Thanking for Repentance
You’re thanking Him too for helping you do teshuva. How many of your acquaintances, friends from when you were a teenager went lost? I think back to when I was fourteen. I had friends who went away; but Hakadosh Baruch Hu saved me. He sent the right rebbeim. He sent me to Europe to learn in the yeshiva.
And so ‘boruch’ means that you’re thinking, ‘I’m indebted to You for helping me do teshuvah, for sending me the right seforim, the right rebbeim. I have a frum family, a frum wife and good frum children. I’m so grateful to You, Hashem.’
Hiding the Insurrectionists
וְלַמַּלְשִׁינִים – Don’t say there’s nothing to thank for. How many Jews have fallen into great troubles because of mosrim! A man, a big tzaddik, had a big business where he employed many Jews. Many shomrei Shabbos families had parnassah because of him.
But some malshin reported him to the government and he’s in gehakte tzaros now. He had some workers who were not paid on the books and they didn’t take any taxes off it. He’s in trouble and he’s trying now to save himself.
Don’t think it can’t happen. Don’t think you’re immune. Everyone has something they don’t want the government to know. So Who’s saving you? Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He’s behind the scenes pulling strings for you. So if you’re not spending big money now on lawyers trying to defend yourself from the government you have to bend your knees to Hashem every day for that.
IRS Arois!
Not just once. You can thank for that again by הַמְבָרֵךְ אֶת עַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּשָׁלוֹם! I bend my knees to You for shalom – shalom from the IRS, absolutely. We need Hashem’s help to find the right accountants; accountants with good heads who know how to outsmart the IRS. Legally, I mean; with the loopholes. But we need Hashem’s help for that too. Boruch Atah Hashem that I wasn’t audited this year. That’s shalom, absolutely!
Even that you crossed the street today and you didn’t get hit by a car chas veshalom. Think about that before you say ‘boruch’ of the last bracha. How many streets did I cross safely today? Just on the way to the shul it was one, two, three. And the whole day yesterday? More than you can count on your fingers.
Traffic, by the way, is the worst enemy today. More than the pickpockets and the ones who carry guns in their pockets and the other kind who have knives in their socks, more than that is traffic. There are meshugenehs on the street today – even on the sidewalk you’re not always safe. Think about that when you say boruch at the end of Shemoneh Esrei.
