The malachim say, איה מקום כבודו, "Where is Hashem's honor?" What is their question? They are in heaven, and there are multitudes of malachim honoring Hashem, singing His praises. So why do they ask, "Where is Hashem's honor?"
And, if Hashem's honor isn't in heaven, where, indeed, is Hashem's honor?
The Chasam Sofer zt'l explains that Hashem's honor isn't in heaven because they don't have another choice other than to serve Hashem.
He compares it to people honoring the king in the king's palace. They stand up for the king, sing his praises, immediately obey all his requests, play music before him, but that isn't necessarily honor. It might be fear. Perhaps they hate the king and belittle him in their heart, but they act as though they honor him because they know that they will be severely punished if they don't. Therefore, the malachim say, איה מקום כבודו, "where is Hashem's honor?" It is not in heaven. Hashem's honor comes specifically from this world, as it states, מלא כל הארץ כבודו, "His honor fills the world." In this world, Hashem's presence is concealed, yet we choose to honor Him. That is genuine honor.
Remember this when faced with a test. Remember that this is your opportunity honor the King of the world.
When Reb Mendel Futerfas zt'l was imprisoned in Russia, someone asked him for a brachah because he planned to escape that night.
"How can you escape?!" Reb Mendel wondered. "There are guards with watchdogs all around, and we are surrounded with barbed wire. Are you crazy? How do you expect to escape?"
"I've been watching the guards for a long time, and I discovered that every day, there are thirty minutes when there aren't any guards standing outside the prison. One group leaves and the other group doesn't arrive until a half-hour later. For quite a while, when the guards weren't present, I was busy drilling and carving out a round hole in the wall so I can escape. Tonight, the hole will be completed. All I'll need to do is push the circle out, and I will go to freedom."
That night, Reb Mendel came to see what would happen. He saw the man push out the circle he carved out in the prison wall and run for his life. Dogs chased him, but he quickly threw out of his pockets a few pieces of meat. The dogs forgot about the prisoner and focused on eating the meat.
A guard was watching from a tower in the distance. He was happy to see the dogs chasing after the prisoner. But when he saw that they stopped to eat the meat, he became angry at the dogs and shot them with his revolver.
Sometime later, Reb Mendel asked the guard why he killed the dogs. "They only did what dogs naturally do. Furthermore, by killing them, you lost your watchdogs. So, what did you gain by killing them?"
The guard replied, "We invest a lot of money to train those dogs. But if they don't do their job, and their hunger for meat causes them to abandon their mission, why do we need them?"
Reb Mendel repeated this story, and with tears in his eyes, he would add: "We were sent to the world to do Hashem's service, but if we get sidetracked with foolishness, what are we worth?"
He would express it in Yiddish, דו הונט וואס ביסט... וואס טויגסטו אויף דער וועלט, "You dog! What purpose do you have in the world?"
Chazal (Pesachim 109.) say, אין שמחה אלא בבשר, "There is no joy other than with meat." Tzaddikim explained that בשר, meat, flesh, hints to human beings. Hashem's joy is from people, made of flesh and bone when they pass their tests and serve Hashem.
The Chidushei HaRim zt'l said, "Yungerleit beg me to take away all their taavos, temptations. But without temptation, they are like animals. The superiority of man is that he has a yetzer hara to conquer. It is very precious in heaven when one abstains from even just a drop of his desires."
There was a deep hole in the middle of the road, and all cars had to drive around it. City Hall sent a worker to fix it, but this worker also drove around the hole and did not stop to fix it.
His boss rebuked him, "You were sent to fix the problem, not to dodge it."
The nimshal is, Hashem sent people to the world to pass tests. So why do you complain when you have tests? That's the reason you came to this world.
Reb Eliyahu Lopian zt'l (שביבי לב, לב אליהו עמ' שי"א) told a mashal of someone who came to a palace. The outside of the palace was beautiful, as would be expected. The meticulous gardens with aromatic flowers were a pleasure to behold.
But inside, everything was topsy-turvy. He was surprised. How can this be?
But then he realized that they must be renovating the palace. Nothing was in order, as it is in a preparatory stage, so the palace to be even more beautiful.
Reb Elyah Lopian explained that in galus, things seem to be out of order. But this is clearly in preparation for the times of Moshiach. It is the renovations for something that will be outstandingly beautiful.
As we say על כן נקוה לך ה' אלקינו לראות מהרה בתפארת עוזך, we are waiting for the time when everything will be fixed and beautiful, with the coming of Moshiach.
We add that the same applies to a Yid. He sees that everything is in the wrong order, not as it should be. He wants to shout, "What's happening here? How could this be?" How can I be so far from my goal to properly serve Hashem?
But he must know that this is the renovation stage. Soon, when the renovations are complete, his genuine beauty will shine forth.