Shabbat, which marks the culmination of the week, signifies completion. It is the time to take a step back from the humdrum of daily life and appreciate the larger picture. And for this reason, negativity has no place on Shabbat, because when we see the larger picture, we see nothing negative.
משפטי ה' אמת צדקו יחדיו – “The judgments of Hashem are true; they are righteous all together” (Tehillim19:10). Hashem’s judgments are undoubtedly true, but they often do not appear as צדק – righteousness. The righteousness can be recognized only יחדיו, when we see the broader picture, how everything fits into place. So often an event seems negative and even tragic, but the day will come in the future when we will be shown the full picture, and we will see very clearly how even the seemingly negative events were beneficial and expressions of Hashem’s unlimited kindness. The Hebrew word רע (“bad”) comes from the word for “break,” as in the pasuk, תרעם בשבט ברזל (“Crush them with an iron staff” – Tehillim 2:9). Things appear “bad” only when they appear to us as “broken,” as isolated fragments. When we view them as puzzle pieces that fit seamlessly together, we can appreciate how they are all part of the Almighty’s master plan for the world.
Shabbat is מעין עולם הבא, a glimpse into the next world. Although full clarity will be achieved only in the next world, we can experience a taste of this clarity even in our world, on Shabbat. And thus Shabbat is a time to appreciate the broader picture, that everything we experience is but a small segment of a vast reality which we do not yet see, and it is all good.
This is why the word כל – “everything” – features so prominently in our Shabbat prayers, such as in the prayer, הכל יודוך והכל ישבחוך והכל יאמרו אין קדוש כה'. Shabbat is a time of כל, to remind ourselves that when everything is taken into consideration, when we view events not in isolation, but rather as part of כל, we realize that it is all for the best.
Parashat Mishpatim, which presents many of the Torah’s civil laws, begins with the introductory phrase, ואלה המשפטים אשר תשים לפניהם – “These are the statutes which you shall place before them.” The Zohar explains that on a deeper level, this pasuk means, אילין סדורין דגלגולא – that is, the Torah alludes here to the concept of gilgulim, that when a person dies without completing his mission, his soul returns to the world. Somehow, the Zohar found a connection between the משפטים, the Torah’s code of civil law, and the notion of gilgulim, the fact that souls return to the Earth when they have “unfinished business” to take care of.
The Degel Machaneh Efrayim explains that the concept of gilgulim relates to משפטים because it is the reason why a litigant will occasionally lose his case in a Torah court even though he is correct. There are times when a person is rightfully entitled to compensation, but Torah law will not require the other party to pay. The Zohar teaches that this happens because of the larger picture, because of events in previous gilgulim of which we are unaware.
This concept comes to light in a famous story told of the Baal Shem Tov, who once sent his distinguished disciple, the Maggid of Mezritch, to climb a tree next to a certain stream and remain there silently for a day to observe. The Maggid did as he was told, and he saw a wealthy man riding on a horse and stop by the spring to take a drink. As he got off the horse, his money bag fell from his pocket onto the ground. The man did not notice, and so after drinking he simply mounted his horse and rode off. Later, another person came along, saw the purse, took it, and went on his way. Then a visibly destitute man came to the stream and sat down to rest. As he sat there, the wealthy man, who in the interim had realized he had dropped his purse, returned. He saw the pauper and assumed that he must have taken the purse. The pauper denied seeing a purse, and the wealthy man was enraged. He beat the pauper in an effort to force him to confess. When he realized that no confession was forthcoming, he stopped beating the fellow and rode off.
The Maggid was bewildered by what he saw. At the end of the day, he got down from the tree and returned to the Ba’al Shem Tov to report what had happened.
The Ba’al Shem Tov explained to his student why the events unfolded this way. In a previous life, this wealthy man had borrowed money and refused to repay the loan. The lender took him to court, and the judge unjustly favored the borrower ruled in his favor. The man who took the wealthy man’s purse was, in his previous incarnation, the borrower, who now retrieved his money. The poor man was the reincarnation of the judge, who was beaten for issuing a biased and incorrect ruling.
