About that. I told you once already the answer but you should spend time thinking about it on your own.
Because that’s what Avraham did. Every time he ate an orange he was thinking about the Creator of the orange, about the chochmah in the peel and in the sections and in the small pockets of juice.
Thirty-Seven Years of Oranges
And when he came to the pits he was thinking, “Why is it that the pit of the orange is bitter? The whole orange is sweet and tart and just right, and here the pits are bitter. It must be that the purpose of making the pits bitter is so that you shouldn’t eat it. You should spit it out for a tree to grow from that seed.
So every time Avraham ate an orange – when he was three and four and five and so on – he thought about that and became more and more aware of the Creator.
Because there’s another maamar: יםƒעָּב¿רַ‡ ן∆ּבֹו‡¿רֹוּב ̇∆‡ ירƒּכƒה יםƒנָׁ ̆ – When he was forty he recognized the Creator. Forty? Another source says forty-eight. Forty-eight? But if he was ben gimmel when he found the truth, so what’s with forty?
A Lifetime of Work
The answer is he never stopped becoming more aware of Hashem. Not only in his youth, a chiddush that he discovered and then he put it away and got down to the business of life, of avodas Hashem. No. This was his business of avodas Hashem. Every day he continued to review it. The same lessons, new lessons; Avraham made it his ‘life program’ to see Hashem in nature more and more, to believe in Hashem more and more every day.
Avraham Avinu wherever he looked, he saw purposefulness; he saw design. Tremendous design! Cunning design! Profound design! And he never stopped looking because it brought him closer and closer to Hashem. By seeing the handiwork of Hashem, it was almost like he saw Hashem’s hand in the world.
Now I’m not limiting Avraham’s greatness to one thing. Avrohom was very great and for me to speak about him, it’s like a little ant looking up at a mountain and describing what he sees on top. But there’s no question – we know this from all of the sources – that this was the derech hachaim that Avraham walked and that’s how he came to all the shleimus.
The Ridicule Continues
Now in those days it was a revolution and Avraham had to oppose the majority, but even today it’s not so simple. It’s the same thing today. Suppose a man, an Orthodox man, wants to emulate our father Avraham. He wants to spend his life seeing Hashem in Creation. I’m sorry to say that you might be alone. It’s not easy; even a rosh yeshivah, a talmid chochom, might not think it's important.
I once had an adam gadol in my house for a Shabbos morning. So I took out my old merchandise and I was talking about an apple. Old customers here know about the apple.
He looked at me ‘politely’. He never heard these things; he never encountered it. He had never looked in the Chovos Halevavos, Sha’ar Habechinah. I'm sure he looked in Mesillas Yesharim. I’m sure he looked in the Shaarei Teshuva. Maybe he looked in Chovos Halevavos too but not the Sha’ar Habechinah.
It’s Not So Pashut
Most frum people today have the idea that it’s all superfluous. They wish to fall back solely on the principle of emunah peshutah, “All you need is emunah peshutah,” they say. It means just say ‘I believe’ and it’s not necessary to be convinced any more than that.
But the Chovos Halevavos says that it’s a mistake. Emunah peshutah is very beautiful; but it’s not enough. And so we say to this frum Jew who has emunah peshutah, ‘Nothing doing! You better go and get a little more emunah than peshutah.’
And so, because most people will say it’s unimportant you have to be vigilant not to be weakened by the attitudes of the majority. Even in the yeshivah, the kollel, you should not allow yourself to be held down to the general attitudes. Of course, whatever you need to associate with them, to discuss sugyas, to learn bechavrusa, certainly you should utilize them. But over and above, when you need more things that they can understand, you must live your own life. Because there’s very much more to accomplish above the level of the people in the yeshivah or in the kollel.
A real mevakeish will go beyond the majority around him.
Alone in the Kitchen
A woman who wants to be great will go beyond her neighbors. She’s in the kitchen browning some sweet potatoes for her family and she’s thinking, “How is it possible that these potatoes will turn into children?!” It’s actually so! When her children eat those potatoes, they miraculously are transformed into material for the body. Yes, when you see a girl with nice long hair, that’s from the potatoes her mother prepared for her.
So this lady in the kitchen, she’s not bothered that nobody else thinks about these things, that the lady in the next apartment thinks it’s nothing at all. She’s thinking, “How do these potatoes arrive at the scalp? Through the bloodstream. A miracle! The bloodstream after all has ‘only about a thousand’ different materials traveling together in it; and they are all traveling together and they don’t contaminate each other. They don’t interfere with each other.
And when the blood arrives at the right destination, it leaves a package exactly what is needed in that place. When it gets to the scalp it leaves a little bit of oil for the roots of the hair in the scalp; a special chemical that the blood brought from the potato. And it brings keratin, a load with keratin. UPS rings the bell, “A package of keratin for this little place here, this little hair cell.”
And it starts coming out a long hair; whether it is black or blond, it makes no difference. “How can it be?” she’s thinking. “How can potatoes turn into hair?! Ohhh, because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the Great Chemist; He knows how to do that.”
Alone on the Street
Imagine now, here’s a boy walking down the street in Flatbush and he’s blinking his eyes and he’s thinking that every time he blinks, he’s giving his eyes a bath. It’s like a windshield wiper and he’s washing his eyes with a certain solution that contains a powerful disinfectant, an antiseptic.
Every time you blink your eyes, you’re washing your eyes. Try it. Beautiful windshield wipers! In a flash, you’ve cleaned your eyes. And this little boy is thinking about that, about the muscles involved in pulling down your eyelids and pulling it back. He’s thinking about the Creator of such an exquisite contraption, such a spectacular invention. He’s walking down Ocean Parkway, one man among many.
The Reward of the Loner
But go and tell someone that’s what you’re thinking about. Will people understand that? If you go back to the yeshivos and tell them these things they will say, “Well, it is not so important. It’s old-time mussar; it’s out of style today.”
And therefore, like Avraham, you’re battling against the majority. Even the good ones, they live by traditions. But you want more than that – you’re going to study the world in your own pioneering manner, and refuse to be hampered by the attitudes of the society around you.
And that will be your greatness forever and ever. It’s so great that ן∆„≈ﬠ ןַ‚¿ּב ֹרו≈בֲח ̃∆ל≈ח¿ו ֹו ̃¿ל∆ח ל≈טֹנו הָכָז – the tzaddik gets not only his share but the share of all those whose own weaknesses made his own avodas Hashem more difficult. Like Avraham HaIvri and like Yehoshua v’Kaleiv he’ll find more and more life, more and more reward, just because he remained strong against the majority.
Have a Wonderful Shabbos
Let’s Get Practical
5 Minutes of Bechinah
In our sedrah, Yehoshua and Kaleiv earned the reward of those who opposed them by standing firm against the majority. In doing so, they followed the example of our forefather Avraham, who stood against the entire world to proclaim his faith in Hakadosh Baruch Hu and received the reward of his entire generation. Even among the frum, those who dedicate their lives to studying Emunah and Bechinah may encounter opposition. This week, I plan bli neder to dedicate 5 minutes each day to studying Shaar Habechinah, following Rav Miller’s teachings.
This week’s booklet is based on tapes:
340 - Chanukah VI | 699 - Overcoming the Barriers
760 -Ways of Avraham | E-63 - Strength of Character
E-254 - The Man That Changed the World
