Nothing, Nothing, Nothing
And therefore, because of that ever-present danger, the Mabul came to teach us the great lesson that it’s all hevel. Like Koheles is always saying: ̇∆ל∆הֹ ̃ רַמָ‡ יםƒלָבֲה ל≈בֲה – It’s all nothing; it’s nothing built on top of other nothing. It’s nothing and nothing and nothing.
Now Koheles spends so much time on that subject that it’s almost surprising. Why is he so busy making nothing out of everything? It’s true; we’ll admit that some things are hevel. Travel is hevel havalim—all the travel bureaus are trying to sell you hot air. They have no real merchandise to sell. Of course, the movies and the theaters are ten times hevel. The libraries are filled with shelves and shelves of hevel havalim. Romance, hevel havalim! Sports, hevel havalim! Art, hevel havalim! Frum Jews will agree with such things—at least we'll say it with our mouths. We can accept such things.
Don’t Miss The Point
But the truth is that when Koheles says hakol hevel he’s not talking only about travel and politics and art and music. That’s obvious, you don’t need Koheles for that—any good Jew will tell you that being busy with those distractions means that you’re wasting your life. Koheles is saying much more than that. He says hakol hevel – everything is nothing. Everything?! Our homes, our families, our jobs, our fields? It’s all nothing?! It sounds too extreme, even to our frum ears.
And the answer is that it’s not extreme at all because otherwise you’re falling into the trap of םָּבƒל¿ּב ןַ ָ̇נ םָלֹעָה ̇∆‡ םַּ‚ which means that you’re missing the entire point of life. Anything that distracts you from “discovering the work that Elokim made,” is hevel because it means you’re not succeeding in this world.
It’s only when you realize that hakol hevel, then you can see that hakol Hashem, that everything is Hashem. עָמׁ¿ ̆ƒנ לֹּכַה רָבָּ„ ףֹסו – Finally, everything is understood; ‡ָר¿י יםƒ ֹ̃ל¡‡ָה ̇∆‡ – Fear Hashem, רֹמוׁ¿ ̆ יוָ ֹ̇ ו¿ˆƒמ ̇∆‡¿ו – and keep His commandments, םָ„ָ‡ָה לָּכ ה∆ז יּƒכ – because that’s everything (Koheles 12:13).
Part III. Beyond the Mabul
The Key to Success
And that’s what the Mabul came to say. The purpose of the Flood was to be mehabel kol inyanei olam hazeh, to wipe away everything and to teach us that the entire briyah is nothing.
Everything is nothing! The sky is hevel havolim! The earth is hevel havolim! Food is hevel havolim. Rain is hevel havolim. Your house is nothing! Your wife, your children, your job, it’s all nothing. The oceans and sunshine and the tremendous forests and wheat fields and barley and corn fields; it’s hakol hevel. The Mabul is saying that everything is zero!
Now, doesn’t that sound sad and melancholy? It sounds like we’re being sentenced to a life of nothing. And not only is it sad, but it doesn’t make sense! After all, Hakadosh Baruch Hu put us here and we’re going to be here for a hundred years or so; and if everything is nothing, what’s the point of life?
That’s why you shouldn’t go home yet; I’m not done yet. Because hakol hevel is only the beginning—it’s only the introduction to the world. And once you learn the hakdamah, if you learn it with the right peirush, you’ll have the key to the most successful stay in this world.
It’s All Something
Because once we learn that hakol hevel, it brings our mind back to Hashem. They looked out of the window of the teivah and they saw that there was nothing left except Hashem! Hakadosh Baruch Hu! That was the true lesson of the Mabul. Because why did it turn into nothing? Because the one Something with a capital S made it nothing. Everything was gone now, and Hashem reigned supreme over all of Creation.
And that was the lesson that Noach and his family were expected to remember as they rebuilt the world. “Under the water,” Hashem said, “there’s still a world waiting for mankind. And by means of Noach and his family and all the animals that were saved, the world is going to be rebuilt again. But the sight of an empty world is intended as a permanent reminder that I’m the One standing behind the scenes. And as long as you always remember Me; as long as you’re not distracted by it all, then it’s not hevel—it’s Me!”
My One and Only
It’s only hakol hevel if you’re distracted. But if you realize that it’s all the dvar Hashem, then everything is transformed into reminders of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And therefore, when a person is able to overcome the distractions and he’s able to think only about the genuine attraction—Hashem Echad—then nothing is hevel anymore.
