Now, we have to make an important addendum to this subject. Until now we were talking about how a person who feels like he’s falling, he’s bent over with tzaros, should use that opportunity that's being given to him to call out to Hashem while he’s being pressed. But now we’re going to add an important point and that is that we are always falling; we are always in trouble and we always have to call out to Hashem for His help.
That’s what it says in the siddur, לָכ¿ל 'ה ך≈מֹסו יםƒפּפו¿ּכַה לָכ¿ל ף≈ֹ̃זו¿ו יםƒל¿פֹּנַה – Hashem upholds all who fall and He makes erect all those who are bent over (Tehillim 145:14). There are two explanations to that possuk, both true. The first is what we were saying till now, that if anyone finds that he’s falling, if he finds himself in any form of distress, chas v’sholom, he should appeal to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Besides for all the exertions that he makes – and he should – to help himself, he should not forget that the most important result of his tzaar is to address himself to the Master of the world. Only He can cushion your fall; only He can lift you back up. And therefore it’s to Him we have to appeal.
And so if you feel that you’re falling down or you’re bent over, call out to Him, pray to Him. And that’s already your success. The chief purpose why this misfortune happened to you is to elicit from you tefillah for help and the Awareness of Hashem that you’ll gain thereby.
The Crying Non-faller
But there’s a second idea here, an entirely different thing, but it’s included in these words. יםƒל¿פֹּנַה לָכ¿ל 'ה ך≈מֹסו – All those people who should be falling but they are not, they should know that it’s Hashem Who is keeping them up. יםƒפּפו¿ּכַה לָכ¿ל ף≈ֹ̃זו¿ו – And all those who should be bent over they should know that they are only straight, they’re only secure, because He is straightening them out. If you walk through the street like this, with a ramrod spine, in reality you are like this, like an old man who’s bent over double. It’s only Hashem Who is keeping you up. Because why should your spine be erect? Why shouldn’t it bend over? Only because Hashem is straightening you out.
You’re successful? You have to know that in reality you’re a pauper. You’re a rich man sitting behind a desk giving orders? In reality, you’re pushing a homemade wagon and collecting plastic bottles from garbage cans. The only difference is, Hashem is holding you up.
I once had, in my first congregation, a man who was a pauper, almost a beggar. A few years before he had been so wealthy that he had to make business trips back and forth the Atlantic all the time. In those days, way back, that was very unordinary. And then he was wiped out like this, in an instant.
I saw him after his failure but I couldn’t believe what I was told. I was trying to picture what Mr. So and So looked like when he was still a big executive. Would anybody have dreamed that he would have been reduced to his present circumstance? And the only difference is, Hashem.
Times of Not So Plenty
Now we’ll study this subject for a few minutes. I don’t know if you have it in your prayer books, in the Syrian siddur, but we have it; we say it Shabbos morning:
נוָּ̇¿נַז בָﬠָר¿ּב – In starvation times You fed us, נוָּ̇¿לַּכ¿לƒּכ עָבָׂ̆¿בּו – and in times of plenty You supplied us.
Now my father, alav hashalom, used to explain it as follows. I want to repeat it; I want to give him a zechus. He said like this: the first half we understand: ‘In famine, You fed us,’ that’s understandable. There were times we were struggling, we had fallen and we were lying prostrate on the ground, and You saved us anyhow. You lifted us up, You fed us, You healed us, whatever it is. There is nothing to eat, and still we survived. All around the populace was expiring from hunger, but we survived. A great thing! בָﬠָר¿ּב נוָּ̇¿נַז – You fed us in times of famine!
But what’s so great that נוָּ̇¿לַּכ¿לƒּכ עָבָׂ̆¿ב – ‘in times of plenty You supplied us’? It’s times of plenty after all. All the stores are bursting with food; you walk out on the avenue, the stores are crammed with all good things. Bakeries, meat shops, fish stores, fruit stores, nosherai stores, whatever you desire is available. So what's so great that Hakadosh Baruch Hu supplies us in a time of plenty?
Empty Full Pantries
The answer is that actually it’s not a time of plenty. We have nothing. ‘נוָּ̇¿לַּכ¿לƒּכ עָבָׂ̆¿ב’ means that in times of plenty we were starving the same like in times of famine, only what happened? You came along and fed us. Just like in famine we were in danger of starving to death, in times of plenty we were in no less of a precarious situation. The fields are filled with produce and the storehouses are overflowing with grain? No matter. Actually we’re falling and it’s only Your Hand that is supporting us.
And that means that in good times we have to cry out no less than in times of difficulty. As we wipe our lips when we finish eating what do we do? We pray to Him for the next meal!
נו≈יכƒר¿ˆַּ̇ לַ‡ ‡ָנ¿ו םָ„ָו רָָּׂ̆ב ַ̇נַּ̇מ י≈„יƒל ‡ֹלּינו≈ֹ̃ל¡‡ 'ה – ‘Please Hashem, don’t make it necessary for us to have help from human beings for our next meal.’
Now that’s something! “Ribono shel Olam, please see to it that we have breakfast tomorrow.” What do you mean ‘have breakfast’? The refrigerator is full! The freezer too. I know a man, a wealthy man, who has two freezers, and they’re always full.
No, you have no refrigerator. You have no freezer. You have nothing. You are falling, only that He is supporting you. We’re in danger of not having our next meal if not for His mercy. That’s עָבָׂ̆¿בּו – in a time of satiation, נוָּ̇¿לַּכ¿לƒּכ – we know that You’re the One Who gave it to us. Without You we’d be starving urchins on the street, picking our way through the garbage can. And so we’re crying out to Him, “Please, please! ‡ָנ¿ו – Please don’t abandon me to poverty, to a lack of food.”
