I’ve always been a little envious of people who seem calm at all times. There are people who have themselves under control even when the going gets rough, when things get complicated, when problems come up, when there’s a lot happening all around them. I’m not talking about tragedies and personal loss, but rather of the everyday problems and headaches that we all have to deal with. I’m the kind of person that tends to get anxious when something small goes wrong – when I get insulted, or when I have some kind of problem and I do not know how it will be solved. And so I’ve always been jealous of the people who stay cool, who don’t get rattled and always stay calm, cool and collected.
What can we do to acquire this wonderful trait? How can we train ourselves to remain calm and collected when dealing with the problems and complications of life?
Hashem’s “Balance” Then and Now
One of the interesting features of the story of the ten plagues in Egypt is the partial success of the חרטומים – Pharaoh’s sorcerers, who attempted to replicate the plagues brought by Hashem. After several of the plagues, these sorcerers – surprisingly enough – were able to copy Hashem and produce the plague.
Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, in Emet Le’Yaakov, addresses the question that many of us likely ask in our minds after reading of these חרטומים: why don’t we have any of this today? In ancient times, as we know from our sources, there were magicians who were capable of suspending the laws of nature and using witchcraft. What happened? Why was this possible then but not now?
Rav Yaakov explained that Hashem always balances things out in order to ensure our free will. For example, before Hashem split the sea for Beneh Yisrael, He had a powerful wind blow throughout the night, which allowed the people the opportunity to attribute the miracle to some natural cause. The same is true about magic. In ancient times, there was prophecy, a direct line of communication between Hashem and people. He spoke directly to His prophets, and would occasionally perform miracles, which made it all but impossible to deny His existence and His authority. In order to maintain free will, Hashem needed to counterbalance this direct manifestation of His presence by allowing sorcery and witchcraft. This gave people the possibility of denying Hashem’s existence and attributing everything to magic. Nowadays, when we do not have prophecy or supernatural miracles, we do not have witchcraft, either.
This is an important rule, and one which I believe is very relevant to religious belief in modern times, as well. Although we don’t have prophecy today, we have something else which should make Hashem’s existence all but unmistakably evident – science. Modern scientific research has begun revealing the mind-boggling complexity and perfection of the natural world. Anyone who has seriously studied subjects like cells and atoms, or the animal kingdom, cannot but be awed by the brilliance of Hashem’s world. It is astonishing and inspiring to see how every aspect of the human body – or, for that matter, of any insect – is so perfectly coordinated so that life can exist. In order to counterbalance this awesome display of Hashem’s unlimited wisdom, Hashem saw to it that scientific theories would be developed to deny His existence. Theories such as Darwinism and the Big Bang are the modern-day parallels of the witchcraft of ancient Egypt – the counterforce to what would otherwise be the undeniable manifestation of Hashem. In order to preserve our free will as we come face-to-face with the miracles of the natural world revealed by science, Hashem had science also come up with theories that deny His existence.
אלה and מי
We refer to G-d with several different Names, one of which is א-ל-ה-י-ם. This Name is generally understood as referring to Hashem’s manifestation through the natural world. Indeed, the gematria (numerical value) of this Name is 86 – the same as the gematria of the word הטבע (“the natural world”).
The Name א-ל-ה-י-ם is a composite of two Hebrew words: אלה (“these”) and מי (“who”), and it is the combination of these two words that expresses our view regarding the relationship between G-d and nature. The word מי speaks of denial, of refusing to see a Divine Being behind the forces of nature. Thus, for example, when Moshe and Aharon first approached Pharaoh to convey Hashem’s command that He release Beneh Yisrael, he responded, מי ה' אשר אשמע בקולו – “Who is Hashem, that I should listen to His voice?” The word מי means that one looks at the natural world and defiantly and rhetorically asks, “Who?” insisting that there is no one and nothing behind all that happens in the world. Everything unfolds by chance, on its own, without anyone in control. The opposite approach is expressed in the word אלה, which means one can point to a G-d and say that He is the one in charge, He is the one who is behind all of this wonder and majesty. The Name א-ל-ה-י-ם, then, refers to transforming מי into אלה, changing our perspective from one of denial to one of recognition – from thinking that nature runs by itself, to realizing that it is all perfectly managed and controlled by Hashem, down to the very last detail.
The ideology of מי is hinted to in the very name of Pharaoh’s country – מצרים. The first three letters of this name spell מצר, which refers to a condition of confinement, where one is limited and constrained. The last two letters of the name מצרים are the letters of מי. When one views the world as מי, he experiences a sense of מצר, that he is trapped in this random, haphazard series of events which we call life. If we believe, as Pharaoh did, that מי ה' אשר אשמע בקולו, that nature happens by itself without anyone controlling it, then we feel stuck and helpless. We look around in fear and despair. But if we recognize א-ל-ה-י-ם, viewing nature as אלה, as the handiwork of Hashem, then we are not trapped. We can feel calm and secure, knowing that everything is being run and governed by G-d.
This is why in the beginning of Parashat Bo, Hashem tells Moshe that He was bringing the plagues upon Egypt in order to place אותותי אלה (“these wonders of Mine”) within Pharaoh’s heart. The purpose was to change Pharaoh’s perspective from מי ה' to אלה, to make him understand that the world is not random, but is rather carefully run and managed by Hashem.
Lessons From an African Safari
I’m not much a vacation-type person, but once I went with my wife on a fascinating trip to South Africa. Somebody had won as a prize a low-cost trip which he offered to us, and we gratefully accepted. We spent some time in the Jewish communities in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and also spent a few days on an African safari.
It was a remarkable experience – and it enabled me to experience a sense of אלה, to see Hashem’s creation, like never before.
