There’s no better prayer than a prayer that comes from a person who’s b’shalom, who is walking the rosy path of life. Because that’s the true greatness of a man – if you can turn to Hashem when all is well and ask Him that it should continue it means you understand that it’s all from Him. Hashem prizes those tefillos the most, much more than the one who’s calling out in desperation.
To pray for a healthy heart when most people don’t even know they have a heart – it's pumping so perfectly, that they’re not aware that it’s there – that’s a greatness of character. To pray that your kidneys should chas v’sholom never shut down when they’re functioning so perfectly that all you know about the kidneys is what you read or see pictures in the drug store windows, that's the best tefillah. That’s the true success of a person; that’s the real baal bitachon.
Raising the Cup
Now, I want you to listen to what Dovid Hamelech says about this subject. In Tehillim we find an expression that everybody knows. וֹס כ א ע וֹת אֶש יְשׁוֹת – I pick up a cup of salvation, בְשֵׁם ה' אֶקְרָא – and I call out to Hashem (Tehillim 116:13).
What is this ‘cup of salvation’ that you ‘lift up’? It means what we’re talking about tonight; it’s the cup that you lift up to Hashem in gratitude. Dovid Hamelech took a bottle of wine and filled up a big goblet in order to make a demonstration of his gratitude.
Not like today, people take the bottle out of the pantry for nothing. Some people are ‘connoisseurs’, wine for the sake of wine, of taste. Oh no, that’s not the purpose of wine. That’s nothing; it’s a waste. A kos yeshuos, a cup of salvation, means that when a person is happy about something that Hashem has given him, that’s when he picks up a cup; he gives a toast to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
The Man of Many Toasts
You’re married? בְשֵׁם ה' אֶקְרָא עוֹת אֶש יְשׁוֹס כ. A toast to the Borei! You have children? עוֹת יְשׁוֹס כ בְשֵׁם ה' אֶקְרָא אֶש. You have a job? You pay your bills more or less? Your landlord is not taking you to court to get you evicted? בְשֵׁם ה' עוֹת אֶש יְשׁוֹס כ אֶקְרָא. Your daughter got married? Another toast! She’s still married? Another toast!
Always pick up that cup in your mind and call out in gratitude to the One Who made it that way and ask that it should continue.
It’s not easy however. Even if you hear it now, it’s a weakness of ours that when everything is going well, we forget about the One Who is making it so. We imagine it has to be so; it always was and it will continue always. It’s a weakness of ours – we forget about the Giver.
And that’s why there’s another cup to pick up; that’s another possuk in that chapter: צָרָה וְיָגוֹן אֶמְצָא – When I find distress and sorrow, בְשֵׁם ה' אֶקְרָא – I call out in the name of Hashem (ibid. 3-4)
The Other Cup
So the world learns it like this: When you have tzaros, when you find yourself in trouble – the doctor sees something, a lump, at the examination and now he’s sending you to Manhattan to a specialist – also then you have to call out to Hashem. You have to call out for His help.
And it’s true. That’s the reason the tzaros came, so that you should call out b’sheim Hashem. Absolutely. But Dovid Hamelech is saying something else too. It doesn’t have to mean when you find trouble by you. צָרָה וְיָגוֹן אֶמְצָא – If I find trouble and sadness by others, בְשֵׁם ה' אֶקְרָא – that’s going to remind me to call out to You in tefillah that my good times should continue always.
You hear what Dovid is saying? ‘When I find that other people encounter some trouble – big troubles, little troubles, whatever it is – that’s a reminder for me to call out in tefillah. Not to wait until אֶמְצָא by me. No, I don’t have to wait for that – right away as soon as I find it, even by others, I’m reminded to call out in tefillah that it shouldn’t happen to me.’
Aren’t we always hearing about people that are having troubles? And you boruch Hashem don’t have those troubles! So lift up a cup of salvation and ask Hashem it should continue. You can pray for your fellow Jew too, of course, but also ask Hashem that it shouldn’t happen to you. “Please, Hashem, protect me! Save me from this and from that.”
The List of Gratitude
You hear a fire engine? An ambulance siren? Ooh, it sounds like a wailing. Don’t ignore that messenger. It means someone’s in trouble. צָרָה וְיָגוֹן אֶמְצָא – When I find that someone is in a tzarah, בְשֵׁם ה' אֶקְרָא – I call out to Hashem that He should save me. “I’m here in my kitchen making supper,” you’re thinking. “I don’t need any fire engines. I don’t need any ambulance, any loud sirens. Hashem, keep it that way. Please Ribono Shel Olam, nobody should fall down the steps in the house. Nobody should get any burns. Everyone should remain a hundred percent healthy.”
You can make a list too. I did that. I once made a list of about fifty illnesses; illnesses and unfortunate circumstances that I’ve seen by others. And I look at it often. I’m not embarrassed to say that. I look at it all the time and I thank the Ribono Shel Olam for all the things that He saved me from.
