Living Emunah

There's a mitzvah from the Torah to love Hashem. The Pele Yoetz writes, someone who loves Hashem would choose to do His will even if he would lose as a result. If he would be told that for doing mitzvot he would be punished and for doing averot he would be rewarded, but Hashem's will is for him to do mitzvot, it would be a no-brainer – he would do the mitzvot happily, knowing that he's bringing satisfaction to Hashem. Sometimes people take upon themselves to do extra mitzvot with the hope of seeing improvement in their lives, but then things don't change and, at times, they even get worse. That is a time when the person could truly show his love for Hashem. He could say, "I'm so happy I did those mitzvot. it was Hashem's will for me to do those mitzvot, regardless of what I got out of it." The Chovot HaLevavot writes about a pious man who was living in dire poverty. He did not have what to eat; he did not have a change of clothing; he couldn't even afford a candle to be able to see in the dark. And one night, he got up and he said, "Hashem, You have starved me; You have left me with no clothing; You have put me in the pitch black. But I take an oath by Your strength and greatness, even if You would burn me in fire, I would only increase my love to You and take delight in You." The pasuk says we are to love Hashem in all circumstances, "בכל לבבך, ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך." What does it mean "בכל לבבך – with all of our heart"? The Chovot HaLevavot, in the Shaar Ahavat Hashem, brings two explanations: One is בכל כבודך – we have to be ready to sacrifice even our honor for the sake of Hashem. How many times do people get shamed, and they don't know where to put themselves. A person could become disgusted with his life because of an embarrassing situation that he suffered, or the person could say, "Hashem, I know that was from You. I'll accept it as Your will. I'll continue loving You, no matter what." The second explanation of ""בכל לבבך is with all of our desires. This means if there's something that we want to do very badly but it's against the halacha, we have an opportunity, at that time, to show our love to Hashem and hold ourselves back. "בכל נפשך" means a person has to be willing to give up his life for Hashem, if that's what's called for. "בכל מאדך" means a person has to willing to give up all of his money for Hashem, if that's what's called for. I read a story about Rabbi Shlomo, the father of the Be'er Mayim Chaim al HaTorah. He owned a beer factory and, on one Erev Pesach, he was so busy he wasn't going to have a chance to sell the factory to save himself from the prohibition of owning chametz. So he commissioned his good friend who was going to sell his chametz. He said, "Could you sell mine also?" And he happily agreed. After Pesach, when Rabbi Shlomo was on his way to reopen his factory, he saw his good friend on the street. And when the friend saw him, his face turned white. He had forgotten to sell the chametz and, now, everything in the factory was forbidden for benefit as חמץ שעבר עליו הפסח. Not only was he going to have to get rid of hundreds of gallons of beer, but also the containers and vessels which the beer was stored in became useless, since they were made out of earthenware and couldn't be koshered. He had just discovered he lost everything. Heroically, Rabbi Shlomo said, "We say every day that we are supposed to love Hashem with all of our money. When does a person have an opportunity to love Hashem by giving up all of his money? Today I have that opportunity and I will not squander it." He lovingly accepted his fate and he pledged his love to Hashem on the spot. Many times, people attempt to grow in religion. They pray harder to Hashem for salvation, they do things for zechuyot, but they get let down. And it could be, time after time, if instead of complaining or getting angry at Hashem, they could seize their opportunity and show their love to Hashem instead, then they would soar to the greatest heights.

