The Sefer HaChinuch writes in Mitzvah תלג , that goodness and blessing come upon a person according to his deeds and thoughts, and our Creator, who wants our good, has taught us about the precious mitzvot through which we can merit the greatest blessings. As well, He taught us a way in which we could have all of our wants for the good, and that is by asking Him, the One who has the wherewithal and ability to provide us with everything we could possibly need.He will answer anyone who calls out to Him with sincerity. The Chinuch continues, besides informing us of the precious gift of tefillah, He also commanded us to utilize it and ask from Him constantly for every single thing we need. If we do that, besides for getting what we want, we will also be ingraining in ourselves the emunah, that He is involved in every little detail of our lives and that nothing can stop Him from giving us everything we could want. That is the end of the quote of the Sefer HaChinuch. We know how precious tefillah is, but sometimes we forget to take advantage of it. A man told me he had two issues in his home that were bothering him for months. One was an electrical issue with something installed in his home, and one was a plumbing issue. For some reason, he was having an extremely hard time getting both of them resolved. The electrician kept telling him he was too busy to come, and when he tried calling different electricians, they would all say, the one who installed it has to be the one to fix it, as it was a special unit. As well, the plumber was unresponsive. This past Friday morning, as the man was making his regular requests in the Amidah, he thought to himself, he never once asked Hashem for help with those quote-unquote petty issues. He decided to pray to Hashem to get them fixed. After shul, he called the electrician, and this time he answered right away. The electrician gave him his ear, and when he was once again informed of the problem, the electrician told him he could guide him on the phone, step by step, what to do to fix the issue. When the man got home, the electrician guided him, and sure enough, the problem was finally fixed. Right after that, he called the plumber, and this time, the plumber answered and finally agreed to come. Two days later, and Baruch Hashem, he came and fixed the issue. There is nothing that is too small to pray for. Sometimes, we just forget to utilize the awesome gift of tefillah that Hashem has given us. I once read a story about a man who was rushing out of his house for an important meeting. As he went to his car, he suddenly realized he didn't have his car keys with him, so he ran back to the house to get them, but couldn't find them anywhere. He began to panic because the meeting was very important, and he was already running late. He started searching faster and faster, opening drawers, moving around papers, and then he stopped for a minute and said to himself, Hashem knows exactly where my keys are. Why don't I make a tefillah and ask Him for help? He then closed his eyes and asked Hashem to please show him where the keys were so he could make the meeting on time. Less than a minute later, he found the keys lying under a magazine in the kitchen. Tefillah is always great, and we must never forget to utilize it at all times.

The pasuk says in this week’s parasha, Ki Tisa , הודיעני נא את דרכיך ואדעך למען אמצא חן בעיניך – Moshe Rabbenu asked Hashem to show him His ways so that he could know Him better and thereby find favor in His eyes. The goal of every eved Hashem is to find favor in Hashem’s eyes and the more we know about Hashem the better we will be able to do His will and thus find more favor in His eyes. The Gemara says, one of the questions Moshe Rabbenu was asking Hashem here is why do we sometimes find a tzaddik suffering and a rasha prospering? The Chovot HaLevavot in the Shaar HaBitachon writes regarding this question, there is no one answer that fits all. Every single tzaddik who ever suffered had a different reason why he needed that suffering. And every rasha who ever prospered had a different reason why he needed to prosper. And therefore, we can never know why any particular person is living the life that he is living. However, there are endless reasons why Hashem would act in this way and the Chovot HaLevavot in perek 3 gives us some of them. One thing he says is eye opening and can definitely give people chizuk to overcome this very difficult part of life. He writes, one of the reasons Hashem would give a rasha tranquility is to test everyone else, to see who is really a faithful servant to Him. If someone sees the rasha prospering and says, “That’s not fair,” or, “Good people always finish last, so why bother?” Then he is not a ne’eman . But if someone would say instead, “I know Hashem is the fairest Judge and everyone will get exactly what’s coming to them.” And despite the challenge, he rises above it and continues clinging to his service of Hashem, then he will be called a ne’eman and will be rewarded so greatly because of it. And even though, currently, Hashem makes it look like things are not fair, in actuality, they are as fair as can be. The rasha may have done some good deeds that Hashem is rewarding now and the consequences for the bad will come later. And a tzaddik may have