I would like to start off with a Halacha about one of the laws of Purim, which will teach us an important lesson. The Sefer Aruch Hashulchan, one of the Poskim, discusses the following question: Can a person send a Mishloach Manot before Purim, in order for the recipient to receive it on Purim. So, he sent it before Purim but the receiver got it on Purim. Seemingly, if the goal of the Mishloach Manot is that the recipient should get what he gets, what difference would it make when the sender sends it?
He says that you can’t fulfill your obligation by sending it early. Why?
Because it’s not just about the recipient receiving it, it’s also about the sender sending it. That is an important rule, and that is what we are going to discuss today.
Not always when things happen around us, are they for the event outside of us. Rather, they are for what is going on inside of us.
Rav Yerucham Levovitz brings this out with a philosophical introduction. He says that if you ask a person why we have feet, the person would say because otherwise we would be unable to walk. But the question is, why do you need to walk?
Many times, we have certain givens, and we build our world around that given. He goes on to discuss why we have to give Sedaka. Because there are poor people. But then he asks why there are poor people. This is really a Gemarah in Masechet Baba Batra , where a certain gentile asked Rabbi Akiva, “If your G-d loves the poor, why doesn’t he feed them directly?” To which Robbie Akiva responded, “In order to give us merit and save us from Gehinom.” So, no we don’t give Sedaka because there are poor people. There are poor people, so that we can give Sedaka. Because we need to give Sedaka. The poor person is doing us a favor, by being the recipient. They are just the “prop”, so to say, and we are the main character of the show. Of course, we ourselves can be other people’s props as well. But for our discussion today, we have to look at ourselves, (although it might sound arrogant) and say, as the Gemarah says, “The world was created for me.” And in my world, the world is here for me to become a better person. That is why they are poor people. It is an order to enable me to give. Rav Yerucham Levovitz brings as proof, the famous Rambam in a Mishnah in Pirkei Avot. The Mishnah says, “ everything goes according to the abundance of the activity.”
The Rambam says that this means that if a person has choice between giving 100 people one dollar, or giving one person $100. Which one should he choose? Rambam says that is it is better to give 100 people one dollar. One might think that you could gain more by giving one person $100. But the answer is that our goal is not for the recipient to receive. Our goal is for us to become greater givers. And the more people that we give, and the more individual acts of kindness that we do, the more we become givers.
What does this have to do with Bitachon?
It is a way to look at life. For example, I recently witnessed a woman taking care of her nagging children. This is a common scenario, because people have to raise their children, which comes with צער גדול בנים the pain fo raising children.
One might wonder why we have to deal with this, and assume that that is just the way that children are. Children are cranky and naggy until they mature. But why did Hashem have to make the world that way? Why can’t kids just start out mature and not nag to begin with? The answer is that it’s because the mother needs to deal with it! That is the real answer. It is for the mother. The children are naggy because the mother needs to deal with that.
This applies to every situation in life. If a person comes to a meeting and they have to wait 10 or 15 minutes for another person, that happens so that the person can develop his patience. This just happened to me. I tried to pull into my driveway, but someone was blocking it. I was actually preparing this class as it happened, and I wondered what a chutzpah this person had! I thought about maybe putting a note on his windshield asking him why he was blocking somebody’s driveway. I had to park on the street. I couldn’t park in my own driveway. That’s not nice. But then it hit me. He did it for me! And I don’t know if I passed the test or not. People block our driveways, for us. It is in order for us to be able to work on ourselves and become better people. This is an interesting lens with which to look at life. Everything that happens is for us. They are all challenges for us to overcome and become better people.
Have a great day.