And that’s why we say Shema Yisroel – Listen O’ Yisroel. What should you listen to? What’s the most important thing you have to hear? Hashem Echad! That’s the most important thing; to think about Hashem at all times. When you say Hashem Echad you’re not merely saying that He’s only One, that He’s not like the three-in-one shoe polish of the other religion. Oh no, it’s much more than that. “One” means that He’s the only One thing in the world worth thinking about! If you’re thinking about anything else, you’re thinking about hevel.
Now, I understand that there will be opposition to this. If you try to tell people these things, they laugh at you; they’ll say it's extreme and that it’s not realistic. “You have to be a frum Jew,” they say. “You have to daven and you have to learn Torah and do mitzvos; but to say everything is Hashem and if not, it’s hevel?! Only to think about Hashem?! Is that a life?”
And the answer is yes; a resounding yes! That’s the best life, the most successful life, the happiest life.
Miracle Babies
Now, in the ancient times, people understood this. You remember when Eisav asked Yaakov Avinu, “Who are these people who are with you?” so Yaakov said, “יםƒ ֹ̃ל¡‡ יƒל ןַ ָ̇נ רׁ∆ ֲ̆‡ ם≈ה יַנָּב – They’re the children that Elokim gave me.”
“These are my children;” that’s what we would say. Who are they? They’re my children. No! “They are the children that Elokim gave me”!
I knew a tzaddik who said, “When I look at my wife, I think of Hashem.” He looks at his children, he thinks of Hashem. Where do these beautiful children come from? A nes. He’s thinking, “This child is a nes!”
Now I’m not saying that people should say that out loud because you certainly will look like a showoff or a fool today. Now, it could be it pays to be a fool. םֹו ָּ̃מַה י≈נ¿פƒל עָׁ ָ̆ר ֹ̇יו¿הƒל ‡ֹל¿ו יםƒמָּיַה לָּכ ה∆טֹוׁ ̆ ֹ̇יו¿הƒל בָטּמו – Better to be considered a shoteh all your life, and be approved by Hashem. (Mishna Eduyos 5:6). That advice, however, has to be taken carefully. It’s a recipe for greatness, a prescription, but if it’s not applied properly, you’ll stam be a shoteh. But either way, whether you say it aloud or not, that’s the ideal that we’re talking about now—to see Hashem everywhere, to see Him in everything.
Practice Makes Perfect
Now, I know that when you talk to people who are not amei ha’aretz, they’ll say they all know about it. “Of course, only Hashem; nothing else, of course, of course.” But nobody’s doing it l’maaseh and therefore we have to talk about it in practice, not just in theory. Because once a person begins to practice this lesson, everything that was once hevel is suddenly transformed from nothing into Hashem Echad.
Those are the words of the Mesillas Yesharim (Chapter 1). At first, a person is mima’es b’Olam Hazeh; it means he’s repulsed by this world. “Hakol hevel,” he says, “The world is nothing.” But then he reminds himself of what the Mabul was teaching, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the only thing worth thinking about. And once he realizes that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is everywhere and that it’s His wish that we should see Him everywhere, he begins to study the world. And now the world becomes important again but in a different way. Everything reminds him of Hakadosh Baruch Hu! It’s not hevel anymore; it’s all Something. And by means of practicing this lesson again and again, he begins to realize that “this world is not something repulsive—to the contrary, he learns to love the world” (ibid.), because he sees Hashem everywhere.
A Different Type Of Tree
When he looks out of the window and he sees a tree, it’s not hevel—it’s Hashem’s tree. Oh, that’s a different type of tree already! And when he sees an apple on his table he doesn’t get distracted; he sees a nes that Hashem made. He’s thinking about how such a miracle happened, that from a piece of wood something edible grew. How Hashem cooked it on the tree and now it’s a package of tasty food. A little bit of sugar it has in it, a little bit of sourness too; it’s just right. And it’s wrapped in a beautiful wrapper that protects the fruit and is edible too.
Look at a piece of bread. Where does the bread on my table come from? ı∆רָ‡ָה ןƒמ ם∆ח∆ל ‡יƒˆֹוּמַה – He’s the One Who brings it out of the earth! Oh, so it’s not hevel anymore; for the thinking person, a tree and an apple and a slice of bread are reminders of Hashem Echad. Because when you look at the things themselves, just to enjoy them, so hakol hevel. You eat up the food and it turns into manure, that’s all. But if you're eating the food for the purpose of reminding yourself about Hashem then it’s the opposite of hevel.