hen it comes to making a hishdadlut , we try to do what makes sense and hope Hashem will bring our desired results. However, hishdadlut doesn't always have to make sense. If we have an opportunity to do something that will make Hashem proud, that is the greatest hishdadlut we can possibly do. He is the One who is in charge. And if we're doing His will, we're doing the best hishdadlut . When we do something that we know Hashem would be proud of, even though it seems to be the opposite of what we should be doing hishdadlut -wise, that makes the hishdadlut even better, because it becomes one of complete emunah. A man told me he received a group email a couple of weeks ago from one of the buyers at Target, asking if anyone knew the contact information of a certain person. The man told me that person was a good friend of his, and so he immediately forwarded this email to him. He then called that friend, who we'll call Jack, to ask him what his secret was. He said people try their entire careers to get in touch with a Target buyer, and here the buyer was looking for him. It was unheard of. Jack replied that, yes, it was out of the ordinary, but he added that he also had done something recently out of the ordinary. The week before this, he attended a class, and the rabbi was speaking about having emunah in Hashem when it comes to parnasa . The rabbi said, if we really believed our parnasa came only from Hashem, we would even pray for our competitor's success. They have absolutely nothing to do with us, so why shouldn't we want them to succeed as well? Just two days after that class, Jack's partner received a call from a friend who asked him for a special contact who could help him open an account with a major company. They had worked very hard to get this contact, and now someone was asking them to just give it to him for nothing. Jack had just gotten the chizuk that he needed in this very situation, and he told his partner, "We believe Hashem gives us our parnasa , so why shouldn't we share this contact with others as well?" They shared the contact information, and the very same day, the Target buyer put out that message, searching for their contact information. When Jack spoke to the Target buyer, the buyer said he never had to search for a seller before. And this was the first time he ever asked a list of competitors for a seller's number. This was Hashem showing them that even the opposite hishtadlut could help one's business when we act with emunah. I once read a story about a young man who was having a very difficult time in shidduchim . He got very few suggestions, and some were even insulting. A few years passed with no signs of anything to look forward to. One day, he heard his father on the phone declining a shidduch for his younger brother because he wasn't married yet. He went over to his father and said his younger brother shouldn't have to wait for him to get married. They each had their own lives to live, and one shouldn't affect the other. The father was very impressed with his son, and he called back the shadchan and agreed to the shidduch . Within two months, his younger brother got engaged. And baruch Hashem, six months after his brother's wedding, he himself got engaged. The one who suggested the girl was none other than his new sister-in-law. The best hishtadlut we can make is the one that makes Hashem proud, even if it seems opposite of what we should be doing. In fact, that only makes the hishtadlut better, because it shows our complete emunah in Hashem.

woman related that she is so annoyed with herself for constantly feeling insulted from what others do or say to her. She tries hard to overcome it but hasn't been successful. She finds herself apologizing all the time to those who insulted her because she responds in kind. She tries to hold back but she just can't, and then she regrets it afterward. Many people find themselves in similar positions and wish they could change. We must know, although it may be extremely difficult to do, we have the ability to choose whether or not to feel insulted. We are completely in charge of our feelings, and, with the right tools, we can reach a state where we could never be affected by what another person says or does to us. The Rambam in his perush on Pirkeh Avot, perek 4, tells of a certain chassid who was asked what the happiest day of his life was. He answered that he was once traveling by boat and went to sleep on the deck. One of the passengers, who was extremely conceited, was walking by and he stopped and urinated directly upon him. It was an act that should have completely humiliated him. The chassid said he didn't even feel the slightest bit of animosity towards that very pompous individual. This was the happiest day of his life because it was the day that he realized he was completely in charge of his feelings. The Gemara says in Masechet Shabbat , people who get shamed but don't shame back; they hear their disgrace, but they don't respond; they act out of love and are happy with affliction, about them, the pasuk says, they are considered the ones who love Hashem and they are as strong as the sun in all of its might. The Sefer Charedim said, regarding this Gemara , that the Chazal are describing for us three different types of individuals. The first is someone who gets shamed, but he does respond. He doesn't shame the person back, but he does let him know how upset he is. The second individual is someone who gets shamed and doesn't respond at all, but on the inside he is suffering greatly. The third is someone who is happy with the affliction he just received. He knows that Hashem did it for his own good and he is actually happy with the shame. All three individuals are being praised because even to just hold back from shaming someone who shamed us is already a very hard thing to do. But there is a level where a person can actually be happy getting insulted. One of the ways of accomplishing that is by knowing how virtuous this is. When someone gets insulted and doesn't respond he has a power of beracha because he has just been cleansed with such a big kapara and he also has the zechut of not responding. If we are still at the level of where it does bother us, we can channel our feelings towards prayer to Hashem. The more a person grows in emunah, the more he understands that nobody has the ability to insult him - whatever he hears, is coming from Hashem for his best. When the brain is convinced that something good happened, the heart won't feel bad about it. A person whose moods don't get affected by others is someone who can always be in a state of peace and happiness. He lives with Hashem and accepts everything with love. The closer we get to that, the greater we become. On a day when we feel that we've graduated to the next level and we feel a little less hurt when insulted, it's a cause for celebration. The chassid's happiest day of his entire life was when he realized that he overcame his natural middot and became completely in control of himself. We are now at a time of year when we're trying to improve in our relationships with people. We need to stop having hatred and negative feelings towards others, and the more control we gain over ourselves, the easier that will be accomplished.

