While in Israel, I heard a beautiful thought from Rav Shraga Shteinman, son of the famous Rav Shteinman, who passed away not long ago.
In Parashat Behukotay, (Vayikra 26,9)
Hashem says,
וּפָנִ֣יתִי אֲלֵיכֶ֔ם which literally means, I will turn towards them.
But Rashi says that it can also mean free (like a taxi driver is panoy/free, or a single girl is called a Penuya because she’s free) Hashem says,
“I will free myself from all of My businesses to pay your reward.”
God will, so to say, free His calendar to sit down with you and tell you what he owes you. Rashi quotes from a Torat Kohanim that says this is compared to a king who hired workers.. The Rashi ends there, but the Torat Kohanim continues on saying that there was a king with many workers. One of the workers was more dedicated than the others and had worked for the king for many months. The others were more like temps who were called in to work for a brief period of time. The king took care of these temps first, and then he requested more time to make an accounting with his more dedicated worker. The nimshal is that the Jewish people in this world want our payment from God, but Hashem says, “I will give you My full time to focus, but first I have to take care of the rest of the world, whom I owe a little bit to. To you, I need to give my full attention.”
The Chafetz Chaim, in his sefer Shem Olam gives the following mashal to answer the question of why we see the wicked successful while the righteous Jewish people have suffered through years and years of antisemitism, pograms, Holocausts and persecutions.
His mashal is that a wealthy man had many simple farmer working for him, with their overalls and pitchforks. When he was making a wedding for his son, he knew that he needed to invite his farmers, but on the other hand, if they came, it would ruin the wedding. He was expecting all kinds of noblemen and respectable people. So he came up with a solution. He made an early party, which he invited these farmers to, and he told them it was the wedding party. He served them meat and wine and played music. They ate and drank and were happy. He told them that he invited them, while even his family wasn’t there.
Then, when the farmers left, he threw the real party, that lasted for months. Anybody that saw the farmers eating, before the friends of the man had an eaten anything, might wonder what was happening. Why were the farmers more important to the boss than anybody else? But in the end, they would realize that that was not the case.
The Chafetz Chaim says the nimshal is self-explanatory.
Here we are in this world, where we see the party. We see everybody eating and enjoying the party, but we don’t realize that this is a mock-party. Everything that we are seeing, all the enjoyment that’s going on around us, it’s just for the workers. We have to decide which party we want to go to. Do we want to sign up for the worker party, or do we want to reserve a spot at the real party? This is where we are right now. We are waiting for the real party. This will give us the hizzuk and ability to withstand, and wait, because we know that God is
וּפָנִ֣יתִי אֲלֵיכֶ֔ם
He will turn towards us and give us His full attention. He will give us our full reward. Everything that needs to be done will be taken care of.
Bezrat Hashem, we should merit to see that great day, that great party, and have the patience and wherewithal to survive while we wait outside. Have a wonderful day.