done things that require atonement that Hashem is giving him now so he can be ready for the ultimate rewards in the Next World. This is one of the most difficult questions in life to deal with, but as always, Hashem is acting in a way that will give us the greatest opportunity to rise to the highest levels and earn more rewards. When a righteous individual prays day and night for something that he needs so badly, but does not receive what he is asking for, and then he sees someone else who never prays receiving that very same request he has been asking for, it is a major test in his emunah. When a person is honest in business, constantly battling to do what is right to honor Hashem yet he struggles with parnasa , and then he sees someone else who is dishonest making more money than he knows what to do with, that is a big test in emunah. When a girl dresses and acts in the ways of modesty and goes through the dating process the way Hashem wants, and still hasn’t found her zivug , yet others who completely ignore the ways of modesty get married with ease, that is a very big test. On this we say וצדיק באמונתו יחיה . To be faithful despite these enormous tests is a very high madrega . These people are the ones who are going to bring Mashiach . They will be rewarded for every moment that they were able to have emunah. Everything is happening the exact way it is supposed to. We only gain by doing right and although it might not appear that way, one day Hashem will show us how fair and righteous He was always acting. For now, it is up to us to remain ne’eman . Shabbat Shalom.

Parnassah comes only from Hashem, and therefore it does not have to operate according to normal human calculations. If somebody needed more money, it would seem illogical for him to give away what he already has. Yet Chazal tell us: עשר בשביל שתתעשר — give away ten percent so that you will become wealthy. The very actions that appear illogical according to our reasoning often become the very source of blessing that brings a person more parnassah. When we show that we truly believe our parnassah comes only from Hashem — by, so to speak, putting our money where our mouths are — those actions activate even more blessing. A woman we will call Rachel, who runs her own business, recently received a call from a customer who usually places large orders with her twice a year. The customer told her she planned to make her regular order again and would soon get back to her with the details about colors and styles. A few days later the customer called back. She explained that another woman she had recently become close with was asking her to give her the order instead. She said she really wanted to switch and help this other woman, but because she had already told Rachel that she would be ordering from her, she planned to ask a rabbi if it was permitted to back out. Rachel, who firmly believes that all of her parnassah comes from Hashem, told her, "It makes no difference to me which customer my parnassah comes through. If you truly want to switch, you have my blessing." The woman was very impressed with Rachel's emunah and thanked her for allowing her to switch. Practically speaking, this probably meant Rachel would permanently lose a steady customer. Just a few minutes later, Rachel received a phone call from someone who had never ordered from her before. The order this person wanted to place was more than double the one she had just given up. Later that night Rachel called the first customer back and told her not to feel guilty at all for switching, because Hashem had already replaced the loss and even given her more. The woman then told her she had just discovered that the other seller's prices were not as good as Rachel's, and she felt bad for having switched. With Hashem's help, Rachel would now likely have that customer returning in the future — in addition to the new one she had just gained. She demonstrated her emunah, and immediately saw blessing from it. A man we will call Daniel related another story. One day he received a phone call from the rabbi of his brother's shul. The rabbi asked Daniel if he could help resolve a difficult situation involving his brother. His brother owed someone money and had not paid it back, and the matter had created significant tension. The rabbi said, "For the sake of shalom, this issue must be resolved. If it continues like this, I may have to start paying the debt myself." Daniel was not a wealthy man, but he said to the rabbi, "For the sake of shalom, I will pay." He gave the rabbi his credit card and told him he would cover the amount in installments. Just like that, the issue was resolved. Less than ten minutes later, a neighbor called Daniel and asked if he remembered helping him many years earlier. Daniel had forgotten, but the neighbor reminded him of the favor he had done for him twenty years before. The neighbor then told him that he had recently made some money and wanted to repay Daniel for the kindness he had shown him back then. The amount he gave him was far greater than the amount Daniel had just committed to pay for his brother. Hashem can provide a person with parnassah in unlimited ways. Very often, when a person performs righteous acts that involve giving up money, Hashem blesses him with even more in return.