Getting frustrated or angry portrays a lack of emunah. If we really believe everything that happens is from Hashem for our best, there's never a reason to get angry. One of the ways that we can improve is by at least outwardly reacting with emunah. Whenever we feel that we're about to get upset, we should turn it around by saying thank you to Hashem instead. Getting in this habit will help us grow in emunah and also relieve a lot of tension. Saying thank you to Hashem for something that seems negative is a great avodah , which will also give a person a lot of merits. A woman, who lives in Israel, said that a couple of weeks ago she took her son to kindergarten by bus. After she paid, she put her bus card between the folds in the stroller that she was wheeling her son in, and then when she got off the bus, she wheeled him to his school. She left the stroller there and walked back to the bus stop. After she got on the bus, she realized she forgot the bus card in the stroller. She told the driver and he let her off. That day, the temperature was near 100 degrees and, naturally, she wanted to complain. She now had to walk all the way back to the school and then back to the bus again in the scorching heat. She started to recall the emunah lessons that she learns on a daily basis and immediately changed her attitude. She walked back to the kindergarten saying, "Hashem, I accept this little inconvenience with love. I accept this with love, I accept this with love." She kept repeating those words over and over until all her frustration was removed. When she got back to the kindergarten, she went over to the stroller and saw another woman there who asked her how things were. She mentioned that she came all the way back to get her bus card. The woman said, "Don't worry, I have a car, I'll take you home." Now, she would no longer have to walk back to the bus, nor walk from the bus station to the house. Five minutes later, she was by her front door and she was so happy that she accepted the minor inconvenience with love. A man said he and his wife had to leave their apartment because of a bug infestation. They even infested all of his sefarim . He gave all the sefarim in for an expensive treatment using gas to get rid of the bugs. They had to find a new apartment, and they settled in. Unfortunately, they found the same bugs in the new apartment. They suspected they didn't fully get rid of them and they brought them to the new apartment. They called an exterminator and he managed to get rid of them. But a year later, the bugs were back, very small and very annoying. This time, his wife decided to try a new strategy. Every time she cleaned the apartment, she said Mizmor l'Todah , thanking Hashem that she didn't see bugs. And if she did see a bug, she would say, " Mizmor l'Todah - Thank you Hashem, there's only one and not two." She started doing this consistently. And then someone recommended using a certain fly repellent spray. That worked. The spray got rid of all the insects. The man concluded, "Baruch Hashem, the insects are gone, but the minhag remains. We give thanks and praise every day for our clean, insect-free apartment." Getting frustrated when things aren't going the way we want is natural. It's up to us to overcome our natural instincts by instilling more emunah into ourselves until, b'ezrat Hashem, we're able to respond naturally with emunah.

