Today is Asara B’Tevet, when we are supposed to contemplate the destruction of the Bet HaMikdash.
There’s a beautiful thought from Rav Eliyahu Svei that combines Ahavat Yisrael and Bitachon in the quest for the rebuilding of the Bet HaMikdash.
He quotes the famous Midrash that says, “Woe to us on the day of judgment, Woe to us on the day of rebuke.”
If Yosef, who was the youngest of the Shevatim, confounded his brothers when he said two words, “Ani Yosef/I am Yosef,” imagine what will happen when God tells us, “Ani Hashem/I am Hashem.”
The question is, what exactly was the rebuke that Yosef HaSadik gave to his brothers when he said the words, “Ani Yosef?“ It was only two words, that stated who he was.
The answer is that their whole lives, they were living with the thought that Yosef was a threat, that he was out to get them. They thought he had grandiose thoughts, and that dreams indicated what he was thinking, but in truth it was the brothers that were (we can almost say) at fault.
Yosef was not out to get them. They misunderstood everything. Therefore, those two words Ani Yosef, caused them to be confounded. It was an eye opener that they had lived a lie.
So too, says Rav Eliyahu Svei, after 120 years, when Hashem introduces Himself to us and says Ani Hashem, we will realize how we lived life thinking that we were doing things. Of course, we have Emuna and Bitachon on our lips, and maybe even in our hearts to some extent. But do we really understand how little we are doing? Do we really understand that nothing that we do makes a difference? Do we really understand that our friends really can’t do anything to us?
He says that all of the little squabbles and arguments and jealousy and hatred come from the fundamental misunderstanding that we think that we are doing things, or that we don’t do enough, or that someone else does too much. We think that this impacts what will happen to us. But that is not the case at all. So those two words, “Ani Hashem,” will show us what we were living our lives for. Furthermore, he says that when we realize that Ani Hashem means that God created the wold L’Kavod Shamayim/ for the honor of Hashem, we will come to realize that if I am here for the honor of God, and you are here for the honor of God, shouldn’t we work together? Shouldn’t be we be trying to help each other out to reach our end goal? Shouldn’t my success be your success? Shouldn’t your success be my success? Shouldn’t we work together as a team?
When you work together as a team, you try to fill-in for your friends lackings. If you were trying to climb Mount Everest with a team, and someone did something that wasn’t smart, you would try to fill in, because of the common goal of getting to the top.
We are all on a team working on a goal and the goal is L’Kavod Shamayim. When a person has a full understanding of Ani Hashem, he lives his life in a totally different way. Everybody, on their own level, needs to refocus on these two magical words Ani Hashem.
When we truly realize Ani Hashem, it will change the way we live our lives. It will impact our Emunah and a Bitachon, and change the way we treat our friends. That’s what we can accomplish with those two magical, life-changing words. Ani Hashem, And that is what we are trying to do now. We don’t want to wait for the Ani Hashem.
We want to try, in our own lives, to get that clarity that En Od Milevado/There is nothing else but Him. We can talk and talk, but we have to walk the walk.
We have to think about how often we say, “He did this or that…” Or, “I have to get this guy off the case, he’s interfering….”
We have to realize and focus on the fact that there is no he. There is nothing else going on. We focus on all of these outside things, but they aren’t really relevant.
Of course, we have to do our hishtadlut. But we have to realize that they are all messengers and sticks, none of them make a difference. Recently,on Shabbat, I saw a man I know, who had been working on his Bitachon. He looked very pale that morning, and then again later that day. When I asked him what was wrong, he said that he had gotten locked out of his apartment and he ended up sleeping in the lobby on a chair. But he realized that had this happened a few years ago, he would’ve been kicking in screaming, and who knows what he would have done.
But now that he was working on his Emuna and Bitachon, he knew that it was what Hashem wanted, so he took it in stride and slept in the lobby.
That is a good attitude, and that takes work. That is what we have to work for. We have to realize that everything around us is controlled by Hashem. When we have the clarity of Ani Hashem, that will bring back the building of the Bet HaMikdash, soon in our days.