There’s an eye-opening quote from the Daat Tevunot, one of the books that Rav Moshe Haim Luzatto, the Ramchal wrote. He's more famous for the Mesilat Yesharim, which is a mussar book. Daat Tevunot is a bit more of a deeper philosophical book.
He says, ‘You have to know the following important introduction that in truth, Hashem never despises His handiwork, Heaven forbid, and He does not forsake or leave the world. But at a time that it looks like God has forsaken the world or a person, Aderaba/it’s the exact opposite. God is creating some new goodness in the world and His thoughts are always on us.
He says, “His thoughts are on us all day, only to fix, not to destroy. It’s just that He hides His idea and His plan in a very, very heavy cloak.
So it looks like the world is forsaken, but that's not the case.”
What's his proof?
There is a rule in our Torah, called the Binyan Av, which literally means a building block, where if you see something once, you can figure it out for all the later times, so it doesn't have to keep on repeating itself. His proof is one of those building blocks, and it comes in this week’s Parasha. Yaakov Avinu was disturbed by the fact that the Shevatim had revealed so much personal information to the unknown Viceroy, causing him to keep Shimon behind to prove that there were in fact 12 brothers and to bring back Binyamin. Yaakov was distraught, and he said, למה הרעותם
לי/Why'd you do evil to me?
And God said (and this is beyond our comprehension), “I'm involved in making your son into the king and your complaining?”
That's what it means when the Jewish people at large will say,
נסתרה דרכי מה
My ways have been hidden from God.
That is to say that the entire time that Yaakov Avinu was in pain over the separation of Yosef, God was busy turning the wheels to make Yosef the king, and eventually keep the Jewish people alive, in serenity, during those years in Egypt. But it was an עצה עמוקה /It was a deep cloaked idea. And therefore, it's very covered and you can't see it.
And he continues,
וזה בנה אב, שלכל עילוי שרוצה הקב"ה לתת לאדם או לעולם, הנה כל זמן הזדמן הטוב - אינו מזדמן ובא אלא מתוך עומק עצה נסתרת, ועל כן יקרה קודם לו צער. והרי זה כענין שאמרו ז"ל (ברכות ה ע"א), "שלש מתנות טובות נתן הקב"ה לישראל, וכולן לא נתנן אלא על ידי יסורין":
This is the building block: any uplift that God wants to give, either to a person specifically, or the world at large, in order for this good to be brought about, it only comes through a deep idea and plan, and therefore there is a pain. That pain is the feeling of the cloak or cover.
This is the meaning behind what our rabbis tell us in Berachot, “There are three that God gifts gave the Jewish people to, and they all come from suffering: Torah, Eretz Yisrael and Olam Haba.”
If you want to get any of those wonderful gifts, you have to go through that process.
This is important at this time in history, when we are in a situation where, seemingly, God has forsaken us. We have losses, we have tragedies, we have challenges.
We don't see a way out. There's a lot of pain. And it can cause a person to have these thoughts that the Ramchal quotes, that God is disgusted with us, that God has forsaken us, that God has left us. But we have to know the key word, Aderaba which is Hebrew for, ‘Just the opposite.’ We have to look at ourselves like Yaakov Avinu, that God is preparing a smooth path, and we are going through the pain that's necessary, to cloak and cover that tremendous Ilui, that elevation that is going to come soon.
It’s our responsibility to believe that. As we've quote in the past from Rabbi Salomon, at the end of Yaakov’s Avinu life, he says, האל רעהGod is my Shepherd. But the word for Shepard, Ro’eh, is spelled without a Vav, which could mean ‘the God who does evil to me.’ Yaakov Avinu was looking back and saying, “All those times that I thought it was Ra’ah/ evil, it was really Ro’eh/God was shepherding me.
Mizmor L’David Hashem Ro’ee
Hashem is my shepherd.
That's an important lesson in life, to remember this concept, this important principle that the Ramchal gives- the important introduction of how God brings good into the world.
Have a wonderful day, a Shabbat Shalom, and enjoy the last day of Hanukah.