In this week’s parasha , we read about the reward of Pinchas for his heroic act which stopped a plague and brought peace between the Jewish People and Hashem. Normally, an act of killing would make a person lose his privileges as a Kohen, but in this case it was just the opposite. It elevated Pinchas to become a Kohen, because his intentions were so pure, which only Hashem could know. And because he was willing to risk everything l’shem Shamayim , Hashem helped him in an extraordinary way accomplish his goal and He blessed him with the Kehuna . The Ha’amek Davar writes that anybody who is moser nefesh – he sacrifices to do a mitzvah l’shem Shamayim , he goes over and above to do what’s right, מסעיין לו מן השמים אחר כך - he will receive special Heavenly help afterward. He might not see help immediately, but at some point, perhaps after continuous struggling, Hashem will open doors for him and lift him up. The sefer Emunah Shelemah told a story about a ba’al teshuva whose last name is Elbaz. He grew up in a home devoid of religion, but ‘ בחסדי ה he tapped into the spark inside of him and managed to become fully religious. He went on to learn full time in yeshiva, and he exerted himself to make up for the lost time during his younger years. He married a young woman just like himself, a ba’alat teshuva who wanted nothing more than to have a family serving Hashem the way they’re supposed to. Neither of their families approved of their actions, and this couple found themselves basically on their own. The boy’s family totally disassociated themselves from him in an act of protest to the lifestyle he chose. The couple was moser nefesh to stay strong and the wife was behind her husband to stay in learning. They managed with just enough to get by with not a penny extra to spare. One day, the man received a package from his father with money in it. Afterwards, his mother called to see how he was, then his sister and then his brother. He asked his brother why this sudden change in attitude. His brother replied, “Recently we were sitting in the living room, watching that screen, and we decided enough with this filth, let’s do something more productive. We found a Jewish station called Hidabroot. We watched a Torah class, and we became inspired. We then came to the conclusion that you are the wise one and we decided to change our attitude towards you.” The young Rabbi Elbaz was overcome with emotion at this news. He called the Hidabroot phone line to make a donation in gratitude to them for restoring his family to him. The person on the other line said, “Well, we’re currently holding a raffle that’s going to be drawn tonight with the winning prize being a brand new apartment in Yerushalayim. Your donation entitles you to one ticket for that raffle.” That night, Rabbi Elbaz was awoken by the phone ringing, and he was told, “You won the raffle.” Just like that, they were homeowners and their families were restored to them. He and his wife sacrificed for years to do what they knew was right to honor Hashem, and then Hashem opened the door and helped them continue moving forward. The sefer Ohr Daniel brings a story that was told to him by the father of a young boy who was blessed with a very special voice. By the time this boy was 13, he was already hired to be a chazzan. He performed concerts and his father was making a lot of money from him. One day, the boy told his father he wants to go to yeshiva which would mean giving up his jobs. His father said, “I admire your desire to learn, but what about the gift Hashem blessed you with? You have to use it, not to mention, most of our parnasa comes from you. I just made a deal for a concert where you’re going to be performing for thousands of dollars.” The boy continued to perform a little longer, but then he couldn’t contain himself, he wanted to go learn so badly, he begged his father and his father finally said okay. The Rosh Yeshiva of the yeshiva he went to was very impressed with this boy. He told the father, “You’re sacrificing now thousands, but eventually you’re going to gain millions.” This boy rose to the top of his class and was clearly on another level. He was eventually sent to the Ponovitch Yeshiva. The Heavenly help he had in his learning was not to be believed. He became from the greatest students in one of the greatest yeshivot in the entire world. It was their self-sacrifice which produced their Heavenly help. When we push ourselves and sacrifice for Hashem, He lifts us up and brings us success. Shabbat Shalom.

Improving in any area of Torah and mitzvot is always beneficial. Sometimes people accept upon themselves to do something they weren't doing yet as a hakarat hatov , to thank Hashem for a blessing that He gave them. Sometimes it's because they have a great need and are hoping that in the zechut of what they accept, they will get what they need. Regardless of the reason, the main gain is always the mitzvah itself. Even if we don't get what we're hoping for, that does not mean that Hashem did not accept our extra efforts. He cherishes every little improvement we make, and He will reward us eternally for each of them. When we do see a direct response after accepting upon ourselves to improve, it gives us extra chizuk to continue improving. But we must know, if we continue improving without seeing results, that would make our avodah worth infinitely more. A young woman sent in a story of how she continued with a kabalah although she wasn't seeing results. But little did she know, she really was seeing results. She began reading a book each night with a friend on emunah as a zechut to find their zivug . They hoped that by the time they finished the book, they would both be engaged. They finished in the middle of Elul, but they were both still in the same boat. They did not get discouraged, and instead of stopping their kabalah , they decided to start another book on emunah. This time, they were hoping that by day 40, they would see some type of sign from Hashem. As the 40th day was approaching, she got a call from the shadchan suggesting a wonderful boy. On day 40, she met the boy for the first time, and the shidduch progressed very smoothly. On the day she got engaged, the title of the chapter they were up to in the book on emunah they were reading was entitled, Yirmiyahu's Blessing. And amazingly, the boy she got engaged to is named Yirmiyahu. The shadchan told her afterward that she first thought of this boy for her in the middle of Elul, right when they had finished that first book. We never know which kabalah brings about which blessing, but we do know anything we accept upon ourselves to do is always an automatic success. I read a story of a man who has two small apartments that he rents out in Bet Shemesh and uses the income he gets from them to pay the mortgage on his apartment in Yerushalayim. One day, one of his renters left and the apartment remained vacant for months. He advertised a lot, but nobody responded. As every month passed, he was losing out on much needed income. He was telling his mother one day about the predicament that he was in, and she told him that the same exact thing happened to her years before when she had an apartment for rent. Months went by with it remaining vacant until she decided to pledge the first month's rent to tzedaka . Within a few days, a renter came along. This man decided to make the same pledge and, amazingly, within just a few days, he got the apartment rented. When his other tenant gave him a one-month notice, he didn't take any chances. He immediately made the same pledge again, and once again, he got a renter very quickly and didn't miss even one day of rent. The kabalot that we take upon ourselves in Torah and mitzvot are always great. Sometimes we see immediate blessing coming from them, and sometimes we don't. The main gain is always the mitzvah itself.

