The Chasam Sofer
Rabbi Yankel Galinsky told over the following story from his Rebbi, Rabbi Avraham Jaffen. There was a boy who wasn't very smart. He didn't do well in his studies at all. Everyone who knew him had pity on him. Who knows what would become of him.
One day the whole town was in shock. The boy won five thousand rubles in the lottery. He had written the correct three winning numbers. Everyone asked him what happened.
The young man answered, "I never thought about buying a lottery ticket. But last night I had a dream and I saw the numbers, 17, 18, 370 and I understood that they were the lucky numbers."
"But those weren't the winning numbers," everyone replied.
He smiled, "I understood the dream. I added the numbers together 17 plus 18 plus 370 adds up to 415 so I marked off the numbers, 4, 1, and 5."
The Blessing of Not Being Good at Math
One of the listeners counted it up and said, "but they add up to 405 not 415."
"Oh really," the young man replied, "isn't it good that I'm not good at math!"
In the end his weakness brought him his good luck. If Hashem wants, no matter how wrong things may look, He can work it out so much better than us. The truth is that constantly during our lifetime we go through situations, trials and difficulties which we feel that we are suffering are being punished by Hashem. It can take hours, days, weeks, months or even many years and something happens.
Looking back. we see that what we thought back then was suffering or a punishment was actually for our benefit. Our Avoda is to be able to reach the level that even during those dark moments have belief and full trust that Hashem is behind it and it is solely for our good.
The Nudnik Non-Jewish Questionnaire
When the Chasam Sofer was a student in Yeshiva he was staying somewhere and in the same place there was a non-Jewish student who was also staying there. The student asked the Chasam Sofer all his questions about Judaism on a daily basis, wasting many hours of the Chasam Sofer’s precious time that he was trying to learn.
Many years later after he became famous some of his fierce anti-religious opponents informed on him to the Government that he had been transferring funds to Eretz Yisrael that was an enemy Government [under the control of the Ottoman Turkish Empire] and was therefore guilty of treason. The Chasam Sofer was in great danger and was brought to trial.
The Judge listened to the prosecutor and the defense. The Judge ruled that the Chasam Sofer was innocent and the case is dismissed. It was an open miracle! The Judge called the Chasam Sofer in to a private room. He turned to the Chasam Sofer and asked, “do you recognize me?”
“No,” replied the Chasam Sofer.
“I am the student who quizzed you for weeks and weeks and wasted your time forty years ago. I knew that the claims against you couldn’t be true. I knew you must be innocent.”
The Chasam Sofer explained the Passuk in Parshat Ki Tisa that when Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem to be able to see Him. Hashem replied, “You can see from behind Me, but not My face.’ The Chasam Sofer explained that there are times that from behind, looking back one on one’s life, one can see what Hashem did for the person, but the face, when looking up front, we can’t see and as situations unfold, we can’t see Hashem, and we might think that we are going through suffering,
