We continue with the pasuk that we quoted yesterday,
כִּֽי־אֵשֵׁ֣ב בַּחֹ֔שֶׁךְ ה׳ א֥וֹר לִֽי׃
When I sit in the darkness, God is my light,
The Ramchal, Rav Moshe Chaim Luzatto, known for his sefer Mesilat Yesharim, wrote an essay on redemption, and in it he quotes this pasuk, with a very powerful lesson. He says, “This pasuk tells us the secret of the Jewish people's reliance and hope in God.
When people think that God is hiding Himself and has forsaken them, what's going on at that time is, God is preparing great treasure houses, that there is no end to their width and no end to their greatness. And God is putting in these treasure houses all the most wonderful and elaborate, kingly treasures. And when finally the time comes, God is going to reveal these things.
He says the mouth can't describe, the ear can hear, and the heart can't even fathom. And that's what's going to be revealed to us. And, he says, All the time that the Jewish people were in exile and the light was not shining on them, that light that was fit for those days wasn't lost. God was hiding that light in these treasure houses and they'll be all unleashed.
That means, for example, that for every single day, man has a God-given right to 10 ounces of light. Multiply that by his years, and it’s 3,650 ounces of light for his lifetime. But some days seem to be dark. What's with those dark days?
That light is being stored; it’s growing in the light bank. And the light that's going to be unleashed will be something unfathomable. He says That's the meaning of the pasuk- God will make us happy like the days that he pained us. So the darkest of times just means that God is putting the light away, making it even better and greater. And don't say, “Let me just have the light today.” No, God is causing that light to grow and develop in the most wonderful of ways. We have to believe that. Yaakov Avinu was held accountable for only a few words that he said, that God said was not proper. When he said, Why'd you do bad to me when was complaining to the brothers. What'd you do? Why'd you tell them that you had a missing brother? Why'd you tell him the whole story? What are you doing?
God said, “Yaakov, I'm preparing you to go down to Mitzrayim in a royal carriage rather than in steel chains, and you're complaining and saying, ‘Why'd you do bad?’
But what do we want from poor Yaakov- look what was going on! His son was torn up, he didn't know where he was… it was a horrible story. But God was saying, No, you should have looked at it differently. I'm preparing Mashiach. I'm preparing all the great things.
And at the end of Yaakov Avinu’s life, Rav Matityahu Salomon says that he said the words Elohim, HaRoeh Oti/God, Who is my Shepherd.
And the word Ro’eh is normally written Resh Vav Ayin Heh, but in this case, it's written without the Vav- Resh Ayin Heh, which could also be read as Ra’ah/ evil. He realized that the evil was not evil. The evil was really coming from God, my Shepherd. And that's the important lesson of this pasuk:
כִּֽי־אֵשֵׁ֣ב בַּחֹ֔שֶׁךְ ה׳ א֥וֹר לִֽי׃
When I sit in the darkness, God is my light,
There is a light here and God is saving that light for the future.
David Hamelech uses the same term: Hashem Ro’eh/God is my Shepherd.
ה׳ רֹ֝עִ֗י לֹ֣א אֶחְסָֽר
בִּנְא֣וֹת דֶּ֭שֶׁא יַרְבִּיצֵ֑נִי עַל־מֵ֖י מְנֻח֣וֹת יְנַהֲלֵֽנִי God crouches me in luscious grass and brings me to waters of tranquility.
But the word L’harbitz can also mean to whack, to beat.
The Chafetz Chaim says “I am in luscious grasses and God hits me and makes me go away from these luscious grasses.”
We wonder- Why is this happening? Why isn't God letting me enjoy the luscious grasses?
And the answer is, because I want to take you to a better place.
Sometimes in life we think, Life is good- why is God making us leave the situation?
But we have to realize that it's only to get us to a better place.
This is the secret of the Jewish Bitachon, says the Ramchal, to understand this in the darkest of situations of life. We might not see it now, we might not appreciate it now, but that's what we have to believe, that Hashem is only creating light for us.
כִּֽי־אֵשֵׁ֣ב בַּחֹ֔שֶׁךְ ה׳ א֥וֹר לִֽי׃
When I sit in the darkness, God is my light.