Dude even when times seem are dark and you can't explain why things are happening remember that Hashem has a master plan and everything happens for the ultimate good. Hashem loves you and brings tests because he wants you to grow as a person and come close to him.
We don't always have answers to why things happen. The trick is to take each test as an opportunity to grow. The greater the person the more potential therefore more tests and more growth. Hashem sees the person with more potential and guides him with tests in order to grow. You wonder why all the greatest people had so many challenges. Do you really think Hashem needs our prayers? What does prayer do? When שרה didn't have a child, do we really think this was some cruel joke by Hashem? Has Hashem not realised that שרה has not had a child and only now after all this prayer does Hashem realise. No! Hashem sees potential. Hashem sees that שרה has huge potential. Therefore Hashem makes it that people with greater potential have greater tests. By giving tests we are given the opportunity to grow and pray. Hashem doesn't need our prayer. Everything is for the final purpose which is ultimately for the good.
Let's say there is a 47000 page maths equation and then there is a final answer. We cannot comprehend how it got to this clear answer. But each minute section of the equation are events that all lead up to it. In the end we have to realise that everything leads to the answer and it will be clear
What feels better? To be on level 1 on a running machine. Your breathing rate has hardly increased. Your not sweating at all.
Or on level 53 you are sweating away, your muscles are aching.
During the actual run it might be easier to be the guy on level 1 breezing through, not making any efforts. He is hardly growing at all though. There are no tests or challenges.
By the end of the run though, the person feeling the best is the one who went on level 53.
We might find in life we are finding it hard to be frum. We see that our friends are having what's a so called "fun" life. We want to live life like them.
There are challenges that seem too hard to overcome and we think why me? When we are sent a challenge you have to realise that the ultimate goal of any challenge is so that you could grow as a person. Why did Hashem want שרה to pray for a child.
Does Hashem really need her prayers? Of course not! You think he didn't know she needed a child? Hashem saw that שרה had great potential. Therefore Hashem activated this by sending a test. The prayers meant that שרה could grow as a person and therefore come closer to Hashem and grow as a person. The teacher is always quiet during the test.. there will be times when you don't see all the answers.
Next time you are sent a test don't waste the chance! This is a great opportunity of growth. Hashem has found potential!
When I take my kid to the doctor, I sometimes need to hold him down while he screams his head off because I'm allowing and even paying for the doctor to stick him with a needle. Am I being cruel?
The difference between my moshul with me and my son, and Hashem and us, is that in the case of my son, we are both human. I may be older and wiser and have more life experience, but all that can be measured. Between us and Hashem, the differences are infinite.
Life is like a heartbeat. If there were no ups and downs you wouldn't be alive.
Next time you are challenged, listen to that heartbeat and remember that everything will turn out for the best.
Remember the ladder from last weeks parasha. Hashem could have chosen anything, stairs, a lift.. why do angels need ladders in the first place?? When you climb a ladder you look up. When you go down the ladder you look up. We need to remember that ultimately everything is from Hashem and even when we fall we need to look up to Hashem. The ladder leans on Hashem. Our whole life we are climbing the ladder and Hashem is their watching us.
Another yesod is: progress not perfection.
We find that Yakov while crossing a river at night, Yakov remains behind the rest of his family, and is accosted by Eisav’s guardian angel, which has many forms – Satan, the angel of death, the evil inclination etc:
וַיִּוָּתֵר יַעֲקֹב, לְבַדּוֹ; וַיֵּאָבֵק אִישׁ עִמּוֹ, עַד עֲלוֹת הַשָּׁחַר. וַיַּרְא, כִּי לֹא יָכֹל לוֹ, וַיִּגַּע, בְּכַף-יְרֵכוֹ; וַתֵּקַע כַּף-יֶרֶךְ יַעֲקֹב, בְּהֵאָבְקוֹ עִמּוֹ. וַיֹּאמֶר שַׁלְּחֵנִי, כִּי עָלָה הַשָּׁחַר; וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא אֲשַׁלֵּחֲךָ, כִּי אִם-בֵּרַכְתָּנִי. וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו, מַה-שְּׁמֶךָ; וַיֹּאמֶר, יַעֲקֹב. וַיֹּאמֶר, יַעֲקֹב לא יֵאָמֵר עוֹד שִׁמְךָ–כִּי, אִם-יִשְׂרָאֵל: כִּי-שָׂרִיתָ עִם-אֱלֹהִים וְעִם-אֲנָשִׁים, וַתּוּכָל. וַיִּשְׁאַל יַעֲקֹב, וַיֹּאמֶר הַגִּידָה-נָּא שְׁמֶךָ, וַיֹּאמֶר, לָמָּה זֶּה תִּשְׁאַל לִשְׁמִי; וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתוֹ, שָׁם. – And Yakov was left alone, and a man grappled with him until daybreak. And when he saw that he could not overcome him, he struck his hip, and dislocated his hip, as he grappled with him. And he said, “Let me go, because dawn is breaking!” – but Yakov said “I will not let you go, until you bless me”. So he said to him, “What is your name?”, and he replied, “Yakov”. And he said, “No longer shall your name be Yakov, for your name is Yisrael, because you have mastery with God and men, and you have prevailed”. And Yakov asked, and said, “Now tell me your name?”‘ and he replied, “Why is it you ask for my name?”‘ and he blessed him there. (32:25-30)
Rashi explains how the word וַיֵּאָבֵק – to wrestle/grapple, comes from the word אבק, dust, called so for the dust that is kicked up when moving and grappling for leverage. There is a Midrash that the dust kicked up from this epic struggle, reached all the way to Hashem’s throne.
R Tzvi Meir Silberberg explains how this relates to all of our struggles. People think that Judaism is about results, an end product. Not so. It was the not the victory that went up to Heaven; that remained with Yakov. But the struggle, the dust kicked up, went straight up to Hashem.
No one is born perfect. We are human, and we struggle. It is the human condition, and it’s what we are here for.
It is apt that this struggle occurs at night, which is darkness, the uncertain, the unknown. When confronted with light, which is truth and reality, the night is dispelled. This angel has to leave at sunrise, to sing in front of Hashem.
The Gemara in Suka teaches how at the end of days, Hashem will slaughter the Satan, and the righteous will cry because they will see it as a mountain, and they don’t understand how they overcame it, but the evil will cry because it will be as if it were a hair, and lament their lack of control and discipline to resist it. The Yetzer Hara is subjective.
The Steipler compares this to someone who hasn’t seen their family in a long time, and is certain that when they meet, they will all be happy, and never argue or fight again. It will never last. The imagination stage is always better that the reality, because when reality hits, the illusions disappear.
The angel had to leave when confronted with reality, and Yakov asks for his name. He asks for his name. The angel seems to refuse a real answer, “Why is it you ask for my name?”.
R’ Leib Chasman explains that this is the essence of what it is – nothing. It cannot be defined, because it’s almost a reflection of ourselves. There is no answer to what is, just what we make it into.
Keep on trucking. One day at a time!!!
Warning: Spoiler!