The Rambam writes that one of the reasons our Chachamim instituted the mitzvah to read Megilat Esther on Purim is to remind us that prayer works, and Hashem is always there for us to call out to. It was because of the tefilot of Klal Yisrael that Esther found favor in the eyes of the King when she went in to plead on behalf of her people without being called first. The Midrash Tanchuma says that although according to the rules, blessings sometimes have to be withheld from people because of their deeds or other reasons, Hashem prefers that the people pray to Him, and then even if they don't deserve the blessings, because of their prayers alone, Hashem will give them anyway. A person who does not utilize prayer properly is depriving himself of things he could have gotten had he taken advantage of this wondrous gift. Many times, we have to work very hard for something and perhaps in the end we get it. But with heartfelt tefila, we could have skipped the long difficult process in obtaining it. Several years ago, a family made aliyah and settled in Kiryat Sanz in Tevariya. Unfortunately, the father passed away leaving behind a widow and orphans who lacked their most basic necessities. The rental money for their apartment was a heavy burden on the widow and those helping out decided it would be best to raise the money and buy the apartment for them. They needed 600,000 shekels and they managed to raise 400,000 of it. A generous donor told them he would give 50,000 on condition they get a hold of the rest, but they were out of people to turn to and they still needed 150. The owner of the apartment threatened that if he didn't get the money in the next couple of weeks, he was going to throw the entire family out of the apartment. The threat was very serious and so one of the askanim involved volunteered to fly abroad and try to raise the money from other communities. The morning before the flight the man got up early to pray with the sunrise minyan and there he saw one of the widow's sons who was already married. The man said to him, “I can't believe you look so calm. The landlord wants to throw your mother and siblings out of their apartment, and you look like this has nothing to do with you.” The young man did not know the extent of the plight of his family. “What could I possibly do?” asked the young man. The askan told him, “What do you mean, what could you do? HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the Father of orphans and the Judge of widows. Cry out to him to bring yeshua .” The young man took those words very seriously and prayed that morning with all his heart, groaning in pain from the depths of his soul over the situation of his mother and orphaned siblings. That same afternoon a philanthropist in America called this married son to ask him a question on a different matter. During their conversation, he asked him how things were. The young man told him that his mother and family were being threatened with eviction if they didn't come up with the remaining 200,000 shekel they needed to buy their apartment. The man on the other line paused for a moment and then said, “Within an hour you'll have 100,000 shekels in your account.” The young man thanked him profusely and then called the askan to apprise him of the recent development. The askan was elated. This meant he no longer had to travel. He could cancel the tickets. He could not stop thanking Hashem who hears the sighs of every Jew and sends them salvation in ways they could never dream of. The yeshua was awaiting but it needed heartfelt tefila to bring it down. It may well be that the askan would have come up with the money with the difficulty of traveling and collecting. And of course that would have also needed tefila . But tefila from the depths of one's heart can cut out all of the difficult steps and bring the yeshua right away. Tefila is truly wondrous

Hashem's Name is not mentioned even once in the Megillah, yet He is involved in every last detail of it. Hashem, who has the past, present, and future revealed before Him at all times, orchestrates events long before they are needed so that His plan can ultimately come to fruition. The fact that the palace of Achashverosh was relocated to a small city called Shushan Habirah was itself a tremendous hidden miracle. That is where Mordechai lived, and that is where the salvation of the Jewish people was destined to unfold. The Vilna Gaon writes that the fact that Vashti decided to make her own party — seemingly for no reason — was only because Hashem was setting the stage for her to be summoned and ultimately removed from her position as queen. Hashem was arranging events years in advance, preparing the path for the moment when salvation would be needed. Haman suggested that Achashverosh grant himself the authority to act independently in any matter that concerned him personally, without consulting his advisors. Haman's intention was clear. He planned to later tell Achashverosh that the Jewish people were not following the king's directives. That would be seen as a personal affront to the king, giving him full power to decree annihilation upon them. But this, too, was the Yad Hashem. For later, when Esther would reveal that Haman sought to harm her, Achashverosh would now possess full independent authority to decree death upon Haman without consulting anyone else. The very mechanism Haman built for destruction became the instrument of his own downfall. The Megillah teaches us how to connect events in our own lives and recognize the Yad Hashem within them. When we step back, it becomes obvious how intimately Hashem is involved in each and every one of our lives. Someone recently sent me a story that was told by Sruli Shain on Stories to Inspire. He heard it firsthand from Shuli Rosenblum, who works at Bagel Hole in