We continue with the Bet Halevi on Bitachon. He tells us,
כי אפילו אם חלילה הצרה קרובה ואין האדם יודע שום עצה האיך להנצל ממנה,מכל מקום דרכי ה׳ נעלמים המה מעיני האדם
If heaven forbid, misfortune is near and you have no idea how you’re going to get out of it (and it seems that you're in trouble), the ways of Hashem are hidden from the eyes of man
This is an important principle. Don't think you can figure out how Hashem works. There's a famous D’var Torah from the Bet Halevi (in another place) where Yaakov Avinu says,
שִׁ֗יר לַֽמַּ֫עֲל֥וֹת אֶשָּׂ֣א עֵ֭ינַי אֶל־הֶהָרִ֑ים מֵ֝אַ֗יִן יָבֹ֥א עֶזְרִֽי׃
עֶ֭זְרִי מֵעִ֣ם יְהֹוָ֑ה עֹ֝שֵׂ֗ה שָׁמַ֥יִם וָאָֽרֶץ׃
“I lift up my eyes to the Harim (the midrash says, not to read it as Harim/mountains rather Horim/parents). “I look up to my parents,”
I look at my father, Yitzhak. How did he get married? He got married with Eliezer coming with 10 camels, loaded with gold and silver and all kinds of treats, and brought Rivka back without any effort on Yitzhak’s part. And here I am without a word dollar to my name.
What am I going to do? Where am I going to get the money from? Am I going to give up hope for my Creator?
From where will my help come?
Don’t worry.
Ezri M’Im Hashem
My help will come from Hashem, Who's the One that makes the heavens and earth.
The obvious question is, it sounds like Yaakov is giving up hope, and then he has to say, ‘Don't worry, Ezri M’Im Hashem,’ as if he didn't know where it would come from.
The Bet Halevi explains that Yaakov Avinu was wondering, so to say, how Hashem would work it out.
Where am I going to get the money from? M’Eyin Yavo Ezri?
And then he says, “Hold on. I have to give ideas to God? I have to find out ways? I'll leave it to Him. He has unlimited ideas and plans.
Therefore, even though, right now I don't see any way out, Hashem's ways are limitless.
This is one of the principles of Keriyat Yam Suf. At the time of Keriyat Yam Suf, there were groups who said they should fight, and other groups who said to pray… to scream… there were all kinds of different ideas of what to do with the enemy behind us and the Yam Suf in front of us.
But nobody said, “Hey, I have a great idea. Let's jump into the sea and the sea will split. The Egyptians will chase us and the sea will come crashing down.”
Nobody would ever think of that. But that was Hashem's plan from the beginning. That was the plan the whole way through. They were literally at the cusp of the Geula, as the Rambam and Rabbenu Bachye write. They were so close to the Geula, and yet they had no idea where it was coming from.
This was Hashem’s plan. Borrow the gold and silver, cause the Mitzrim to chase them… with the goal of drowning them in the sea.
That's the principle that parnasa is difficult as the splitting of the sea and shidduchim are as difficult as the splitting of the sea. These are two examples of things that are going to happen in ways that sometimes we don't understand.
How is it going to happen? Where is it going to come from? It comes in the most hidden ways. That's something we have to keep in mind, that just because we don't see a way out, that doesn't mean that there isn't a way out.
I know someone that was going through a difficult time and on his phone, his screen saver was a picture of the splitting of the sea. He would look at it to give himself hizuk and say, Hashem made the sea split, Hashem can save me in a way that I never thought of, in the most farfetched of ways.
There are stories upon stories of how people’s parnasa or shidduchim came.
There's the story of how the the ash from a volcano over Europe caused a guy to miss his flight, and he ended up marrying a girl…. we all know stories of where things happen in the uncanniest ways. People meet each other and things happen.
We have to remember that at all times- Hashem can make anything happen, even at the last moment when you seemingly give up hope.
That is really what's going on now. It says that Mashiach will come when the Jewish people give up hope of the Geula. What does that mean? It means they don't see any natural way of the Geula happening. They give up hope from any human way of it happening.
And then, Mashiach will come. That's what we're waiting for. When we realize that there is no way out, that Hashem has a plan that we will never understand, that's when things start happening.
Having a wonderful day.