I saw a beautiful thought brought down in one of the sefarim of Derashot of the Ben Ish Chai.
It says in this week’s Parasha that Yitro heard
אֵת֩ כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֨ר עָשָׂ֤ה אֱלֹקִים֙ לְמֹשֶׁ֔ה וּלְיִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל עַמּ֑וֹ כִּֽי־הוֹצִ֧יא ה' אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מִמִּצְרָֽיִם
Everything that Hashem did for Moshe and Bnei Yisrael, that He took them out of Mitzrayim.
The Ben Ish Chai is bothered by the word כל- “everything” What does that refer to? Rashi says that it refers to the manna, the well, etc. and ultimately, Yetziat Mitzrayim above everything else.
But the Ben Ish Chai understands it as everything that happened in Mitzrayim. What does that mean? He quotes the Alshech, who says that if we had been there at the time, it would have looked like there were some areas where the Egyptians still had some level of survival. For example, the hail didn’t destroy everything. Certain things were left over. Not all of the animals died; in certain situations the animals that were put into barns were saved. But the Alshech says that ultimately, that small survival was only there for the purpose of future decimation. Whatever vegetation survived the hail was eaten by the locust; the horses that survived were used in the army and eventually drowned in the Yam Suf. So all of the little pieces that really looked like the Egyptians had survived and weren’t totally wiped out, was really just for their downfall. Yitro understood that, because he looked at everything. He looked at the whole picture.
The Ben Ish Chai says that this is an important rule- We always have to look at the whole story, and we aren’t privy to the whole story.
The Rambam explains the pasuk in Mishleh (perek יד, pasuk יב)
יֵ֤שׁ דֶּ֣רֶךְ יָ֭שָׁר לִפְנֵי־אִ֑ישׁ וְ֝אַחֲרִיתָ֗הּ דַּרְכֵי־מָֽוֶת
A road may seem straight ( like a good path) for man. But in the end it is a road (the Vilna Gaon says it’s multiple roads) to death.
A road may look like a nice path, but there isn’t just one wrong turn on the road, there are many wrong turns.
The Rambam says that G-d saves you from that road, but you don’t know the full picture of it.
He uses this to explain the Mishnah in Masechet Berachot, (perek ט)
Man must bless on the good and the bad equally.
The Rambam says that we don’t really need the Mishnah to tell us this. This is something that any intelligent man will figure out. There are many things that look good in the beginning, that turn out bad in the end, and the opposite. Therefore, he says, the thinking person doesn’t get devastated when something bad happens, because he realizes that he doesn’t know the end. He doesn’t know where it’s taking him. And of course, the opposite is true. When you see wicked people having good things, you don’t know where it’s taking them either.
This is an important bitachon lesson.
There is a beautiful story going around, which was told by Rabbi Elimelech Biderman. If you haven’t heard it yet, now’s your chance.
A singer who lives in Israel received a call from an askan, (a man involved in doing good deeds). The askan told the singer about an orphan who loved music, who was going to become a bar mitzvah. The man said it would be a great Mitzvah if this singer could perform at the Bar Mitzvah at no charge. The singer hesitated, “No charge? But this is my business.”
But the askan encouraged him and said it was a Mitzvah, and the singer agreed. He performed at the bar mitzvah, made it exciting and lively, and it was a huge success. It really helped the boy forget all of his worries for the night and it was a beautiful event.
Two days later, the singer received a phone call that the bar mitzvah boy had corona. This singer had spent the night sitting next to the boy, and now he would have to quarantine for two weeks. The singer thought, “This is the reward I get for doing a Mitzvah? Now I have to stay home and lose business for two weeks?”
Then a few days later, the musician himself tested positive for corona! Now the Mitzvah really didn’t seem like it got him anywhere
But then, a few weeks later, he got a phone call from an organization in America. They wanted to fly him to America to perform at a major bar mitzvah event for orphans. He would be performing with world-class singers. This would be a big opportunity for this man. It could be his great debut, and bring him fame. He asked them how they heard about him, and they told him that someone from their organization had been at the bar mitzvah of that orphan boy, and they were so impressed with how he had made it so lively. They decided that he had to be at this event too. But there was one condition. The only people that would be allowed to come in from Israel were people that already had corona.
Of course, this man already had corona, thanks to sitting next to that boy. So all the parts of the event, that didn’t seem very happy, turned around to be happy.
That is the Rambam’s rule, and it works both ways. The good and wonderful things that the wicked are enjoying, we don’t know where it takes them, and the bumps on the road of the righteous- we don’t know where that is taking them either.
That is what the Ben Ish Chai says was Yitro’s wisdom. He saw the whole picture, and realized that even what looked like good for the Egyptians was really doomsday.
We should only see the good. Have a wonderful day.