We continue to discuss the great levels of Bitachon of Yaakov Avinu. The Yalkut Shemoni on Tehillim says the following:
Rav Chama the son of Rav Chanina says that there is no more disgraceful occupation than a shepherd. He walks with a stick, and leather sack, he’s busy with sheep in less than comfortable situations. It’s not the most glamorous of jobs.
So how is it that David HaMelech says, in the famous Perek 23, מזמור לדוד ה׳ רעי לא אחסר
G-d is my Shepherd, I lack nothing
It seems like it’s almost an insult to call G-d a shepherd.
The Midrash answers that David said, I’ll look at what my elders did.
Yaakov Avinu called Hashem his shepherd, as it says, אלוקים הרעה אותי
G-d, who is my shepherd.
So, if Yaakov Avinu could call G-d a shepherd, then David reasoned that he could as well.
We see here that the Hiddush of calling Hashem a shepherd belongs to Yaakov Avinu. It was his hiddush. He said this towards the end of his life when he was talking to his grandchildren and he said,
אלוקים הרעה אותי
G-d is my shepherd.
Rav Matityahu Salomon said something beautiful about this, that we’ve mentioned in the past: The same rabbi, says in Bereshit Rabbah, the same Rav Chama bar Chanina: Yaakov Avinu never said anything that was empty.”
Only once, when he told the brothers
למה הרעותם לי
Why did you do bad for me?
(He said this after he found out that they told the Mitzrayim that they had another brother Binyamin) Hashem said, This is what you say? Look how I’m bringing you down to Mitzrayim in such a nice way. Why use such a word- “bad?”
We can’t fathom this at all. Yosef is seemingly dead, Shimon wasn’t there and now that they had revealed Binyamin, his last son from Rachel would be taken as well.
He had all the right in the world to say, “What did you do?” But on his level, Hashem says Yaakov Avinu should not have used the word “bad”.
Rav Matisyahu says that G-d, so to say, caused Yaakov Avinu to make this slip, in order to be able to give us the lesson at the end of his life; so that’s he could tell his children that anything that looked רעה-bad in my life was only seemingly evil It was really רועה- Hashem, my Shepherd. That was the Hiddush of Yaakov Avinu, and that is what David HaMelech taught us in the Mizmor (23) of
ה׳ רעי לא אחסר
Hashem My Shepherd
We will go through some lessons as brought down by the Ruach Haim, in Pirkei Avot ( perek ב Mishnah ד)
He explains how David HaMelech uses the beautiful mashal of sheep. Sheep have no idea what’s good for them. They trust their shepherd to take them to the right place. So too, a person should throw all of his worries on Hashem, that Hashem will take care of him.
And just like sometimes the sheep want to leave and move on but the shepherd keeps them in place, or in other times the sheep want to stay in place and the shepherd makes them move, so too, as David HaMelech says,
בִּנְא֣וֹת דֶּ֭שֶׁא יַרְבִּיצֵ֑נִי עַל־מֵ֖י מְנֻח֣וֹת יְנַהֲלֵֽנִי׃
“If He pushes me to stay here, it’s because the grass is luscious. If He moves me onto another place, it’s because He wants to direct me to the calm waters. “
In life, there are many times when a person desperately wants to be in a certain place but he’s not able to stay there. Later on, he sees why it was good to leave, whether it’s a job, a school or a neighborhood. Sometimes a person wants to leave and he has to stay. Everyone has their own stories. Share them with your family. Show them how Hashem was your shepherd.
In the end, everything is for the good.
Of course, this sounds nice when it’s a happy ending, but what about when there is no happy ending?
Rav Elchonon Wasserman, one of the Gedolei HaDor of his generation died in Europe during the Holocaust. He had actually been in America collecting funds and went back to his Yeshiva in Europe, although they pleaded with him not to (he said a captain does not abandon his ship). He went back, gave his students hizzuk and when his Yeshiva was eventually disbanded, he got a visa to leave with his family. As they got into the coach to leave for the ship, a large trunk fell out and landed on his son’s leg and his leg broke. Rav Wasserman couldn’t leave his son behind, so he stayed, and he ended up perishing.
Sometimes a leg breaks, they miss the ship and it turns out to be the Titanic. But here, he missed the boat that would’ve saved them from perishing in the Holocaust. So where is the happy ending?
David HaMelech takes care of that.
גַּ֤ם כִּֽי־אֵלֵ֨ךְ בְּגֵ֪יא צַלְמָ֡וֶת לֹא־אִ֘ירָ֤א רָ֗ע כִּי־אַתָּ֥ה עִמָּדִ֑י
Even though I’m going in the shadow of death, I’m not afraid, for I know the purpose of this is to cause me to be with You, and come close to You.
As we’ve said, Rav Wolbe was in Mirrer Yeshiva before the Holocaust and was forced to leave because he was a German national. He went to Sweden where he spent the war years. One Rosh Hashana after the Holocaust, he went from bed to bed to each survivor, to blow the shofar for them. He met a man who said he watched thousands of Jews perish at the gas chambers. But he said there was not a train load for which Shema Yisrael could not be heard coming from the gas chambers, whether they were devout Jews or total communist atheists. They all screamed out Shema Yisrael. Rav Wolbe said that had these people died in their beds at 80 years of age, they may not have gone to Olam Habah, as they had little, if any, religion in their lives. But this גיא צלמות- this valley of the shadow of death, brought them to כִּי־אַתָּ֥ה עִמָּדִ֑י -to realize that G-d is with them.
G-d is the ultimate shepherd, and the one that taught us this lesson is Yaakov Avinu. He understood that ה׳ הרעה אתי- that Hashem was his shepherd.
The greatest of leaders are great because their shepherd is G-d.
Another beautiful Midrash, Bereshit Rabbah נח says David was the shepherd of the Jewish people, but who was David’s shepherd? Hashem. As it says, ה׳ רעי לא אחסר
The greatest of people that are shepherding the masses understand that their ultimate shepherd is G-d Himself.
That’s one of the messages we received from Yaakov Avinu.