We continue with Emuna lessons from Rav Chaskel Abramsky’s sefer Melech B’Yofyof ( page 612):
In Parashat Vayetzeh, when describing Yaakov Avinu , the Torah says, “Yaakov made a neder/vow saying…
If God will be with me..”
But Rav Abramsky says that we can read also the pasuk as, “Yaakov made a neder, to constantly say, If God will be with me.”
In other words, Yaakov Avinu’s neder was to get used to saying B’Ezrat Hashem, Im Yirtzah Hashem, With the help of God, If God wants…
The first statement of his neder was to constantly mention, “God is with me.”
The Shelah Hakadosh says that a siman for this is the phrase,
“עצת ה׳ היא תקום
The advice of God will stand up.”
If you have a thought in your head and it’s God’s idea, it will last. But how do we know if it’s God’s idea?
עצת ה׳ היא תקום
The letters of the word היא rescrambled, stand for
אם ירצה ה׳
If Hashem wants
When a person gets into the habit of saying,I’m Yirtzeh Hashem/ If God wants, it will bring success.
He also says something fascinating-
We see in Parashat Hukat that God was exacting with Moshe Rabbenu for hitting the rock rather than speaking to the rock. But the commentaries say that really, Moshe Rabbenu wasn’t supposed to go into Eretz Yisrael anyway. God was, so to say, looking for a pretense to hold him back from entering, so it had to be something.
Rav Abramsky tells a story that he says he heard from Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer-
As was well known, the Chafetz Chaim planned to move to Eretz Yisrael later in life, but he did not end up going- for a variety of reasons-
As we have said in the past, when the great Syrian Mekubal Rav Shaul Dweck HaKohen, who was in Eretz Yisrael at the time, was told that Chafetz Chaim was preparing to come (it was world news), he said he’s not coming.
How did he know?He was a great mekubal.
When the Chafetz Chaim did not end up coming, they asked him how he knew, and Rav Shaul answered that a Gadol Hador has to be owned by Klal Yisrael, by the people at large. If he is owned by one party, then the other party thinks he is not theirs, and he can’t be a true Gadol and world leader. The Chafetz Chaim was a world leader. But if he were to come to Eretz Yisrael, with so many different groups, factions and parties, he’d end up belonging to one group over the other, and would not be able to have the same leadership power.
Sure enough, he didn’t come.
There were other, on the ground reasons that covered up the real reason Hashem didn’t allow it to happen.
In 1935, the Chafetz Chaim spoke in Radin for what they thought was the final time before he’d leave.
It was his final goodbye speech. After he spoke, one of the baalei batim, asked (in simplicity and with no ill intentions) why the Chafetz Chaim did not say Im Yirtzha Hashem even once in the whole speech.
That night, the Chafetz Chaim’s wife suddenly got sick with very severe disease, and they canceled their trip.
Rav Abramsky added that of course, Hashem was very medakdek/exacting with the Chafetz Chaim, and there were more reasons he didn’t end up moving, but what Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer brought out was that when a person doesn’t use the term Im Yirtzah Hashem, it might be a signal, or even a cause, for something not to be successful. We have to get into this habit.
In our community we say, “Inshallah,” which is the Arabic way to say, “With God’s help,” so this has been in our vernacular for a long time. We also say “Allamaak,” which means “God be with you.”
This is an ancient tradition, whether in Arabic, English or whatever language you speak.
B’Ezrat Hashem, we will take this lesson to heart.
Have a wonderful day.