Life is as you perceive it. Two people can go through the same situation. One is calm and happy, and the other is nervous and sad. The difference between them isn't the situations but rather how they react to them and how they perceive them. In this section, we will give various examples of how the way we think affects how we see life.
Reb Nochum Yassar zt'l was from the tzaddikim and talmidei chachamim who lived in Yerushalayim one hundred years ago. One morning, he came to the beis medresh and said to his friend, Reb Nota Zenwirth zt'l, "I received a bas kol today!" Reb Nota looked at him in wonderment and said in feigned worry, "What are you saying, Reb Nochum? Are you hearing voices? How do you know that you received a bas kol?"
"Yes, it's true," Reb Nochum told him. "I awoke this morning, and I didn't find my shoes. I understood this to mean that Hashem wants me to search for my shoes. It was like I received a bas kol telling me that I must search for my shoes. After ten minutes, I found the shoes beneath a dresser. Then, I heard another bas kol. It said, "You can stop looking for your shoes because you found them."
Reb Nochum would go to the kosel every morning. Once, he was ill, and he had to daven at home. Someone came to visit him, and said, "Im yirtzeh Hashem, you will be well soon and then you can go back to the kosel..."
Reb Nochum Yassar told him that he wasn't speaking rationally. "Why are you speaking about going to the kosel? Today, Hashem wants me to daven at home, so why should I be upset about that? I am doing what Hashem wants from me today."
We continue our discussion of "Thinking Properly" with another tzaddik of Yerushalayim, Reb Zalman Brizel zt'l. Once, his son asked him how his day was. Reb Zalman responded, "Don't even ask. It was an extremely difficult day..."
"What happened?" the son asked, concerned.
"Don't even ask. I awoke at three, like every morning, but my shoelaces weren't in my shoes. It took me two hours until I found them. I had to search all over the house. Apparently, one of the grandchildren played with my shoelaces. Then I went to the mikvah, and someone came and stole my clothes! It took a long time before someone brought me another pair of clothing so I could leave the mikvah."
The son moaned for the difficulty time his elderly father endured.
Then, Reb Zalman Brizel zt'l explained, "Actually, I awoke, and my shoes had their shoelaces in them. I went to the mikvah, and no one stole my clothes..." Reb Zalman Brizel imagined difficult scenarios, which helped him be happy with Hashem's chesed that everything was fine in his life.
These stories help us think about life in a healthy, happy manner, and it is important to look at life correctly.
The Chasam Sofer zt'l writes that the Yidden in Mitzrayim didn't understand why they were enslaved in Mitzrayim. They thought it should be the opposite. The Mitzrim were descendants of Cham.
Noach cursed Cham that his descendants would be slaves for Shem (see Bereishis 9:25). So, why were Bnei Yisrael now slaves to Cham? But in the end, everything was understood. At yetzias Mitzrayim, all the money of Mitzrayim went to the Jewish nation, as it states (12:36) מצרים את וינצלו, "they emptied Mitzrayim." So, all these years, it wasn’t that Bnei Yisrael was working for Mitzrayim; instead, Mitzrayim was working for Bnei Yisrael! They were preparing immense wealth for them to take at yetzias Mitzrayim.
This is the meaning of the pasuk (10:2) במצרים התעללתי אשר את בנך ובן בנך באזני תספר ולמען, "So that you tell over into the ears of your son and your son's son how I made a mockery of the Egyptians." Rashi writes that התעללתי means שחקתי, "I laughed." Hashem turned the Mitzrim into a joke. For years, it appeared that the Yidden were enslaved to Mitzrayim when really it was the opposite. Mitzrayim was gathering wealth for the Jewish people!
When they were enslaved, the Yidden didn't know that they were working for themselves. They discovered it at yetzias Mitzrayim. Let us remember when we go through hard times that one day we will see how it was all for our good.
Someone complained to Rebbe Hershele Zidichover zt'l that someone was constantly fighting with him. Rebbe Hershele Zidichover told him that when two people pull at two ends of a rope (tug-of-war), and one lets go, the other one falls. "So, stop thinking about the dispute; let go of the dispute from your end; your enemy will fall and have his downfall."
The Maharal of Prague says that a person can walk on a wooden beam when the beam is on the floor. Place the beam across a river, and those walking over it will fall into the river. This is because when it is over a river, he thinks about falling, and that causes him to fall.
Rebbe Dovid of Lelov zt'l once came to a home to collect money, and when he came out, he said to his partner in the mitzvah, the Yid HaKadosh zt'l, that he had witnessed yiras Shamayim in the home, and it was hard for him to leave the house.
"Tell me about the yiras Shamayim you saw there," The Yid HaKadosh requested. Reb Dovid Lelover replied, "In this home, a son works together with his elderly father. The father isn't very good at the job and makes mistakes. I heard the son say, 'If I didn't fear Hashem, I would kill you.' So, I heard the son say that he fears Hashem, and it was hard for me to leave him."
The son uttered terrible words. If another person heard the son talk like that, he would consider the son a terrible and chutzpadik child. But Rebbe Dovid focused on the yiras Shamayim that he said he had. That's all he wanted to hear, and he didn't hear anything else.