Our ability to remember or forget is b'yad Hashem. Like always, we're supposed to do our utmost to try and remember things. But we will only remember if Hashem says we should remember. I read a story that an avrech once told, which took place in his wife's classroom. She taught in one of the Netivot Moshe kiruv schools. She told her students one day they were going to get a test the following day and whoever paid attention that day, and got help from Hashem, will do well on the test the next day. The smartest girl in the class who was not raised with any understanding of Hashem said she didn't need anyone's help. She knew if she studied, she would get a hundred. The morah corrected her and said we always need Hashem for everything. But the girl was not fazed. However, the next day it was like a miracle. The girl started crying in the middle of the test saying she couldn't remember any of the answers, despite reviewing numerous times the previous night. She then realized her mistake and publicly said she was sorry to Hashem for the words she said the day before. That day there was an amazing kiddush Hashem in that classroom. Sometimes Hashem lets us see immediate benefits that come about as a result of us forgetting. A man said he prayed Shacharit last week in the house of mourning and accidentally left his tefillin there. The next day he went to his regular shul, and that's when he realized he forgot his tefillin, so he went back to the beit avel to pray. This man is a fundraiser for a certain yeshiva, and the previous year he was not able to locate a man who gave his yeshiva $5,000 annually. On this morning, the man was at the beit avel . So he went over to him and said he had been searching for him but couldn't locate him and asked if he could please donate his annual pledge from last year. The man said okay. Then he asked him if he would give another $5,000 for this year, and once again the man said okay. This fundraiser was so happy that he forgot his tefillin and of course he realized it was all m'et Hashem who made him forget them there. Sometimes we're given wrong information by others. That's also m'et Hashem. There are no mistakes. Everything always happens exactly the way it's supposed to. I heard a story on Stories to Inspire by a rabbi from the Cedar Sinai Medical Center who said someone he knows requested of him to help get them a private room. This man's daughter was beginning chemotherapy treatments and they really wanted privacy. The rabbi was able to help them. One day, when the rabbi walked into the hospital, the head nurse told him that the patient he helped was in room 18. He went there to say hello and when he walked in it seemed like the people in that room were not the ones he knew and helped, so he quickly closed the door. But just to be sure he opened it a crack again and the people asked him to come in. They asked him if he was a rabbi, to which he replied yes. They were practically in tears when they heard that. A woman there explained that her daughter is starting chemo and they have been preparing for this day for a long time wanting everything to go smoothly and quickly. The night before she had a dream in which she saw herself being told to get a blessing from a rabbi for her daughter before the chemo started. She didn't know of any rabbis, and so she and her husband went that day in the streets searching for a rabbi, but they didn't find any. They had just gotten back to their room and, all of a sudden, a rabbi walked in on his own. The rabbi proceeded to give the girl a blessing and the parents were so happy. When the rabbi left the room, the nurse came over and apologized saying she gave him the wrong room number. The patient he helped was in room 19. The rabbi smiled, understanding this was all set up by Hashem. There were no mistakes. This was ratzon Hashem. We should never get frustrated if we're given wrong directions or wrong information or we forget something we needed to remember, because it's always m'et Hashem. We may not always see the reason for it, but we can be confident that it came from Hashem, and it was for our best.