Another story of the Ba’al Shem Tov which illustrates this point is told, interestingly
enough, by both the Hafetz Haim (in Sefat Tamim, chapter 4) and Rav
Eliezer Papo, in Pele Yoetzi (chapter
on theft) and in Orot Elim (pp. 200-201). The Ba’al Shem Tov was once visiting a
certain wealthy merchant, who was a dear friend of the Rabbi. While he was there, he noticed a young horse,
and he asked his host if he could have it as a gift. The merchant respectfully refused, noting the
horse’s great value, as it was capable of performing the amount of work
equivalent to that of four ordinary horses.
The Rabbi then asked if he could instead go through the man’s IOU
documents and take one as a gift. The
man was, naturally, apprehensive, fearful that the Rabbi might seize control
over a large debt owed to him.
Nevertheless, he reluctantly agreed.
The Ba’al Shem Tov went through the man’s documents, and took one piece of paper and showed it to the man.
“Can I take this one?” he asked.
The merchant took one quick glance at the document and breathed a sigh of relief. “Certainly,” he said. “This is a debt owed by somebody who died years ago. I’ll never get that money back, anyway.”
The Rabbi thanked the man, took the paper, and tore it into pieces. The man then brought the Rabbi outside to see the horses, and discovered, to his dismay, that his prize horse had suddenly died. He turned to the Rabbi and asked for an explanation.
The Ba’al Shem Tov told him that the man who owed him that debt returned to the world as a hard-working horse in order to pay off his debt through his work. Once the debt was transferred to the Rabbi, who tore up the document and waived the debt, the horse no longer had to work, and so it died.
Of course, we are not the Ba’al Shem Tov, and thus we are not privy to this information. But stories like this remind us that there is far more to everything that happens than meets the eye, and if we would see the full picture, we would see how it all makes perfect sense.
Some twenty-five years, somebody whom I know very well was in his 20’s and looking to get married. He was studying in Lakewood, and every week or two he drove to Brooklyn for a date. Nothing worked out. After dating around thirty or forty girls, he felt very down, and went to Rav Mordechai Schwab of Monsey for some advice and encouragement.
“On Purim we wear masks,” the Rabbi told him, “but the truth is we wear masks all the time. I don’t really know who I am and who you are. We don’t know who we were in our previous lives.” It is quite possible that in a previous life, this young man was a boss who mistreated his secretaries, and maybe he fired forty women for no legitimate reason. He was thus required to spend some time with each of them, giving them attention and respect, to rectify the damage he had done in his previous life. In order to facilitate this process, Hashem sent shadchanim to suggest that he date these women, who had been reincarnated.
Once we understand the concept of gilgulim, it becomes easier to accept life’s challenges and difficulties. Indeed, Rav Yaakov Hillel, one of the great Kabbalists of our time, remarked that the reason why the great Mekubalim revealed to us the concept of gilgulim is for this very purpose – to understand that we don’t understand, that there is so much background to everything that happens, of which we are unaware. This is especially true in our times, when we are approaching the arrival of Mashiah when all events will become clear and all questions will be answered. All the tragedies that appear to have no explanation – the Holocaust, terror attacks, and so on – will become clear, and we need to realize that there is so much more to every situation than what meets the eye.
Rav Yehuda Ades would tell his students that we all need just to live our lives the proper way, and then Hashem will take us to where we need to be to fulfill our purpose in this world. Sometimes, though, we need encouragement to help us overcome life’s challenges, and this is when the concept of gilgulim can help us by reminding us that there is so much we do not see, and that one day everything will become clear.
On a personal note, this mindset once helped me get through a very difficult period. I once worked as an eighth grade rebbe in a certain yeshiva. This was just my third year as an educator, and this was an especially challenging class. Eighth grade boys are always difficult to manage, and teaching this class, in particular, was a frustrating and gut-wrenching experience. One day, I thought to myself that perhaps in a previous life, I caused a group of men to waste a lot of time. Maybe I took them to the racetrack or brought them gambling. I have therefore been sent here to spend ten grueling months trying to force them – who have returned in the form of these eighth graders – to learn Torah.
This is something we can do to help us remain calm and composed in any situation. If somebody dents our car and gets away with it, this does not seem fair, but it is likely that a score from a previous life is being settled. There is so much going on behind the scenes that we do not know. Once we trust that Hashem always has our best interests in mind even when we cannot see how, life will be so much easier to handle.
Shabbat is the time to reinforce this belief. It is the מעין עולם הבא, the time when get a bit of the clarity of the next world. And so there is no room whatsoever for negativity on Shabbat, the day when we see the larger picture and are to recognize how everything is, in the grand scheme of things, only good.