A Yid from Yerushalayim relates:
It didn’t suit me to travel to Meron on Lag Ba’omer. As I was afraid of the crowds and the traffic, I preferred to go at a more peaceful time, three days before Lag Ba’omer. I had planned on returning from Meron on the bus that set out at 8:30 p.m.
The bus stop grew crowded as more and more people showed up. The moment the bus arrived, it was filled with passengers. I didn’t push to get on, and the bus drove off without me.
The next bus to Yerushalayim wouldn’t be coming until 10:30. I realized that if I wanted to get home, I could not rely on that bus, so I looked for alternate ways.
Whatever could go wrong – went wrong. Wherever things could take longer – took longer. There was nerve-racking traffic, and with so many long waits, it wasn’t until six hours later, at 3 a.m., that I arrived back in Yerushalayim.
At first, I blamed myself for everything that was happening. Where was my head? What was I thinking when I set out? Why hadn’t I taken a bus to another city first? I was frustrated that none of my plans had worked as they should have, and I was exhausted from the difficult night.
On the way back, I got a phone call from a good friend, and I told him what had been happening to me over the previous few hours. He responded by sharing a paragraph he’d discovered in the Chovos Halevavos. “Listen, this is a paragraph that will change your life,” he told me. “It will change the way you view all your challenges in this world.”
Rabbenu Bachyai states in Shaar Cheshbon Hanefesh, ch. 3, that when faced with a challenging situation, a person has two choices: He can become bitter about his situation and take it hard, or he can accept it with emunah and joy, knowing that the Father Who loves him does everything only for his good.
This is like the contrast between Heaven and earth! Think for a moment about two people who worked a twelve-hour shift every day over the course of a year. The first person finished his job and received a check from his boss for a quarter-million shekels, but the boss gave the second person a sour face and chased him away in shame, without paying him anything.
The nimshal is the pain that we go through in this world. Chovos Halevavos tells us: For suffering that is “forced” (muchrach) on a person – meaning when a person accepts the suffering as though it has been forced upon him, without joy – he does not get reward, nor does this suffering cause his sins to be forgiven. But if a person accepts the suffering with joy, says the Chovos Halevavos, then “the end of his suffering will be good, and its reward is guaranteed.”
The Yid from Yerushalayim concludes:
I did not need anything more than these words. I felt that the words were speaking to me min haShamayim. Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted to teach me a way of life – how to accept everything joyfully. If we do so, then “the end of your suffering will be good, and its reward is guaranteed.”
Gut Shabbat
Pinchas Shefer
Parshas Bamidbar - Nasso 5784 ■ Issue 164
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