Grab the Tallis
Now, all that is well and good – it’s excellent – because it means that there are opportunities for all of us. Of course, if you live in a frum place, in a yeshivah town, it’s easier, but more or less, there are opportunities everywhere. And by all means, you should try to grab them. Don’t worry about being an encumbrance. Don’t worry that you’re bothering the Chochom.
Let’s say the Sigheter Ruv. A very fine man, by the way. I know him personally. A very fine man. He’s a busy man; he’s learning all the time, he’s answering shaalos too. But still, you want to fulfill the mitzvah of וּבָדְּב. So you’ll tell him, “I heard Rabbi Miller speak so I want to get close to you.” He says, “I don’t have much time.”
So you’ll say, “Maybe I can carry your tallis to your beis hamedrash with you?”
“I don’t need it,” he says. “I carry it myself.”
But you beg him, “Please rebbe, do me a favor. Let me carry your tallis.”
Become Useful
So you’re walking behind him. What are you doing? You’re accomplishing a great achievement for yourself. I’m not a chossid but I’m telling you – if you’ll get that privilege to carry his tallis, so you’re now becoming closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. No question about it.
I picked one person as an example. Boruch Hashem we have Talmidei Chachomim! We have roshei yeshivah! We have yeshivah men, exceptional kollel yungerleit. Find ways and means of getting close to them. They don’t have time to talk to you, but if you become useful to them in some way, you’re meshamesh Talmidei Chachomim. Hang around where they are.
You have to know that it’s a tremendous achievement and therefore don’t worry about becoming an encumbrance. Let them tell you, “Get away from here.” You try your best to get close to them because it means you’re coming closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
But right now, however, we want to talk about something else – another method of וּבָדְּב which is of very great importance. We’re not by any means minimizing the ideal that I mentioned until now. The method of coming close to Hashem by means of attaching yourself b’chol minei chibur to the Chachomim, I’m not going to belittle that by comparison. However there is another very fruitful and even more accessible career for achieving closeness to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And that brings us back to what we said in the beginning of our talk, that it’s by means of a person’s mind, his thoughts, that he can best fulfill this mitzvah.
A New Method
The Chovos Halevavos when he finishes the Shaar HaYichud – that’s the opening shaar – he begins Shaar Habechinah, the shaar of examining the world around us. And he says there a big chiddush, something that’s important for our subject. He tells us that by looking at the world around us, that’s the best way to clarify to yourself the presence of Hashem and to attach yourself to Him.
Now if the Chovos Halevavos says that – and he knows his subject – so we have to pay attention. He says that וּוֹאִיּצְמ רוּרוֹב, it means to clarify in your own mind His Presence, that’s the surest way. You want to feel that Hashem is right nearby? You want to be close to Him? The ways we mentioned until now are excellent – absolutely you fulfill the mitzvah of וּבָדְּב – but the Chovos Halevavos says that this method of seeing His Presence in the world around us, that’s the way forward. Because if you are aware of Hashem wherever you are, if you see Him wherever you go, so you’re close to Him. And so we have to get busy and embark on the lifelong career of looking around us and seeing signs of Hakadosh Baruch Hu wherever we turn. Wherever we turn!
The Miraculous Little Boy
Suppose for example you take a look in the street. There’s a woman walking and a little boy is running after her; it’s his mother. A little boy, two years old is running. So instead of ignoring the whole thing, maybe you think, “Didn’t Rabbi Miller say something about utilizing everything we see in nature to become close Hashem?” And so you start thinking, “Where was this boy three years ago?” Three years ago, he was in the Atlantic Ocean. Chemically, that’s the plain truth. After all he’s mostly water. 80% of the boy is water and the other 20% is air with a little bit of soil.
Now, how did that combination of water and a little bit of air and soil come together to create a human body? A little boy is a perfect creation. He has ears and eyes and a mouth. He has teeth. He has legs. He has muscles. He jumps up and down. His heart is beating. He has kidneys. He has everything. How did such a complicated mechanism come just from air and water?
The answer is, once upon a time, he was a tiny microscopic ovule and Hakadosh Baruch Hu went into action and began creating that miracle of miracles – a human body. Nobody understands that! They can say fancy words, scientific words, but they can’t explain it. How could they? It’s a miracle. And so you’re looking at a little boy and you see the Hand of Hashem in the world. It’s such a complicated matter that anybody who thinks into it can see yad Hashem! Just with this proof alone you could walk into the college and make a public protest: “Shotim! Fools! How is a person formed?! Is it an accident?! You have to be a lunatic to say that.”
Mr. Potato Head
Now, this is something halachah lemaaseh; I’m giving you homework now. Not merely listen to me and then go home and forget all about it. You should do it. Tomorrow morning, you’ll be on the street and you’ll look at one of your neighbors. Look at one of your neighbors and think – let's say he's 35 years old – “Where was he 36 years ago?” He was in the vegetable bin in the vegetable store. His mother ate potatoes and other things and this beautiful creature came out with a mind and eyes. It's a nes. He was made from potatoes! Where do people come from? Only from what their parents ate. Can you take potatoes, bananas, milk, and meat and transform them into a person? Nissei nissim.
And therefore if you want to be close to Hashem, if you want to succeed in this program of bechinah you have to train your eyes to do that. Every human being you see, you look at him and you're amazed at the handiwork of Hashem. And once is not enough. Every time we go out in the street we have to use our minds which Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us and little by little, you learn how to recognize Hashem in this world.
Now let’s not stop here. Let’s think a little more. This little boy on the street, imagine that he’s eating a peach. Let’s say his mother is coming out of the supermarket with a bag of peaches and she gives one of them to her little boy.
So you start thinking, “Why is it that this little person becomes hungry?” Suppose you have a car and you’re running out of gas. You keep on going and you get stuck in the middle of the highway. And everybody is honking! You’re stuck! You have to get out on the highway and look for a telephone.
Evolution of Hunger
But this little boy, when his body needs more gas so it gives a signal to the brain that it’s running out of materials. It’s a signal that urges him to find food, to replenish his materials. “Mommy, can I have a peach please?” he says. That’s a miracle!
Next time you’re hungry, think it over. Why are you hungry? It’s an accident? Go into the colleges and say to the evolutionists, “How did it happen that all living things when they need food they get hungry?”
I’ll tell you what they say. I know. I read their books and I know. They say like this: At first they didn’t have the sensation of hunger. Why should there be such a sensation? So it means like this – we’ll take the evolutionists at their word and so it means that there were animals or people, let’s say, who at first when they looked at food were indifferent. Even though the body needed food – they didn’t feel hungry at all. Others looked at food when they were in need of calories and it was even nauseating to them; they couldn’t look at it at all. There were all kinds of people, all kinds of accidents.
Government Coercion
What happened? After, let’s say, thousands of generations – and of course all the people during that time were being force-fed by the government so they shouldn’t die out because you couldn’t rely on their instincts; the police had to come and put pipes down their throats to force them to eat. And in the meantime while they were being forced to eat, they were having babies. Another accident. By the way, the mothers hated the babies, of course. In the beginning all mothers hated the babies. Why should mothers love babies? It’s an accident that just happened. But meanwhile the mothers who hated the babies, they died out and the accident mothers, the ones who loved babies, those are the ones who survived. And it just so happened that
