’s parasha, Vayechi, is called סתומה – closed – because there are no spaces in the Torah between last week’s parashah, Vayigash, and this one. Rashi quotes the midrash that explains the reason: When Yaakov died, the eyes and heart of the Jewish People became closed due to the suffering of the enslavement in Mitzrayim . The Netivot Shalom makes an observation from the words of Chazal here. The difficulty was not the slavery, per se, it was that their eyes and heart became closed. This means, worse than the physical pain was the psychological pain. If they would have known that every bit of that slavery was brought about by Hashem for their best, they would have been able to endure it happily. And this is true with all difficulties in life. If we would have the correct mindset, they wouldn’t be so difficult. If someone wanted to drill a hole on our teeth, we would most probably put up a fight to stop him, but if it is a dentist filling in a cavity, we would even pay him to have it done. The very same circumstance can be experienced totally differently if our emunah is the way it is supposed to be. Rabbi Dessler gave a mashal , if someone was told he had to spend his days taking off and putting on the shoes of hundreds of people, he would become very agitated. But if that man was a shoe salesman, he would be delighted to hear that, “Wow, hundreds of people per day? Baruch Hashem.” Because he knows he’s going to gain from it. Everything that happens in our lives is from Hashem and it’s always to help us, whether we understand it or not. If we can truly internalize this, we can turn potentially painful situations into the greatest avodat Hashem. The levels a person can reach when he accepts his circumstances as coming from Hashem for his best are unimaginable. The Gemara says, “אינו דומה שונה פרקו מאה פעמים לשונה מאה פעמים ואחד.” Simply, it means you can’t compare someone who reviews his learning a hundred times to someone who does it a hundred and one. They are worlds apart. The Be’er Haparasha explained homiletically Chapter 100 in Tehillim is Mizmor L’Toda which alludes to thanking Hashem and being happy when everything is good. The next chapter, Perek 101, speaks about thanking Hashem in the dark times. David Hamelech said," חסד ומשפט אשירה," whether I have chesed or even mishpat , even when it is tough, ashira – I sing to Hashem. The lesson is you can’t compare someone who practices what it says in Perek 100 in Tehillim to someone who practices what it says in Perek 101 – they are worlds apart. Although thanking Hashem for revealed good is a great avodah , thanking Him when it is not revealed is a wondrous avodah . We have the ability to always be thanking and praising. It’s all up to us how we view the situations in our minds. A story that happened in Bneh Brak a few years ago became very popular. We spoke about it then when it happened, and I would like to quickly review it to bring out a lesson. It was very late at night, right after Rosh Hashanah and a large crowd of people were waiting by a bus stop to take the 402 bus back to Yerushalayim . It never came. The hour was very late, the crowd of people were very upset, especially since they had a lot of little children with them. The bus company could not find anybody to drive that bus because everybody was afraid of being yelled at the entire hour ride. One man said he’ll do it. He put the numbers 318 on his bus instead of 402 and pulled up in front of them. Someone got on the bus and said, “I know you’re not the 402, but I’m begging you, can you please drive us to Yerushalayim ? It’s 1:30 in the morning, we’re all stranded here.” The driver said, “Please wait a minute while I check.” A few minutes later he opened the door and he invited everyone on. The entire journey, everyone was heaping thanks and praise upon the driver for what he did. At the end, when everyone got off, one young man remained on and asked the driver to explain how he was able to change his route so quickly. The driver told him the real story. He said no one wanted to do this job because they didn’t want to be yelled at, so he made believe he was the 318 so everyone would appreciate him instead of yelling at him. The exact same situation. When viewed from a different perspective, everything changed. If we will feel that we are entitled and we’re always asking Hashem, why didn’t You give me what I wanted? Then we are going to be complainers. But if we look at Hashem the way we are supposed to look at Him, someone who, kavayachol , always goes out of His way to come and help us and He’s always doing everything to help us, we’ll be filled with blessings and praises all of the time. Shabbat Shalom.
Total Play: 0

Some more Podcasts by Torah Learning Resources.

1K+ Episodes
Daily Halach ..     2