Someone related that his daughter was having a hard time with shidduchim because of a scar that she has on her face. The man attributed that scar to the fact that she got a deep cut on an American holiday weekend when no good doctors were available to give her the stitches in a way that wouldn't leave a scar. We empathize with him and hope his daughter gets married very soon. But we must never fall prey to feeling like a victim of circumstance. That young lady has a scar because it was determined by the Creator of the world that she needs it to fulfill her purpose in this world. Part of her purpose may be waiting longer to get a shidduch and that could very well be one of the reasons why she needed to get that scar. But when it's time for her to get married, the young man who Hashem chose for her will want to marry her despite the scar. We are never in any given situation because of the natural events that brought it about. The way it works is first Hashem decides what the outcome will be and only afterward does He bring about the events that cause it. That young woman got the cut specifically on the holiday weekend because she was meant to have a scar. Of course, if someone is not meant to have a scar, Hashem can still give them a cut at any time of year and work it out that the doctor who gives the stitches does a good job. Hashem has infinite ways of bringing His will to fruition. For us, we should always feel at ease knowing everything is happening exactly the way Hashem wants it to happen, for our best. I heard a story that a rabbi told about his own daughter. He said she got a very bad cut on a July 4th weekend, and he immediately called Hatzalah to assess the situation. The Hatzalah member said she needed stitches and so they brought her to their local doctor. The doctor was worried about leaving a very noticeable scar and so he called a friend of his who was an expert surgeon to ask for his advice. Being that it was July 4th, that surgeon would obviously not be working, but when this doctor called him, the surgeon said he was actually on his way to a certain hospital to do a surgery for a relative of his who needed immediate attention. He told the doctor if the girl would get to him before he leaves, he would take a look at her cut. This hospital was very far from where they were, but they got in the car and drove there as fast as they could. When they got to the front desk, they were told to fill out papers and wait with dozens of other people in the waiting area. The rabbi tried to explain that it was an emergency and they needed to get in before a certain doctor left, but the woman behind the counter would not make any exceptions. All of a sudden, a person with connections in that hospital, who this rabbi knew, walked in and the rabbi asked him for help. Within minutes, he and his daughter were standing in front of that expert surgeon who was about to leave. He saw the wound and said he would give her the stitches and, baruch Hashem, all went well. If a person is not meant to have a scar, he can still get a cut on July 4th with no recommended doctors on staff and a waiting room full of people. Hashem could put the best surgeon there and cut all the lines. What is meant to be is what is going to happen. Sometimes Hashem gives cuts that don't need stitches. Sometimes He gives cuts that do need stitches but don't leave a scar. And sometimes He gives cuts that need stitches and do leave a scar. It all depends on what the person needs for his purpose in life. If we can recognize that whatever happens is m'et Hashem we will be doing the great avodah of having emunah in Him.

There was once a man who was in extreme debt, and he heard that in another country there was a major philanthropist. Anyone who came to him for help would get everything they needed. The problem was it was extremely difficult to get a meeting with him. Unless you had connections, it was nearly impossible. This man was determined to get a meeting. So he flew to the place that that philanthropist lived and tried every which way to make a connection to get in to him, but to no avail. Everything he tried ended in failure. One day he went to a shul there to pray mincha and, after the tefila, a very distinguished gentleman said hello to him and asked him who he was. He said he came from out of town to try to get a meeting with this philanthropist but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't get it done. This gentleman said he was a relative of that philanthropist and he could schedule the meeting for him. As the conversation continued, the man realized he was standing right in front of the philanthropist himself. He almost fainted. All of his efforts for the past two weeks were all to meet this man and now he was standing right in front of him. All of his problems were about to be solved. This is a mashal . The nimshal is, all day long we need Hashem's help. We have so many things that we need Hashem for and we're searching for Him to help us. But, even when we come to pray, sometimes we're still thinking about our strategies to get the help we need. We have to stop ourselves and say, “Wait! The One I'm looking for who can solve all my problems in an instant is right in front of me right now. Everything I could ever need can be taken care of with this meeting.” We have to block out all other distractions and properly focus on our tefila . That is the real key to all success. Everybody has needs and everybody makes hishtadlut to take care of them. Tefila is the greatest hishtadlut , but we have to do it right. I read a story of a talmid chacham whose daughter was getting