Brooklyn. One Friday afternoon, Shuli Rosenblum decided to bring home some leftover chocolate chip muffins from the bagel store for his family. On his way home, he stopped by his parents' house to visit his father, who had injured his leg and was resting with it elevated. He wished his parents Shabbat Shalom and left the muffins there so they could give them to the grandchildren if they came to visit. Mr. Rosenblum had his leg elevated on a special motorized footrest attached to his recliner, controlled by a lever on the side of the chair. Early Shabbat morning, at around 5:00 a.m., he woke up and began learning Chumash while sitting in that chair. He dozed off. His sefer slipped from his hands and struck the lever on the side of the chair, causing the entire chair to reposition forward. Not only could he no longer elevate his leg, he could not sit in the chair properly at all. Since he needed his leg elevated to recover, he went outside to see if anyone was walking by who could help him. He saw a man and tried to explain what had happened. The man responded, "Don't worry. I'm a Shabbos goy. I know exactly what to do." He came inside and fixed the chair. Before the man left, Mr. Rosenblum wanted to give him something in appreciation. He offered him one of the kosher chocolate chip muffins that his son had brought over the day before. The man suddenly turned pale. "I can't believe this," he said. "G-d really watches over His people." He explained that he works as a caretaker. Every Saturday morning, he visits an elderly Jew in his nineties, Mr. Fried. He helps him get ready for shul, gives him something to eat, and then accompanies him there. Usually, Mr. Fried's wife buys him a muffin for breakfast. But that Friday, she arrived at the bakery too late, and they were already closed. The caretaker assumed they would not know the difference and bought a chocolate chip muffin from a non-kosher grocery store. He was on his way to give it to Mr. Fried when he was unexpectedly stopped at 5:30 in the morning and offered a kosher chocolate chip muffin instead. Both men stood there in awe at how perfectly timed their encounter had been. After Shabbat, Mr. Rosenblum called the Fried family to tell them what had happened. They were even more moved. They explained that their father would often tell them that during the Holocaust, there were times he did not eat for days because he refused to eat anything non-kosher. Now, decades later, Hashem protected him once again, ensuring that his lifelong commitment to kashrut remained intact, even though he had no idea what was unfolding behind the scenes. Hashem is involved in every moment of every person's life.

The pasuk says that Amalek attacked the Jewish People when they were in רפידים and Chazal tell us the reason Amalek was able to attack was because רפו ידיהם מן התורה – the Jewish People became weakened in Torah. Rabbi Menashe Reizman quoted from the Shem M'Shmuel who said in the name of his father the Avnei Nezer that Amelek attacked around the 29 th day of Iyar, just about a week before the Jewish People received the Torah on Har Sinai. At that time, they were counting Sefirat HaOmer , they knew they were rising each day out of the 49 th level of tuma they had been in and they knew they were going to reach the highest levels of kedusha , so how were they able to become weakened in Torah at a time like that? The answer is because they didn't feel any tangible change inside of them. They weren't feeling more spiritual. More than 40 days of the counting had passed and yet they still felt the same as they did before. That caused them to become weak and that was how Amalek was able to attack. The Tiferet Shlomo writes the same thing is happening during this long galut . Without a question we are at the doorstep of Mashiach and when he comes, the Navi tells us, ישפוך ה' רוחו על כל בשר ונבאו בניכם ובנותיכם – Hashem is going to bestow His spirit upon us and our children are going to be nevi'im. We would think that at this time we should feel 99% of the way there, we should feel imbued with the spirit of Hashem, ready to receive prophecy. Yet, in reality, we don't feel that way. The reason, he says, Hashem did it this way is because if we felt like the level we were actually on, it would take away our free will. The enjoyment from those feelings would make it too easy for us to choose good over evil. We are always going to have the Amalek inside of us saying, You're not accomplishing anything. See, you don't feel it. This attitude has caused so many people to become weak in their avodat Hashem. The Jewish People didn't feel the growth that they had a week before Matan Torah , but how great were they in actuality? The following week they received the ultimate level of prophecy, they reached the ultimate level a person could possibly be on, hearing the voice, kavayachol , of HaKadosh Baruch Hu . They had a misunderstanding, they really were on a high level, it's just that Hashem didn't allow them to feel that way, so He could balance their free will. The same applies to us today. A person who is learning and growing might say to himself, I don't feel any change. The Amalek inside of him is saying, you're not growing, the Torah's not affecting you. And because in reality the person doesn't have the feeling he is looking for, he believes Amalek. We must strengthen ourselves and realize, every avodah we do is making us so great. We are rising higher and higher in anticipation of greeting the Mashiach . Specifically because we live in such a depraved world, it makes our avodah that much more valuable. If we stay the course, we will see how much of an effect Torah and mitzvot really is having on us. B'ezrat Hashem, we should merit that glorious day when the Mashiach will come and Hashem will rest His spirit upon us.