It’s a good idea you’re hearing now. This man has that, this woman has this, this neighbor’s child has something else. Make a list of all those things and review it. From time to time you read it and you’re talking to Hakadosh Baruch Hu: “Boruch Hashem, I don't have that. Please Hashem, keep it that way. Keep me healthy and my wife healthy and my children healthy.”
Swords, Plagues and Illnesses
Don’t think it’s nothing, what you’re hearing now. It’s an attitude required of us: We have to be thinking always that מֵחֶרֶב הִצַלְתָּנוּ – Hashem, You saved us from the sword. So someone says, “What sword? I live in Brooklyn. There are no wars here.” That’s a mistake. It means from those people on the street who like to pull out knives. Those people are always lurking and nothing happened to me!
מִדֶּבֶר מִלַּטְתָּנוּ - From all types of plagues You saved us. It means the plague of divorce, of broken homes. It means the plagues of homelessness and joblessness. It means the plague of children who go away from the right path.
And it means real plagues too! We don’t know what could be, what Hashem is saving us from. מֵחֳלָיִים רָעִים וְרַבִּים וְנֶאֱמָנִים דִּיתָנוּ – And You saved us from all types of sicknesses. I’m healthy only because You keep me healthy.
That’s a greatness of character, a perfection of the mind. To always know that you’re being supported by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. A person has to acquire the attitude that whatever he was saved from, it wasn’t by chance. Anything could be and you always have to be begging the One Who’s in charge that you should be only b’shalom.
A Final Prayer
And that brings us to an important tefillah and we’ll end with this. It’s the tefillah of tachanun. We say it every day but we don’t realize what we’re saying: ה' מָלֵא רַחֲמִים רַחֵם עָלַי וְקַבֵּל תְּחִנּוֹתַי – Hashem, the One Who is full of mercy, have mercy on me and listen to my entreaties. Save me!
Tachanun means you’re afraid. And don’t say ‘Why should we be afraid?’ You see what happens in the world. That's why we fall on our arms and say תוֹכִיחֵנִי ה' אַל בְּאַפְּךָ וְחַנֵּנִי רַחֲמֶךָ – Please Hashem do not rebuke me with Your anger.
Now people make a mistake. They think we’re falling on our arms to take a rest. We just davened Shemoneh Esrei and now we take a little break. Oh no! It’s not a pillow. It’s not time for a rest. We fall on our arms and we start begging like little children. “Have pity on me, Hashem! תְּיַסְּרֵנִי אַל בְּחֲמָתְךָ – Don’t chastise me in Your wrath.” That's why you fall on your arm; they shouldn't see that you're shedding a tear, a tear for yourself: “Please Hashem let me remain well.”
You're only sixteen years old. You're not thinking about sickness; it doesn't even enter your mind. Never mind! I’ve known sixteen-year-olds who didn't live to see their seventeenth birthday lo aleichem. And so, you’re pleading, “Oy, Hashem! I just prayed to You now Shemoneh Esrei. But was I thinking? Was I thanking? Was I asking? And so this is my last chance before I go out into the world. Maybe I wasn’t a good pleader during Shemoneh Esrei but have pity on me. There's so much trouble chas veshalom that could happen and my happiness depends only on You.
Scaring Your Neighbor
“Rachum v’Chanun! You’re the Merciful One. Please help me! Please, keep everything safe and peaceful and healthy. Please I shouldn’t get any calls at midnight from my daughter that she’s having trouble with her husband. Please help me that everything should continue b’shalom just the way it is. I’m calling out in my extremities as if chalilah the worst thing has happened already. Please!”
Now somebody standing nearby, he’s worried about you. “What do you want help for? What’s the trouble?”
And the answer is, “No trouble! But I don’t want any trouble! Everything is well now and that’s how I want it to remain always. Didn’t you hear what happened to Chaim’s wife? Didn’t you see the sign on the wall, that so and so’s child is in the hospital? That’s why I’m crying out to Hashem. Because He’s so good to me and I’m begging him now, so that it should remain so; that the troubles shouldn’t come!”
“Oh,” Hashem said, “That’s a wise man! You’re thinking about Me when there’s no need to worry about anything. You remember Me in the good times I’m giving you and you’re making use of all the messengers I sent you in this world.
That’s the greatest of all achievements. To remember Me always in gratitude and tachanunim. That’s the great perfection of character and it’s the program for perfection that I want you to learn from this week’s sedrah.”
Have a Wonderful Shabbos
Let’s Get Practical
Learning From Others
In our parsha we learn that the bechorim should be inspired by what happened to their Egyptian counterparts to dedicate themselves more to serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Whenever we see anyone experiencing misfortune, it should remind us of our own good fortune, and we should make it a habit to praise Hashem and pray to Him to protect us. I will bli neder cut out the page with the copy of Rav Miller’s gratitude list and spend some time each day this week reviewing it.
This week’s booklet is based on tapes: 507 -Learning From Others | E-55 - Your Bechor You Redeemed E-124 - The World Reminds Us to Remember Hashem E-174 - Two Pathways to Perfection
