Now, we can’t go away from the subject of yoreh chatoim baderech, of Hashem showing us the way back to Him, without talking about the troubles that Hashem sometimes sends upon us in our own lives. Of course, we would prefer that there should never be any trouble; we’re not interested in mishaps and difficulties. We should always live in clover; we should be reclining in the grass under the fig trees eating ice cream all our lives. That’s what we’d like most.
But then, when would we remember Hakadosh Baruch Hu? You would never think about Him! If everything went smoothly always, you can be sure that Hakadosh Baruch Hu would never be in your thoughts. And so, yoreh chatoim baderech, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is kind enough to send yissurim once in a while as signposts to direct our thoughts towards Him.
And that brings us to a Gemara in Mesichta Eirechin (16b). The question is raised there, ןָיכ≈ה „ַﬠ יםƒר ּ וּסƒי ̇יƒל¿כַ ּ ̇ – How far is the limit of yissurim? It means, what would be the minimum visitation from Heaven, the smallest possible form of yissurim, that Hashem sends upon a man to teach him lessons?
Big Problems and Little Problems
Now of course, if a man is lying on the operating table, there’s no question that he’s getting a very big message from Heaven. When he’s being strapped down and they’re putting the ether cone over his face, he has to know that Hashem is telling him something. Even then, some people—even Orthodox Jews—aren’t aware. “It just happened that way,” they think. “It turned out that I have a weak heart.” He doesn’t connect it with Hakadosh Baruch Hu at all.
We’re not talking about that. We’re talking about intelligent servants of Hashem who know that “Hashem is yoreh chatoim, He shows us the way in life,” and they react to big signs. The question is how far is a man expected to go? How far should he go in interpreting the events of his life as messages from Hakadosh Baruch Hu?
The Sages are looking for the smallest possible thing that can be called a sign on the road so that we should know that when some small inconvenience happens in our life, we shouldn’t let it go by. It’s a golden opportunity, a matanah min haShamayim to help you out. And therefore it pays, the Gemara is saying, to know how far to take this.
Tailor and Tea
Now, the Gemara there has a lot of answers for that; different Chachomim responded in different ways, and because they’re all valuable to us, so we’ll take them one at a time.
First comes the great sage Rabi Elazar and he says like this: Let’s say a man ordered a new jacket from a tailor and finally the day comes when it’s ready. And so he puts it on for the first time and something bothers him. He’s not sure what—it keeps him warm, it fits him, the color is right—but it doesn’t satisfy him. That minimal dissatisfaction, says Rabi Elazar, is already called yissurim; it’s a message from Shamayim.
Comes along a different chochom, Rava Ze’ira, and he asks a kasha: “Does it have to be such a big misfortune like that to be called yissurim? After all, a garment, you don’t make every day; to get a new jacket is a special occasion and if it didn’t please him, that can’t be the smallest signpost that Hashem will show a person. Anybody would take that as a message!” You hear that?! He says that anybody would notice that; even a dumbbell has to react to that.
Rava Ze’ira says a bigger chiddush—even smaller inconveniences are messages from Heaven. If a person wanted his wine mixed with warm water and by error they mixed it with cold water, that’s called a misfortune. It’s a more common occurrence—your tea is not exactly the way you expected. That man has to know that he’s being guided on a certain path by Hashem.
Hearing the Voice
Mar brei d’Ravina gives another example. He says that sometimes a person is putting on his undershirt and he happens to put it on inside out; now he’s going to have to go through the trouble of taking it off and putting it on again. Such an inconvenience should be considered a message from Hashem.
And then a braisa gives a different example. If he put his hand in his pocket to take out a quarter and out came a nickel, that’s a misfortune. He has both in his pocket, he’ll be able to reach in now again and get the right coin, but the wrong one came out the first time; that’s suffering, it’s a form of yissurim.
Now we must take this seriously because our Sages are teaching us that even the most minimal disturbance in our lives is one of the ways Hashem speaks to a person. It’s like Hashem has spoken with a voice into his ear, “I’m the One Who made your tea a bit too cold. I’m the One Who pulled a nickel out of your pocket instead of the quarter you wanted. And it’s because I’m a Moreh Derech; I want to teach you which path to take in life.” And He expects you to listen—He expects a response.
Fumbling Fingers
Let’s take a little incident that happens to us all the time. You picked up your keys from the table to put them in your pocket but you fumbled and they fell on the floor. Now, suppose you’re past forty. When people are past forty, they try to avoid bending over as much as they can. But what can you do? You have to pick up the keys.
The first thing that should flash in your mind is, why did it happen? It didn’t happen yesterday. It didn’t happen the day before yesterday. Every time I successfully held on to the keys and put them in my pocket. Today, I fumbled. יםƒ‡ָטֲח ה∆רֹיו ¿ ך∆ר∆ ּ „ַ ּ ב – Hashem is teaching me something.
