The Bet Halevi tells us when anything that comes our way, in any new situation that arises, or when success happens as well, a person has to understand, “It's not the cause that’s the means that brought about the profit, it’s the opposite. Because it was decreed on Rosh Hashanah that he would get a profit, that is what caused this means to become available to him.
For example, for a while, many people in the Syrian community profited from having lucrative licenses. If you had a Disney license and you put a Disney character on your pajamas or whatever it may be, you were successful.
So if a person got a great license and he was making a lot of money, he might say to himself, “Wow, I made so much money because I had this license.
But the Bet Halevi says no. Rather, Because you were supposed to make so much money, that's why you got the license.”
It’s actually the other way around. What comes first, the chicken or the egg?
Rav Dessler says this is a concept we have to constantly reiterate because the way we see things in this world is like a person peeking through a keyhole, seeing a pen writing on a paper. If the viewer didn't know better, he would think that the pen writes on its own. Of course, the pen writes only because someone is holding it. The pen's movement is the effect, not the cause. Similarly, when a general leads his army to victory, his triumph is the cause, and his power is the effect.
But we have to understand that in reality, that's not what's happening. In reality, the ultimate cause for everything is Hashem's decree.
Another example: The Brisker Rav said that when a person has a hole in his pocket and money falls through, he shouldn't say, “Oy, I have a hole in my pocket! That's why I lost my money.” It’s the other way around. Because you were supposed to lose your money, you got a hole in your pocket.
I call this the Upside-down theory, because it causes us to look at the world the opposite of the regular way of looking at things. We look at things with cause and effect, not understanding that it has nothing to do with the seeming natural cause. The Bet Halevi brings this out from a midrash from a pasuk in Parashat Miketz, The pasuk says, “It was after two years, that Paroah had a dream.” On that it says, that's what the pasuk in Iyov means, where it says, “There's an end to darkness.”
The word for end is Ketz, the same as Miketz/ at the end of two years.
The midrash says, “There was a certain amount of time that Yosef was supposed to spend in jail, so that’s when Paroah had the dream.” What is the lesson in this midrash? The Bet Halevi explains that we should not think that Paroah’s dream after two years, is what got Yosef out of jail.
It’s the opposite. It was decreed that Yosef would stay in jail for two years, based on the fact that Yosef said, twice, ‘Remember me,’ for which he was punished with two additional years. So it was the decree of the two years that came first. And now that the decree was up, that is why Paroah had the dream. Paroah had the dream because the time was up, not the opposite.
This is such an important rule.
A certain couple didn't have children for many years. They finally decided, when they heard a certain Sadik was in town, to go to him for a beracha. So after being married for 10 years, they got a blessing, and they had a child nine months later. But they started regretting, “If only we would've gone to this Sadik years earlier, we would've saved ourselves all this pain.”
Then someone told them that it was actually the opposite. It was only because the time had come that they ended up going to this Sadik. It wasn't meant to be until then.
This is a very important rule in how to look at life. Always look at life that it’s the decree first. Never second guess yourself, “If I would've done this….If I would've done that.”
Now is the time. And that's why it happened now. There's a time for everything. When the time comes, that is when the salvation comes.
Have a wonderful day.