“If you asked me...,” some know-it-all says to several meivinim, “they should have done such and such, and then we would have long since been done with this war...”
People have ideas. The wisdom of the masses is rich and filled with some especially original thoughts, all of which focus on the natural order of the world and what seems to be the proper form of hishtadlus. People like to think in practical ways about what types of actions can help and save us.
But in our situation today, this way of thinking is irrelevant. Masters of ruach hakodesh from previous generations revealed to us that, indeed, relinquishing all intellect completely will bring us the yeshuah. Emunah without the logical mind’s interference is what will save us from this current situation.
This is the explanation of the Kli Yakar in Parshas Vayeitze (28:14). He preempts his comments with the words of the Midrash (Tehillim 44:2) that the yeshuah will come to Am Yisrael only at a time when they are in the depths of lowliness (b’tachlis hashiflus). As it says (Tehillim 44:26), “Ki shacha l’afar nafsheinu – For our lives were pushed down to the dust”; and what words follow immediately? “Kumah ezrasa lanu – Rise and help us!” Dust represents the lowest place, the place from which one cannot fall any lower.
Why is it that in order to see salvation, Am Yisrael needs to fall to the lowest place?
The Kli Yakar explains that the reason for this is that so long as the people are not in the lowest depths, they do not trust solely in Hashem; they still think that human strategies can save them, and therefore Hashem distances them, and the sense of abandonment is very acute. As soon as they see that there is no power in their hishtadlus, and there is no one to help or support them, they lift their eyes to Hashem and call out to Him from their most difficult and painful situations. Hashem hears them, and their subsequent salvation takes them from the lowest depths to the greatest heights, from tachlis hashiflus to tachlis hama’alah. And this, concludes the Kli Yakar, is a promise regarding the final geulah.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to see that Klal Yisrael has no chance through natural means, so that their eyes will be lifted only to Hashem, and then Hashem will hear them!
This is what is happening to us now, at the end of days. Our defenses have failed us, everything meant to provide a sense of security has failed us, and this situation has one sole purpose: to cause us to turn our hearts toward Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to rely only on our Father in Heaven, to place our hopes only in Him, and to call out only to Him.
And the yeshuah will certainly come. The situation will change from one extreme to the other, from lowliness to exaltedness, from galus to geulah.
Good Shabbos, Pinchas Shefer
