Believing that Hashem Can do Anything
On the topic of emunah and being trustworthy to Hashem, Rav Shmelke of Nickelsberg zy”a writes (Sefer Divrei Shmuel, Parshas Bechukosai) that the most important thing is to fully believe that everything one has is from Hashem and that He provides for us out of his abundant Divine kindness. One should think about this constantly and, thereby, keep a constant connection to Hashem.
He goes on to relate a moshol in the name of Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk zy”a:
A father and son were traveling on the road. When they passed a bush that had sweet berries growing on it, the son asked the father to wait for him while he gathered some. The father told the boy, “Make it quick. I don’t have time to wait very long.”
However, the son did not make it quick. He took a long time gathering as many berries as he could until his father yelled at him to stop wasting his time, as they still had a long way to travel.
The son did not want to go. He greatly desired the delicious berries and he couldn’t stop picking more and more.
The father couldn’t wait any longer but he also couldn’t drag his son away from the berries, so he told him, “I have no choice but to leave you here in the forest but I want you to know that if you ever get lost and can’t find your way, all you have to do is scream, ‘Daddy! Daddy!’ and I will scream back, ‘My son! My son!’ As long as you can hear my voice, you will know that I can hear yours. But if you end up so far away that you can’t hear my voice, you will know that you have gotten so lost in the forest that you must run and search until you find me.”
Hashem is our merciful Father and we are His children. Due to our many sins, we are lost, wandering in the forest of Olam Hazeh. Still and all, when we daven to Hashem properly and cry out to Him, He hears us. If, however, we are on such a low level that we are unable to concentrate on our tefillos and, therefore, we are unable to properly call out to Him, this is a sign that we are truly lost. At such a time, we must scream as loud as we can and run back to Him.
Hashem doesn’t want us to be lost. He wants us to be able to reconnect with Him. Therefore, he gives us the common sense to recognize the truth and to reject the bad. If we have emunah and trust that He gave us the sense to do the right thing, we will always be able to return to Him.