It Never Rains
Now, those are only a few examples; actually, the opportunities to take the world of hevel and transform it into a world of Hashem Echad are endless. You know, when it’s raining outside, some people get excited: “Look, it’s raining! It’s thundering! Oooh, it’s so windy!” But that’s hevel! In goyish they say, “es reggint – it’s raining.” But we say Morid Hageshem – Hashem brings down the rain. It doesn’t just rain; Hashem makes it rain! It means we’re not getting distracted by the rain; just the opposite—the raindrops remind us about Hashem.
As the drops come down, we look at the rain and marvel at this miracle that is taking place now. Where is this fresh, pure water coming from? Is there a big reservoir somewhere in the sky?
No; all of the rain came from below, from the dirty and salt-filled oceans. Only that the heat of the sun distills the water and it’s brought up in the form of pure vapor and now clouds filled with pure water are created. And then the heavy clouds are transported by Hashem’s winds; Mashiv ha’ruach – He is the One Who blows the clouds over land and then He condenses it into water again and it falls back to the earth where it’s needed.
The Sun No Longer Shines
And as soon as the water comes down, it starts moving down mountains and hills by the miraculous force of gravity, and it spreads out to wherever it’s needed. And whatever is not used makes its way back to the sea: םָּיַה ל∆‡ יםƒכ¿לֹה יםƒלָחּ¿נַה לָּכ – All the streams go to the sea, ‡≈לָמּוּנ∆ינ≈‡ םָּיַה¿ו – but the sea is never filled (Koheles 1:7). Because as soon as the water comes to the sea the sun gets busy again—no, not the sun; the sun is hevel. We say Hashem’s sun gets busy once again lifting huge masses of water vapor up from the sea. It’s a tremendous miracle; an assembly line providing water to the earth in a constant cycle.
Suddenly the sun is not the sun anymore. The sunshine is not sunshine. The wind is not wind. The clouds are not the clouds. The oceans aren’t just oceans. If they are, then they’re just ל∆בָה לֹּכַה יםƒלָבֲה ל≈בֲה. But now, because of our new attitude, everything is transformed from hakol hevel into Hashem Echad.
Seeing Through the Kaleidoscope
That’s the great test that we’re living with in this world, the test of םַּ‚ םָּבƒל¿ּב ןַ ָ̇נ םָלֹעָה ̇∆‡ – Hashem put the world into our hearts. Everything in this world is percolating within our hearts day and night, day and night. The important things—our family, our friends, parnassah—and the not so important things as well; all kinds of things to do and things to see, all kinds of people to meet and all kinds of circumstances.
And one of the purposes for this kaleidoscope of life is to make our minds occupied; it’s a test—will we get caught up in what we see and what we hear, and maybe we’ll forget about Hashem?
The test of life is to be able to overcome the obstacle of hatipul v’hatirdah; the confusion of the environment. Because after all life does have a purpose – it doesn’t have to be hevel. And only when a man is able to battle against all the confusions of life, and despite all the things that are constantly happening to him, despite all the sights and sounds that constantly present themselves, he’s not masiach da’as from Hakadosh Baruch Hu; that’s the man who has succeeded in this world!
And because remembering Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the most important thing, it was worth it to bring a Mabul upon the world just to teach that lesson forever and ever.
The great Flood came to destroy everything in order to demonstrate that all the things that people considered important until now are really nothing. What’s left in the world? There’s nothing left to talk about, nothing to think about. Only water on all sides, just desolation. They were sitting in the teivah and there was nothing to do except to look out and see nothing.
And that’s the way the progenitors of the newly built world would experience that actually it’s only Hakadosh Baruch Hu that belongs in our hearts, and with that understanding, they would rebuild the world again.
Have a Wonderful Shabbos
Let’s Get Practical
The Lesson of the Mabul Three Times A Day
The Rav zatzal said, “We have to talk about it in practice; not just in theory.” And now that we finished talking about how to practice it, it’s time to actually practice it. During this coming week I will bli neder stop three times a day and I will spend twenty seconds each time taking the world out of my mind and replacing it with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. For example, when I’m walking in the street and feel the sunlight, I will think for twenty seconds about how it’s Hashem shining His light and His warmth down on me.
This week’s booklet is based on tapes: 432 - Bringing Up Children 5 | 639 - Justify or Condemn | 933 - The Best Day in The Year | 981 - What Is Important | E-65 - The World Diverts the Mind
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