One of the featured speakers at the recent Flatbush Veterans’ Day Hakhel Event that was held in the Agudas Yisroel of Madison last month was Rabbi Sholom Smith, internationally renowned Maggid Shiur and author of ten volumes based on the Torah teachings of his rebbi muvhak – Rav Avrohom Pam, zt”l. The title of his lecture was “Dealing with Challenges in Life: Practical, Meaningful and Effective Guidance.”
He began his talk with the remark that we are living in very difficult times. It seems like we get through one problem and are immediately confronted with another challenge. He noted that Chumash Bereishis (the Book of Genesis) is the longest of all the five books in the Chumash. And, yet it has only three (of the 613) mitzvas. Yet, our Sages [of blessed memory] call Sefer Bereishis – the Book of Yesharim (the upright or straight ones) because it details the lives of the Avos (our Patriarchs) who were called “yesharim” (the upright or straight ones) for their integrity and uprightness.
Rabbi Smith said that we learn “maisos avos simonim l’banim” that the actions of our avos are to be signs for their children in all the generations that have followed to emulate. In the recent parsha Chaya Sara, Rashi says that all of Sara’s life was equally good. She was 15 when she got married to Avram who was then 25. As the year quickly passed, she had no children and saw her friends getting married and having children and then enjoying the birth and the weddings of their grandchildren.
And her husband was disparagingly called by their neighbors - the “Ivri”, from the “other side” (i.e. not normal.) Despite the difficulties of her life, she understood that the show must go on. Despite twice being abducted from her husband, first by Paroah and then by Avimelech, king of the Plishtim (Philistines), she knew the show must go on. Eventually, she was miraculously blessed by Hashem with the birth of Yitzchok.
Avraham Avinu, her husband successfully achieved success in overcoming the 10 nisayon, (spiritual challenges) that Hashem gave him – including the last - the Akeidas Yitzchok (the Binding of Isaac on the alter) and he come home only to discover that his beloved wife Sara has died. Instead of collapsing, he recognized that the show must go on. Instead of telling his servant Eliezer to handle the details of the burial, Avrohom insisted on personally negotiating with the leaders of Ches and with Ephron the Hittite.
Eliezer was a very important person. Avrohom instructed his servant to perform one of the most important tasks – that of finding a suitable wife for his son Yitzchok. Eliezer was completely devoted to his master Avrohom. Despite Avrohom’s rejection of Eliezer’s suggestion that perhaps Yitzchok could marry his loyal and dedicated servant’s own daughter, Eliezer didn’t quit his job as Avrohom’s servant. He realized that the show must go on. He indeed risked his life to carry out Avrohom’s request with all of his kochos (energies.)
We learn Rabbi Smith emphasized that the Satan (the personification of the evil inclination) told Sara what Avrohom had done to her beloved and only son Yitzchok at the Akeida. The shock was so great that she actually passed away. But we have to know that she didn’t die because of that diabolical shock from the Satan. Indeed, Rashi explains that all of the years of Sarah were equally good. Absolutely, nothing was missing from the life of Sarah. It was destined that she would die on the day that she was nifteres.
Bilaam [the wicked Prophet of goyim] desired to curse Klal Yisroel. Hashem sent a malach (an angel) to stop Bilaam from going on his evil mission. The donkey of Bilaam saw the angel with the sword and tried to stop his master from continuing on his journey to curse the Jews. Rabbi Smith explains that it wasn’t a malach of destruction confronting Bilaam. Rather it was an angel of rachamim (mercy,) sent by Hashem to save Bilaam from disaster. Had Bilaam actually cursed the Klal Yisroel, it would have resulted in the total destruction of the world and of course Bilaam himself.
We are, Rabbi Smith said, living in very difficult times. Once when asked about a particular difficult situation, Rabbi Berel Wein of blessed memory answered, “I really don’t know. Hashem hasn’t spoken to me in the last two weeks.” We have to realize that Hakodesh Baruch Hu is running the show and that it is all for our good and the best.