married, and he didn't have enough money to pay for everything. With a lot of effort, he managed to pay his share of the wedding and the apartment but didn't even have a dollar left for the furniture, which was his responsibility. The apartment they got was on the sixth floor of a building and they wouldn't be given the keys for another couple of months. The talmid chacham prayed every tefila, with sincerity, begging Hashem to furnish that apartment. The night before they were getting the keys, a relative of this talmid chacham called to tell him great news. He said his chavruta told him he just decided to redo his apartment. Construction was beginning in the next couple of days. He wanted to give away all of his furniture, free of charge, but he wanted it out immediately. The talmid chacham went with the couple to see the furniture and it was perfect. It would furnish the entire apartment and leave some extra leftovers. The talmid chacham knew that getting that furniture to the new apartment wouldn't be easy. They were going to need a crane to lift it six flights. He called the mover who told him it was going to cost even more than he thought because the apartment building was in a place that needed a permit for the crane which would add a lot to the cost. It would also take at least a few weeks to get a permit, which they didn't have because they had to get the furniture out immediately. The talmid chacham prayed the next tefila with all of his heart for Hashem to help. In the end, the owner of the apartment who was doing the construction told his contractor to take the furniture out and start the work. The contractor had a niece who lived in the same building as the apartment the furniture was going to. Turns out, she was also on the sixth floor on the other side of the building. They were able to put a crane there without a permit and pass the furniture through her apartment. The man who donated the furniture paid for that entire expense and the talmid chacham got the entire apartment furnished, free of charge. Hashem could help us with everything but first we have to recognize who we're standing in front of when we come to pray.

In this week's parasha , Balak tried every which way to get Bilaam to curse the Jewish people. But as Bilaam repeatedly told him, “Whatever Hashem wants is going to happen and nobody could do otherwise.” People make all different kinds of efforts to accomplish many different things. We must always keep in mind that only what Hashem wants is going to happen. Fortunately for us, what Hashem wants is always the best for us. So we can always feel calm knowing that we're in His hands. We tell ourselves, again and again, that Hashem is always in charge and He's always choosing best, but somehow, when things don't go the way that we want, we still get upset and we still get nervous. If we really believed what we say, there would never be a reason to get frazzled no matter what's happening. There are people who are able to put into practice the emunah that they learn. One individual with real emunah can change an entire situation from a potential disaster to one of joy and spiritual elevation. A friend of mine, who practices emunah daily, told me he recently received a phone call at 7:30 in the morning from the hotel which was supposed to host the marriage of his son that night. The manager explained that a hot water tank had burst, and they had to evacuate the hotel. There was no way they would be able to accommodate the wedding there that night. The man immediately put into perspective that Hashem runs the world, and this was orchestrated by Him. He replied very calmly saying that it's okay and he understood. The manager was floored. He couldn't believe this man was so calm. The man told him, he knows Hashem is in charge and his child will get married in the best place for him and his kallah . This took so much stress off the manager and he told the man, “Don't worry, we're going to find you the best hall as quickly as we can.” In the meantime, this man calmly called his mechutan to tell him the news. He spoke softly, with a calmness in his voice, telling the mechutan everything was going to be perfect just as Hashem wants it. The mechutan responded in kind. He was also calm about it. An hour later, the hotel manager called back saying he found a kosher hotel in another city that would be perfect for them. The man happily accepted, and then they had to tell the ladies in the family the news. They spoke softly with complete emunah and told the ladies, as well as the bride and the groom, that it was going to be the best wedding ever, the way Hashem wants it to be. They were a little shocked at the news but they all accepted it with emunah. They sprang into action, calling everyone telling them of the change in venue. The day then went by like a chatan and kallah are supposed to spend it. Everyone was happy and excited. This man's emunah was contagious and everybody felt it and everyone was inspired by it. Baruch Hashem, they had the most beautiful wedding that night. It was a much nicer hall, and there was so much siyata d’Shamaya . When my friend called to tell me what happened, he said he was so happy that he actually practiced the emunah that he had been learning every day for the past ten years. There wasn't a moment that he got nervous. He felt the entire time that he was in Hashem's hands and it showed. Look how the emunah of one person can change an entire situation. We know Hashem is in control and we know He does everything for our best. If we can put our knowledge into practice, we will see amazing things happening. Shabbat Shalom.