Welcome to the Daily Chizuk. If a person is trying to do something good and there are obstacles, don’t interpret that to mean that Hashem wants you to stop. We don’t know how to interpret signs. Our job is to try our hardest to do what we feel is correct, no matter how many obstacles there are. Maybe Hashem wants to give you more reward by making it difficult. We have no idea. What’s expected of us is to put in our full effort. Only after you have tried your hardest, when there’s nothing left to do and it still hasn’t worked out, do we say, “It was the will of Hashem that it didn’t work out,” and I accept it fully with joy.
For example, a person wakes up early to go to shul and finds that his car is being blocked. Don’t say, “Okay, Hashem, You don’t want me to go to shul, so I’m not going to go.” No. Try your hardest to get there another way. Maybe Hashem knows that if you overcome this challenge and get to shul anyway, your prayers will be so much more powerful, and today you need a very powerful tefillah (prayers). But if you’ve done all you can and you still missed the minyan (prayer quorum), then you accept that Hashem didn’t want you praying at that minyan for whatever reason.
This applies in many areas of life. We don’t know how to read signs. We always have to make our best efforts to do what we feel is the right thing, especially when it comes to shidduchim (marriage match). Sometimes the road is very bumpy. You shouldn’t say, “It must be that Hashem doesn’t want the shidduch to work out.” We find in the Torah an example of a shidduch happening very easily, and another that had a lot of obstacles. But it was clear that both were made in heaven; both were Ratzon Hashem (the will of Hashem).
In this week’s parasha, Eliezer was sent to find a wife for Yitzchak, and he wasn’t given too many details. Avraham just told him, “Go to my homeland and find someone.” It didn’t sound like an easy job. “Where should I go in your homeland? Who should I find?” Yet the shidduch was completed in a matter of hours. We find that Yaakov Avinu (our father), on the other hand, was given very clear instructions when he went to find a wife: “Go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Betuel, and take a wife from the daughters of Lavan.” It should have been very simple. He knew exactly where to go. Yet it took him seven years to get married. And after all that, it was Le'ah.
Yaakov could have said, “It must be that Hashem doesn’t want me to marry Rahel. I tried my hardest. It’s not working.” Yet he continued to do what he felt was correct, and he also married Rahel. It turned out that it was only because of all those difficulties that Yaakov merited to have children with Rahel. Chazal (the Sages) told us she was barren, and it was only because she gave over the signs to Le'ah, to marry Yaakov, that she merited to have children. It was because of the difficulties that the shidduch ended up working out the way it did.
We don’t know how to interpret obstacles, and we’re not being asked to interpret them. We must always try to do what we think is the will of Hashem. If we tried and ultimately it didn’t work out, then we say, “Hashem knows what He’s doing. She wasn’t meant for me, or He wasn’t meant for me.” I totally accept. Now let's move on to something else. Have a great day.