Sick Healthy People
Here’s a healthy man who prays, הָ‡ּפו¿ר ה≈לֲﬠַה¿וּינו≈ֹ̇וּכַמ לָכ¿ל הָמ≈ל¿ׁ̆ – Bring a healing to all of our ailments, so he’s thinking about the sick Jews in the hospital, in the cancer ward. No, it means you! “Me?!” he says. “Chas v’shalom! What me?! I’m well.”
Yes, it’s you! You know that all it takes is one cell to start going crazy and you’re finished. Who’s making those cells act normal? Only Him! Right now, this second, He’s making you healthy.
Saved in the Brain
Does a person realize how many hundreds of thousands of complicated situations take place in his body every day and every one is mammesh a miracle? It’s a miracle that you’re alive right now.
Don’t you know that you have in your brain very thin capillaries where the blood flows through slowly, corpuscle by corpuscle – they’re so thin that the blood corpuscles go in a single file. Now blood is a sticky business, you know. Blood is plasma and it’s sticky, viscous. So why doesn’t it happen – it should happen that in these very thin tubes, they get stuck. If they get stuck and clogged, chas v’shalom, in the brain, it’s a stroke right away.
But Hakadosh Baruch Hu keeps the blood liquid; even though they are very fine capillaries, it flows through. Sometimes the corpuscle almost gets stuck, the next one comes and nudges him and pushes ahead. Aah! It cleared! You’re saved! Every day you’re being saved! לָכ¿ּב ר∆ֲׁ̆‡ָיך∆סƒנ לַﬠּנוָּמƒע םֹיו, the miracles that are every day with us. We’re living by miracles. And so when we say ךּרוָּב ם≈ַׁ̆ה הַָּ̇‡ – I thank You Hashem, ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ̆ƒי ֹוּמַﬠ י≈לֹחו ‡≈פֹרו – You are the One Who keeps us well, you have to cry out. You’re healing me! Not merely I’m not sick – you’re healing me constantly.
Healthy Praying
That’s what the Gemara says in Masechta Shabbos (32a) that ה∆ל¡ח∆י ‡ֹּל∆ׁ̆ יםƒמֲחַר םָ„ָ‡ ׁ̆≈ַּ̃ב¿י םָלֹעו¿ל – always a man should be praying to Hashem that he should not become sick. L’olam means always, even in the best of health one should pray to Hakadosh Baruch Hu to remain well.
Now that's a piece of very good advice; I really should charge you admission tonight because if I ever told you anything that was worthwhile, this is it - to pray to Hakadosh Baruch Hu for good health while you have it. You have no premonition, no inkling of any misfortune. To you it seems that you're speeding down the straightway of happiness, success and perfect health for the rest of your days. Oh no, that's the time to ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu for good health. But not because it might happen, it could be, maybe, you might be the unlucky one. No! It’s much worse than that. It’s because you’re standing on the precipice! You’re falling! Only that He is supporting you.
Sane Prayers
Even for sanity you have to beg, you have to pray and cry. Here’s a person who says, “I’m normal in my mind. I’m sane. I was born sane. I have to be sane.” No, you don’t have to be anything. Look at Downstate Hospital. There’s a tall building there that all of Brooklyn can see. A lot of smart guys are cooped up over here. They thought they were smart too. So what are you doing walking around?
The answer is the reason you're not chalilah in an insane asylum, in a padded cell and raging and knocking your head against a wall is because He’s supporting you. Like this, you’d be a raving lunatic. You’re on this side only because every minute Hashem is giving you sanity.
Who knows what causes insanity? In order for the mind to function you need so many factors that have to cooperate, even more mysterious than the factors in the physical wellbeing that causes health; the factors that must cooperate in the mind are even more complicated. He’s the one who’s making you sane. As you walk in the street and you're not mumbling or shouting; you’re walking like a decent, civilized person, cry out to Hashem, “Oh Hashem, please keep me sane!”
Always Falling, Always Praying
And that’s how it is with everything. Not only when you’re in tzaros do you need Hashem. You live in America, the law is on your side, police are on your side, the president is on your side. It’s nothing! You’re not safe! You have to cry out to Hashem it should continue that way. ל≈ּלַּפ¿̇ƒמ ה≈ו¡הּ̇כו¿לַמ ל∆ׁ̆ ֹמוֹלו¿ׁ̆ƒּב – pray for the welfare of the peace of the government, that it should continue so. We should cry out to Him all the time that America should continue a land of peace. Who knows? Who knows what could be?
You have children at home and you’re healthy and you have money too? You married off children? Keep crying out that it should continue b’shalom. It’s only Hashem supporting you and you’re only one step away from falling chas v’shalom.
And therefore the wise person, the one who knows that ‘Hakadosh Baruch Hu desires the prayers of the righteous ones’ because it’s the path towards perfection in Awareness of Hashem, that person is aware that he always needs Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Of course, he makes use of any difficulty, any squeeze that Hashem presses him with, to call out to Hashem and achieve that perfection of yiras Hashem that he’ll take with him to the Next World. But he knows also that he’s always in distress. He always needs Hashem to prop him up. And therefore, as much as possible, he’s always crying out to Hashem and always achieving more and more perfection.
Have A Wonderful Shabbos