The safari takes place in an area in South Africa that is larger than the entire State of Israel, and is, literally, untouched by human hands. It is nature in its rawest, purest form. You go into an open jeep with a guide who drives on a dirt road as you look at all types of creatures in their natural habitat – birds, elephants, lions, leopards, snakes, giraffes, and much, much more. The place is exactly that way it’s been since G-d created the world. No human being has planted, built or done anything there.
The nature is breathtaking to watch, but it is inspiring to learn about. As our guide explained to us what we were seeing, and why certain creatures did what they did, it was impossible not to see the infinite greatness of Hashem.
For example, we saw a leopard eating an impala on the top the tree. Our guide explained to us that the leopard eats most of the impala, and then part of the remaining portion of the carcass is consumed by the vultures. When the vultures leave, the leftovers begin to rot. The hyenas, which can eat rotten food without getting sick, eat the remaining meat, and then insects come and eat everything else. When this process is complete, nothing of the carcass remains, and this way the jungle does not become infested by disease.
When our guide explained all this, I thought to myself, “Hashem is awesome!” He created nature in such a way that everything flows, everything works in prefect tandem. He arranged everything with precision, ensuring that everything works out exactly right.
It then occurred to me, if Hashem created and runs the world, and He makes sure everything runs smoothly, even seeing to it that the carcasses of impalas in the African jungles won’t spread disease, then why do we ever get nervous? Do we not think Hashem can work out our finances with or without the big sale we are trying to make? Is He incapable of helping our children succeed even when they are having trouble in school? Hashem has created the world in such perfect order, with such a perfect flow. Do we doubt for a second that He can work out our little problems, or even our bigger problems?
At one point we saw a herd of buffalos, and I noticed that one buffalo had a large wound, an actual hole on its back. A bird came and started pecking away at the wound.
I turned to the guide and expressed my sympathy for the poor buffalo. Not only did it get hurt, but now a bird was pecking right at its wound!
“Just the opposite,” the guide explained. “The bird is helping the buffalo.” The birds like the taste of the buffalo’s blood, and by sucking the blood from the wound, the bird cleans the area so it does not get infected.
Seeing this is a lesson in אלה, in the recognition that everything in the world is carefully and precisely orchestrated by Hashem, who has everything, without any exception, worked out to perfection.
Nature’s Vacuum Cleaner
We also saw on the safari termite mounds – hundreds of little hills made by termites. When a tree falls in the forest, termites come and cover the tree with sand, as they need a sand covering over them in order to work. After making their covering, they get to work digging small tunnels leading underground. They cut up the wood of the tree, and bring the wood through the tunnels underground where it becomes a fungus, which is what they eat. As they travel to the next site in search of more wood, they produce waste, which contains nutrients. These nutrients make grass grow.
This is how Hashem arranged for there to be grass in Africa – by having termites dig tunnels, cut up trees, wait for the wood to become a fungus, eating and then producing waste. Do we have any doubt that He can work out our lives for us, too?
At one point in our travels we were shown two beetles on the ground rolling a ball. This might not sound very exciting, but once we were told what was happening, this become one of the most inspiring sights I’ve ever seen. Our guide explained that these were “dung beetles,” one of 60,000 (!!!) species of beetles that exist in South Africa. The eggs of this species of beetle can grow only if it is placed inside the bodily waste of animals. And so, these beetles instinctively collect the waste they find on the ground and roll it into a ball. They then lay their eggs inside these little mounds of waste. The dung beetles are, in essence, the “vacuum cleaners” that Hashem created in order to keep the jungle clean. He created a species with this peculiar need – to lay eggs in dung heaps – in order for them to “sweep” the floor of the jungle.
Our guide told us that people in Australia once imported millions of dung beetles from South Africa in order to clean up the waste, hoping that this would reduce the number of flies. Within two weeks, all the beetles were dead. It was discovered that as these beetles collect the dung, they get very dirty, but a certain species of tiny insect would eat the dirt that collected on the beetles’ joints. This ensured they would be able to stay healthy and function properly. In Australia, the beetles did not have these tiny mites cleaning off their joints for them, and so they got sick and died.
Hashem found a way to keep the floor of the jungle clean, and to keep the beetles healthy so they could do this job. And we get flustered when a kid spills the milk all over the floor, or when the housekeeper comes late?
Staying Calm in Hashem’s Harmonious World
Human life is not much different than life in the jungle.
In our lives, too, everything is perfectly harmonized. Different people have different talents and challenges, strengths and weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages, gifts and needs. Some people need to teach to earn a living, and there are people who need to learn. Ill patients need help, so there are physicians who care for them. Society runs with this kind of harmony and flow – with different kinds of people providing each other what they need. One person is looking to buy, another is looking to sell. Some people provide certain services for a livelihood, and other people who make a living in other ways pay for those services which they need. Hashem created our world with this kind of harmony and balance, so that everything works out and the world runs smoothly.
Recognizing אלה, seeing the perfect harmony and flow of the natural world, should go a long way towards helping us stay calm, cool and collected in situations that would otherwise get us flustered. No matter how intractable a problem seems, we can trust that Hashem has a solution. He’ll work something out. If He found a way to keep the beetle’s joints clean as it sweeps the jungle, He can figure out solutions to our problems, too. He runs a harmonious system in the natural world, and He runs a harmonious system to take care of us, too.
When we feel as though we’re in מצרים, trapped and stuck in an impossible situation with no solution, let’s try to remember the message of אלה, that the world does not run randomly and haphazardly. Everything, excluding nothing, is controlled and perfectly managed by Hashem. And if we remember this, and realize that He is capable with His infinite wisdom to work out everything, then we will always stay calm, cool and collected, regardless of the circumstances.