There is a fundamental difference between the miracle of Purim and the miracles of the other holidays. On the other holidays, the salvation came through open miracles. The rules of nature were overturned for all to see — the sea split, enemies fell, and the hand of Hashem was revealed in a way no one could deny. Purim, however, was very different. Everything unfolded through what appeared to be the natural course of events. Only someone who studies the entire chain of occurrences over those nine years can see how every detail was being guided and arranged by Hashem to bring salvation to Am Yisrael. This is the greatness of Megillat Esther, where the hashgachah of Hashem is highlighted, teaching us how to recognize Hashem in our own lives the very same way. We do not see open miracles today, but we can certainly see the guiding hand of Hashem in everything that happens to us each and every day. The hashgachah of Hashem is upon everything. Every last detail of every single event is being carefully planned and orchestrated by Hashem for our good. Nothing is random and nothing is overlooked. The more we train ourselves to notice this, the more clearly we will begin to see Hashem's presence in our lives. Megillat Esther was written not merely to tell us what happened then, but to teach us how to view what is happening now. Just as Hashem arranged every seemingly natural event in the Purim story to bring about salvation, so too He arranges every detail in our own lives with the same loving precision. A man related that he was called on a Friday to repair something in a large school building. Since there were no classes that day, only the office staff were present. He entered the assigned room, fixed what needed fixing, and prepared to leave. Instead of exiting through the door he had used to enter, he noticed another door marked "Exit" and went out through it. The door shut behind him — and locked. He suddenly realized he was trapped in a small corridor with no way out. Someone would have to open the door from the other side. He quickly called the school office, but there was no answer. Then he noticed his phone battery was about to die. He forced himself to stay calm and think. What was the shortest, most effective call he could make before the battery died? He called his wife and quickly told her he was stuck in the school and needed someone to open the door. She didn't even have time to respond before the phone went dead. Baruch Hashem, the message got through. She came to the school, found someone, and they opened the door. When he finally stepped outside, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "If my battery had died ten seconds earlier, I would have been trapped here the entire Shabbat." But his wife, with simple and pure emunah, replied with a sentence that completely changed his understanding: "If the battery had died earlier, Hashem would never have brought you here in the first place — because He wanted you home for Shabbat." At that moment, the man realized something profound. We often thank Hashem for the miracle we see at the end of the story. But true emunah means recognizing that the entire situation was arranged from the beginning so that the outcome could unfold exactly as it did. The battery did not almost die too early. It had precisely the amount of charge it was meant to have — not one percent more, and not one percent less. A person may think his salvation depended on quick thinking, on making the right phone call, or on the last bar of battery. In truth, the salvation began long before, exactly as Hashem planned it. The battery did not save him. Hashem saved him. And once Hashem decided he would be home for Shabbat, no locked door, no empty building, and no dying phone could change that. Hashem calculates our lives down to the smallest details. Our job is to learn to recognize His loving hand in everything that takes place.

