Reply To: Yartzeit

This week was the yartzeit of my grandfather A”H. He was one of the most amazing people I ever met. He wasn’t a talmud chacham. His Rav once said that he was the epitome of a “pashutah Yid”. He survived Auschwitz, then came to the US and built a new life and family. He worked hard every day to support his family, and made sure they were raised with Torah values.

His greatest attribute was his Bitachon in Hashem. He always used to say, “Everything is beautiful!” no matter what was happening.

I spoke at Seudah Shlishi last Shabbos, and said over a D’var Torah about Emunah and Bitachon. I then spoke about my grandfather and his amazing bitachon. Here was one thing I said:

Imagine you have two people. They start off with the same story, but they take very different turns. Let’s start with Person A. Person A has a big meeting on Monday morning. He must be in the office at 9 am sharp for it. But, while going out the door to catch his bus, he slips, and his coffee spills all over his shirt. He runs to change, then runs to the bus stop, but he’s too late – the bus is gone. He waits for the next bus, worried about his meeting.

Finally, the next bus comes. He gets on, and hopes the ride will be quick, so he can only miss the beginning of the meeting. After a bit, though, the bus slows down, then stops. He looks out the window, and sees flashing lights. He sees the bus he was supposed to catch earlier, on its side, with ambulances around it. The bus had been in a major accident, and most of the people aboard were killed. Obviously, Hashem had plans for this man!

Within a few days, we’d hear this story many times. It would be written in the Jewish papers and websites. Amazing hashgacha pratis!

Now let’s look at the second man. He too had a meeting, spilled his coffee, and was running late. But there was no accident. He got to the office, and his boss yelled at him for being late. Starting the day badly just snowballed, and he ended up having a horrible day.

Does that mean there wasn’t hashgacha pratis on the second guy? Obviously not. Hashem had a reason for the second guy just as much as He did for the forst guy.

It’s easy to be inspired when it is staring us in the face. It’s when things seem to be going wrong that it’s tough. The tests of Emunah are in cases like the 2nd guy. My grandfather A”H would have responded, “Everything is beautiful!”, because that’s how he lived his life. Everything that happens is from Hashem, therefore it is beautiful!