QUESTION
In the summer it gets very hot sometimes, uncomfortably hot. How do we see the good in that?
ANSWER
At the beginning of the Chumash it says „ֹ‡ ¿מ טו ֹב נּ≈הƒה¿ו ָׂ ה ̆ﬠָ ׁ∆ ר ֲ̆‡ ָלּכ ̇∆‡ יםƒ ֹ̃לו¡‡ ‡¿ַרּוַי – Elokim saw all that He made and behold it was very good.
Now, in order to be an eved Hashem, we have to learn to think like Hashem and if He said that the world is very good we have to learn to look at the world and study everything and see it's very good.
It’s hot? Wonderful! The apples are getting red on the trees. The pears are becoming sweet on the trees. If it wasn’t hot, they wouldn’t become sweet.
Here is a man who comes home and he has to go through the kitchen in order to go, let’s say, to the bathroom. So he tells his wife, “What is this? It’s so hot in this kitchen!” “I’m sorry dear,” she says. “I’m going to turn the oven off.” She turns it off. Now, a few minutes later when he comes out of the bathroom, he says, “Is supper ready? She says, “No. I’m sorry, but I had to turn the oven off.”
And so in September all the ripe red apples will be out on the stands. How does an apple become red and juicy and sweet? It’s only because Hakadosh Baruch Hu turns on the heat. The summer is the kitchen that ripens these delicious fruits that we’re going to eat all winter. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is giving you free heat. It costs a lot of money to buy oil to produce that heat. We need that heat to bake the fruit on the trees. We need that heat to produce the wheat in the fields.
And therefore are we going to complain because of the good times that are waiting for us? Summer is the time when all the fun for the ensuing year is being prepared. But what are we doing? You're constantly grouching how hot it is. All summer long, complaining, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot.
No. Heat is tov meod! It’s very good! Of course, even though a stove is very good, you don't jump inside of the stove. You don't have to stay outside in the sun undressed and burn yourself to a crisp in the sun, but as you're enjoying the shade and you look at the heat outside in the sun, understand it's a gift from Hashem. It came from 93 million miles away just for you so you should make sure to enjoy it! August 1991