The Zohar HaKadosh (Vayikra ק״ד ) teaches that because Hashem is so loving and merciful, when a harsh decree hangs over a person, Hashem sends him a precious gift that can help annul it. That gift often comes in the form of a mitzvah opportunity. The example the Zohar gives is when a poor person comes asking for charity. If the person seizes the opportunity and gives with generosity and a good heart, he draws upon himself a special protection that can ward off the decree. The Midrash in Vayikra Rabbah teaches: יותר ממה שבעל הבית עושה עם העני — העני עושה עם בעל הבית — more than the giver does for the poor man, the poor man does for the giver. The poor man grants the giver life, livelihood, and success. A giver may feel the poor person is indebted to him, but in truth, it is often the other way around. Rabbi Sneer Guetta related a story he heard from someone who knew it firsthand. It took place about forty years ago in Israel. One day a man named Avi was arranging the bins in front of his vegetable store when he noticed an infant lying in a broken carriage, covered with a dirty blanket, with no adult nearby. He began asking the people around if the baby belonged to them, but they all said no. Avi waited several minutes and still no one came. Finally he saw a woman searching through a garbage pail and went over to ask her. She said the baby was hers and apologized for worrying him. Avi immediately understood that she was in desperate financial straits and told her that he wanted to take upon himself the responsibility of supporting her child. He instructed her to come once a month to pick up an envelope with money, and that whenever she needed, she could simply come to the store and take whatever food the baby required. The woman burst into tears and thanked him from the depths of her heart. And indeed, every month she came for the envelope, and often she came for food. This arrangement continued not for one year, not for two years, but for more than twenty years. Avi never told her "enough already." He never limited what she could take. Then one day he received a call from a young man who told him, "You are an angel sent from Heaven." Avi did not understand what he meant. The young man introduced himself as Shimon and said he was engaged to Emily — the girl Avi had been supporting for the past twenty years. Avi was overjoyed to hear she was engaged. Shimon continued that his own family was well-established and from now on he himself would support Emily, so Avi could stop preparing the monthly envelopes. To Shimon's surprise, Avi pleaded with him to allow him to continue supporting her. Shimon could not understand. She no longer needed the money. Why insist? Avi then told him the story. Twenty years earlier, Avi had become entangled with dangerous criminals. One day they came to his store armed with guns and attempted to kill him. Miraculously he escaped. Shaken, he went to a great rabbi to ask what he should do — whether he should flee the country or change his identity. The rabbi told him he was certain that Hashem operates by the principle of מדה כנגד מדה so that if he would give life to another, Hashem would give life to him. He advised Avi to find someone whose life he could sustain. Avi answered that he did not know of anyone. The rabbi told him to pray that Hashem would send him the opportunity. The very next day Avi found that abandoned baby outside his store. From that day forward, he understood that supporting her was the mission that was sustaining his own life. Now he begged to be allowed to continue. Shimon listened, but he still felt that once Emily no longer needed the support, it would not be proper tzedakah. He asked Avi to hold off on sending the next envelope while he considered the matter. That very week, the criminals returned — and this time they took Avi's life. It was clear that his allotted time had come, and that the twenty years Hashem had granted him through that mitzvah had reached their end. The man who told Rabbi Guetta this story had been at Avi's funeral and personally confirmed the details. Most of the time, the effects of giving are not so dramatic or visible. But the lesson remains the same: whenever we help another person or give charity, we must realize that it is we who are gaining the most.

