We are discussing the upside-down theory.
We don’t understand why things happen. We think they’re for one purpose when they are really for another. After the last class, someone asked if this meant his business challenges came in order to get him to shul to strengthen his religion. We don’t know, but that’s the way Hashem works. He’s trying to get us to a certain place. We might think that we go to shul and pray in order to fix the issues, when in reality the issues arise just to get us to go to shul.
Rav Yerucham Levovitz explains this concept beautifully with an example from Yetziat Mitzrayim. We learn that after Bnei Yisrael left Mitzrayim on the 15th of Nisan, Pharoah changed his mind and began to chase them on the 6th day. On Sheva shel Pesach, the seventh day, Hashem split the sea.
But why did Pharoah have to change his mind?
There are many reasons given for this but one midrash answers with the following pesukim from Shir Hashirim:
יוֹנָתִי בְּחַגְוֵי הַסֶּלַע בְּסֵתֶר הַמַּדְרֵגָה הַרְאִינִי אֶת מַרְאַיִךְ הַשְׁמִיעִינִי אֶת קוֹלֵךְ כִּי קוֹלֵךְ עָרֵב וּמַרְאֵיךְ נָאוֶה.
My dove is in the crevice of a rock, hidden. Let me see your face and hear your voice. For your voice is sweet and you’re pretty
Shir Hashirim, we know, speaks in a poetic fashion The simple explanation is that a dove is hiding in a crevice stuck between a snake and another predator, chirping.
The nimshal/ explanation given is that the dove is the Jewish people, stuck in a tough spot with the Egyptians one side and sea on the other. And Hashem wanted to hear our voice.
Another mashal in the midrash is that one day a king was walking through the forest and heard a maiden calling out in distress. The king came along, saved her and they married.
Time went by and after an argument she wouldn’t speak to him. The king decided to hire men to act as bandits, to chase her on her walk. She’d scream and the king would come along like a knight in shining armor, rescue her, and once again they’d have a happy marriage. (Please don’t try this at home)
That’s the technique Hashem used with us. We were in Egypt and we cried out, so Hashem rescued us. Then we stopped calling out. Hashem wanted to hear our voice, so the Mitzrim came and chased us.
The rabbis further explain that we have two modes of prayer. When we are in trouble we pray one way, and when things are going well the prayers change. Just like the story we told about about the Elder of Novardok and his yeshiva when they were hiding out during WWI. They were starving for two days, and prayed to Hashem like it was Yom Kippur but when they finally found food , the Elder said it was as if they’d traded their tefillot for a sack of potatoes. That’s how we are. The purpose isn’t to get the potatoes. It’s the prayer. Hashem wants a connection with us. He is yearning for us. He wants to hear our voices, for our own benefit.
But we don’t understand this. We are like the wife that gets enough money for the week so she doesn’t have to talk to her husband.
It’s the nature of the beast. We just can’t help ourselves.
We all have to understand this,but especially the women. When we ( Sephardim) name a baby girl at the Torah, we say this same pasuk from Shir Hashirim about the dove.
יוֹנָתִי בְּחַגְוֵי הַסֶּלַע בְּסֵתֶר הַמַּדְרֵגָה הַרְאִינִי אֶת מַרְאַיִךְ הַשְׁמִיעִינִי אֶת קוֹלֵךְ כִּי קוֹלֵךְ עָרֵב וּמַרְאֵיךְ נָאוֶה.
With her voice sweet and her looks so pretty ... And then we give the baby-girl her name.
Why is this the pasuk that’s chosen? Because we are about to name a girl. The girl’s force of the mouth is not to learn Torah, it is to pray for family, her children, her husband, herself. We name her with this pasuk because the essence of it is that Hashem wants to hear her voice in prayer.
Whatever challenges you have, cry out.
Even when things are good, cry out. The main thing is that Hashem should hear your voice. Don’t wait for the problems. Let Hashem hear your voice. Cry out songs of praise.
BeH we will all have only good things and keep up our connection with Hashem.