After you pick up your keys, think about that. “So many times, day after day after day, I was successful at picking up my keys!” Take a look at your hands and marvel at the arrangement of your joints on the fingers. “They’re so arranged that picking up keys is a simple task! Thank You Hashem that my fingers function so effortlessly, so smoothly, that I never even noticed them.”
Teshuva in the Kitchen
Now isn’t that a big chiddush? That’s the first teshuva whenever Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends you a mishap: do teshuva for your ingratitude of not noticing it until today. Let’s say you’re washing dishes in the kitchen; now you’re a careful baalebuste and you’re a penny saver too but it happens you dropped a dish—a dish broke. Oy! A dish broke in my kitchen. And you start considering what that means; the Gemara says in Eirechin you have to think about it.
A broken dish?! Maybe I broke somebody’s happiness. Did I say something wrong to my husband? If you’ll think in a lomdishe way you’ll say that’s why your dishes broke and you’re accomplishing something like a scholar; you’re thinking middah kneged middah. Why not? That’s an oived Hashem – a person of da’as.
But even before that, the first thing you should think is, how is it that so many dishes I’ve been washing for months and months and I haven’t broken a dish. Maybe it hasn’t happened in years! Isn’t that something to think about? Shouldn’t I be grateful to Hakadosh Baruch Hu for all those days I didn’t fumble? For all those dishes I did not break?
Knotty Middos
Another example. You want to untie your shoestrings and you’re in a hurry and you find a knot in the laces; now you have to spend five minutes trying to untie it. Now, if you’re a loyal Jew so you’ll stop and say, “Such a thing doesn’t happen to me every day. It’s a lesson min haShamayim!” So you start thinking. Maybe I have a knot in my middos and middah kneged middah, that’s why my shoes got knotted up. Now, if that’s your conclusion from the knot in your shoestring, it’s a very important conclusion. It’s not silly at all, chas v’shalom.
But even before we go that far, the first thing to think is why is it that never before, let’s say, in the last twenty days, in the last thirty days, did it ever happen that you had a knot in your shoestring? Why only today?
It’s to remind you of the hundreds of times that you untied your shoes, easily, successfully. You hear that big chiddush? The one time that you have a knot was to tell you about hundreds of times you did not have a knot. Shouldn’t you be grateful for all the times you didn’t have knots in your shoestring?
Appreciate Your Eyes
Sometimes a speck of dust gets stuck in your eye. What’s that about? It’s very uncomfortable! A little jolt like that means that Hashem is giving us guidance in life; that we should enjoy our eyes and we should thank Him every day from the bottom of our hearts.
The purpose was that you should say, הָ ּ ַ̇‡ ¿ ך ּ רוָ ּ ב יםƒר¿ ּ וƒע ַח≈ ֹ̃וּפ םָלֹעוָה ¿ ך∆ל∆מ ּ ינו≈ ̃ ֹ ל¡‡ 'ה – I thank You Hakadosh Baruch Hu for opening up my eyes. It’s such a blessing! Day after day, week after week, your eyes continue to function! The eye is such a delicate instrument, such a perfect camera. When you study the eye, you’re amazed that it works at all, it’s so complicated. Such a complicated mechanism could easily get into disorder chalilah. But rarely does it cause you any trouble.
And therefore, sometimes a little reminder flies into your eye to remind you. Don’t think it’s an accident! That’s what the Gemara is telling us. It’s the Yoreh chatoim baderech; it’s Hakadosh Baruch Hu showing you the way, the path to perfection. That’s how an intellectual servant of Hashem should react. When something, a small thing happens in life, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is giving a tiny little poke in the ribs, “Wake up!”
The First Teshuva
And therefore, that’s the whole sugya in Eirechin. You know the Chachamim, they were great men and they had tremendous things to think about. Their minds were elevated more than we can imagine and they wouldn’t bother their minds with puny problems. A nickel instead of a quarter?! A tea that’s not to my taste?! Such little things!
Oh no! Nothing is little when it’s Hashem talking! These are very big things! And that’s why they discussed it—this sage says this and this sage something else and a third sage and a fourth one. And Rav Ashi put it into the Gemara! It’s because our Sages understood that Hashem is יםƒ‡ָטֲח ה∆רֹיו ¿ ך∆ר∆ ּ „ַ ּ ב – He’s always trying to make us better; He’s guiding us to perfection.
Now all this, if you’ll get busy practicing this lesson, it’s one of the best ways to go into a new year. To recognize all the good that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is supplying you always, that’s teshuva number one. And so, when we see something happened, the first thing is to to remember the lesson in our parsha, that Hashem is יםƒ‡ָטֲח ה∆רֹיו ¿ ך∆ר∆ ּ „ַ ּ ב. He’s always showing us the path back to Him. And the first step on the path is when we use all of these little mishaps as a spur to look back and to appreciate all the days that nothing at all happened to us. That’s our first teshuva!
Have A Wonderful Shabbos