There are times in life when a person's struggle is not only the difficulty he is facing, but the loneliness he feels while going through it. A person may believe in Hashem his entire life. He knows the teachings of emunah. He knows that Hashem runs the world — yet inside he is still shaking. Not because he stopped believing, but because the burden feels too heavy to carry alone. At such times, a few words of chizuk can give a person tremendous strength. A man once told me he had been going through a very painful situation. For months he was living with uncertainty about his livelihood. Every morning he woke up with the same knot in his stomach. He tried to learn, he tried to pray, but inside he felt drained. One day he spoke to his rabbi and told him everything he was going through. The rabbi listened with empathy and then told him that he needed to know that Hashem was worrying about his bills more than he was. Hashem loves him with an infinite love — more than a father could ever love his son — and would never abandon him in his time of need. The message lasted less than thirty seconds. Yet the man later said those few words lifted a weight off his chest that he had been carrying for months. Nothing changed externally. The bills were still there. The uncertainty was still there. But instead of feeling alone, he felt accompanied — and not just by anyone, but by the Creator of the world Who loves him so much. Within a few weeks, his situation changed for the better. He later said the salvation did not begin the day the money came. It began the day the rabbi reminded him that Hashem was with him. It should be pointed out that although words of chizuk can help tremendously, there is a time and a place for them. Sometimes a person is not ready to hear those words. He first needs a listening ear and empathy. Furthermore, it must come from the right person and be said in the right way, because if it is not delivered properly, it could have the opposite effect. But when the right words are spoken, they can do wonders. I read a story from the Chafetz Chaim Heritage Foundation about a girl named Rivka who discovered she had a serious kidney condition when she gave birth to her first baby. The medicine she was given not only failed to help, it attacked the nerves in her inner ear, leaving her constantly dizzy and nauseous. She could not even hold her new baby. The young mother was brokenhearted from all her troubles. One day she sought help from a neurologist experienced with vertigo. He told her there was not much he could do and that she should arrange for someone else to help care for her baby. She was so distraught by those words that she stumbled out of his office to the sidewalk and into a waiting cab, where her tears began to flow. After a few moments, the Jewish driver gently asked if he could listen to her problem. For some reason, Rivka later said, she told him her entire story. After hearing everything, he spoke in a tone that stirred her courage. "Listen," he said, "promise me that when you walk into the house you will be smiling. Then your husband and parents will smile. You are like the carousel. When you move, the horses move and the music plays. If you smile, everyone will smile too. I will see you again in the future, and you will be doing fine." Rivka never met that driver again. But his encouraging words changed her perspective and infused her with new energy. She was not the horse being dragged around in circles — she was the carousel. Whichever direction she chose, her world would move with her. Those wise and compassionate words became her motto during her difficult period and continued giving her the strength she needed to keep going through her ups and downs. The right words, spoken at the right time, can truly change a person's life.

Our rabbis teach that we were created to perform a mission in this world so that we may enjoy the eternal bliss of the next. The task we are given is to serve Hashem from the exact place and circumstances in which He puts us. Every person receives a different life and a different set of conditions. If he fulfills the role Hashem sent him here to perform within those conditions, he will merit the delights of the World to Come. The Gemara teaches that no human eye has ever seen what the World to Come truly is — only Hashem knows its nature. When a person leaves this world, his soul enters Gan Eden, the world of souls, but Olam HaBa will only begin after the days of Mashiach. If we could imagine gathering the greatest pleasures ever experienced in this world since the beginning of time, compressing them into a single capsule, and a person were to swallow it, the joy he would feel at that moment would not even approach one second of the pleasure of Olam HaBa. This world is fleeting and its pleasures are finite. The World to Come is everlasting, and its pleasure never ends. Everything that Hashem does with a person in this world is with both worlds in mind. Hashem wants us to have the ultimate eternal pleasure, and therefore He guides us here in the precise way needed to attain it. The Mesillat Yesharim describes the pleasure of the World to Come as the soul "basking in the radiance of the Shechinah." This is a spiritual delight beyond our comprehension, because we live in physical bodies. It is a closeness to Hashem so profound that the pleasure cannot be described. In His great love, Hashem even gave us ways to taste a faint semblance of that future bliss already in this world. The Chazon Ish wrote a sefer on Emunah and Bitachon that was not published during his lifetime. Some say this was because he did not want people to recognize the extraordinary heights of Emunah he had reached, which are evident from his writings. In that work he explains that when a person truly grasps the reality of Hashem's existence, he is immediately filled with a boundless inner jubilation. His soul becomes suffused with sweetness. He tastes the sweetness of Hashem, and his desire for physical pleasures begins to fall away, while his delicate neshamah becomes enveloped in holiness, almost as if it has separated from the body and risen to the highest heavens. A new world opens before him. It is possible for a person even in this world to have moments in which he resembles an angel and actually delights in the glory of Hashem. At such times, all the pleasures of this world are like nothing compared to the joy of cleaving to his beloved Creator. The Chazon Ish himself clearly experienced such moments. When a person internalizes the reality of Hashem's presence, he can already experience a taste of the eternal pleasures that await. The closer we draw to Hashem in this world and the more we cling to Him, the more pleasure we will experience — both here and in the next.