Continuing with the topic of what our eyes see, Rav Wolbe’s introduction to Alei Shur brings down a Gemara in Masechet Berachot that describes certain commonalities between God and the soul. One of them that he focuses on is that, “
מָה הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא רוֹאֶה וְאֵינוֹ נִרְאֶה
God sees and isn't seen.
אַף נְשָׁמָה רוֹאָה וְאֵינָהּ נִרְאֵית
So too, the soul sees but can't be seen.”
Rav Wolbe bases his whole approach to religion and spirituality on this concept. A person has to realize that spirituality is something that we can't see. In order to lift yourself up to a spiritual state, you must, for the moment, ignore everything that you see with your eyes. Because whatever we see with our eyes is connected to physicality and the body. And what we don't see with our eyes, that’s spirituality. He adds that spirituality is as real as, or more real than, something physical. We look at something real as a table, a chair, or a house. Spirituality is as real.
You just can't see it or touch it.
This is not a philosophical concept, it's real, just like God is real even though we can't see Him. So too, our Neshama and spirituality, the real us, is real. We must train ourselves to discern our spirituality, our inner world, a world that we don't see. That's the beginning of our service of Hashem.
This is important because we live in a world where we're influenced by the Greek philosopher, whom the Ramban called the Cursed Greek, who introduced us to the concept that we only believe in what we see; that's the whole concept of the scientific approach- which is that we have to be able to take it to the laboratory and study it under a microscope, and only then is it truly there.
Well, you can't study God under a microscope, and you can't study a mitzvah under a microscope, and therefore, they deny all of that. But our fundamental belief is that we believe in what we don't see.
One of the reasons we say Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad, which is our battle-cry, with our eyes closed and our hand on our eyes, is because everything that we see with our eyes is contrary to Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad The world doesn't look like Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad
This is important, especially in our times, because although we must do things that are tangible, such as helping people and doing acts of kindness, there are certain things that we do, specifically for the war effort, which no one can see. No one can see the impact of your Tehilim. No one can see the impact of your prayers. No one can see the impact of your good deeds or your self-control. No one can see the impact of forgiving somebody or getting along with somebody. We can't see the impact of these acts, but we have to believe in the world that we can't see, and not just in the impact in the world that we do see. During one of the wars in Israel, the Jordanians shot a missile that made a direct hit on the Mirrer Yeshiva in Yerushalayim. Everybody trembled. It was going to explode, and who knows what would happen. It was a direct hit. But right before the bomb hit, there was a lady in the bomb shelter who had been an aguna. Her husband had left her many years before. He just walked out. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz was near this woman, and he heard her say, “God, I forgive him. After everything that he did to me. I forgive him. And You, Hashem, please forgive us, for whatever we did to you.”
Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz said that this lady's prayer is what saved the Mirrer yeshiva. That lady, who did an act of forgiveness, protected the whole Yeshiva! That's nothing you will see. That's not an Iron Dome shooting missiles down.
That's not anything physical or tangible. That is something spiritual. And we have to believe in the power of spirituality, or (this might sound a little corny), the reality of spirituality. Spirituality is real. Just because we don't see it, that doesn't make it not real. We have to be able to understand the concept that we are not what we see.
The world is not what we see. That's what separates the greats from the rest.
There is a famous story about how the Chazon Ish stood up when a child with special needs walked in. Someone asked, “Why are you standing up for this child? He doesn't have any understanding.”
The Chazon Ish answered, “If he came down to this world with less responsibilities, it's because he has a greater soul and he has less to do. Therefore, I'm standing up for his soul.”
That's the way the Chazon Ish looked at this child. Not in a physical way, but in a spiritual way.
And that's how we have to look at life. We have to train ourselves to appreciate spirituality.
Have a wonderful day.
