Yesterday we told a story with a very important side-lesson: Rav Eliezer HaGaddol, a Tanna, was imprisoned and charged for being a religious Jew. They were ready to execute him for this, when the judge asked why an elderly man such as he would bother with such silly things. Rav Eliezer answered: נאמן עלי הדין
I accept the judgement of the Judge.
Was he talking to G-d or to the judge?
The judge thought Rav Eliezer was talking to him, but he was actually talking to his Father in Shamayim. So did the judge simply misunderstand what was really Rav Eliezer’s prayer?
The Shelah HaKaddosh says that in reality, Rav Eliezer was doing both. He was talking to the judge, but he knew the judge wouldn’t be able to make a difference. In his mind, while he said to the physical, human judge, “The judge is loyal,” he was really talking to G-d at the same time.
He says that we find the same thing with Esther. Esther HaMalka said, “If it’s good on the good אם על המלך טוב ואם מצאתי חן לפניו וכשר הדבר לפני המלך וטובה אני בעיניו יכתב להשיב וגו'
If it’s good for the king and I have found favor in his eyes.....it should be writtento turn around the decrees.
Says the Shelah HaKaddosh, she was talking to the king, but her whole intent is that she’s talking to G-d.
Furthermore, in chapter two of Nechemiah, it says, “I prayed to Hashem, and I said to the king, if it’s good for the king and you like me, then send me back home.”
Was he praying or talking to the human king?
The Shelah says he was doing both. If someone was pulled over for speeding, and said, “Please have mercy,” it would seem as though he was talking to police officer, and that police officer would think so as well, but at the same time the person would be taking to G-d.
And so, says the Shelah HaKaddosh,
וככה יהיה בלב כל שתדלן העומד לפני מלך ושרים:
That is how any Jewish representative should be thinking when he talks to the king.
He brings another case. Later, in the same Masechet Avodah Zara, it says they brought in Eliezer HaPratah, and asked him why he learned and why he stole. He told them that if he was learning, he couldn’t have been stealing; and if he was stealing, he couldn’t have been learning. How could they accuse him of being a rabbi and a thief? You can’t be the Rosh Yeshiva and the mafia boss at the same time.
In his words, אִי סִיְיפָא - לָא סַפְרָא, וְאִי סַפְרָא
לָא סִיְיפָא.
if a sword, not a scribe and vice versa.
Therefore, he argued, the charges were trumped up, and he was let off the hook.
Simply, he was talking to the judge. But the Shelach HaKaddosh says, in an addendum, that there is a Midrash Rabbah that says
הסייף והספר ניתנו מכורכין מן השמים
“A sword and a scroll came wrapped together” Meaning one has a choice- either choose to keep religion or if not, Heaven forbid, you choose the sword. Hashem is telling the Jewish people, there are the doors: Door #1 is religion, and you are in trouble if you choose Door #2.
This is what Elazar Ben Pratah meant when he spoke to the judge. “if a scribe not a a knife,” means, “If I’m learning, how can my head be chopped off? Isn’t the rule “If a scribe, no sword?”
He was not just telling the judge that there was an inherent contradiction in the charges against him. He was talking to G-d.
Based on this approach the Gaon of Vilna explains a very perplexing Gemarah in Masechet Megillah:
The Gemara (Megillah 16a), elaborates on the moment in Megillat Esther when Esther informed Achashverosh that her nation was threatened by Haman’s decree to annihilate the Jews. Esther first explained that her nation was threatened, and Achashverosh then asked her to identify the person who dared to destroy them. The verse tells us that she pointed to Haman and said, “This evil man — Haman!” Surprisingly, the Gemara derives from the wording of the verse that that Esther was about to point to Achashverosh himself, for he, too, sought the destruction of the Jewish people (see Megillah 14a). But just then an angel moved Esther’s finger towards Haman.
This story seems incomprehensible. Esther’s whole goal was to petition the king to intervene and save the Jews. How could she, at that moment, mean to blame Achashverosh for the decree?
The Gaon of Vilna answered that when righteous people speak to kings or other people of influence, they recognize with perfect clarity that their fate ultimately depends on Hashem. Even as they speak to the king, in their minds, they are speaking to Hashem.
So Esther, while talking to Ahashverosh, was totally focused on her prayer, and when she heard a voice ask who it was, she was replying to G-d, “It’s Ahashverosh!” She was so lost in her prayers that she slipped, so to say, and was about to point to Ahashverosh when the angel came and saved her.
The Rama of Pano says the same thing regarding Daniel and Nevuchadnessar. Daniel was talking to the king, but he was really talking to the Shechina. He brings other examples as well, and ends his sefer Asarah Mamarot, with the following words:
The purpose of this...
ללמד בני יהודה לשית עצות בנפשנו שיהיה ה׳ לנגדנו תמיד
Is to teach the Jewish people to always try to look for ideas that Hashem should always be in front of us, because they wanted to realize that it’s really Hashem that makes all the decisions.
ולפניו תטוף מלתנו לפייס
And in front of Him we will spill out our words to appease and to ask for all our needs
There is no one to ask but Hashem Himself, but we have to talk to the police officer and we have to talk to the judge and the king, and the minister. But we realize that that is just our hishtadlut. It’s a tremendous principle that we learn from this Gemara, and of course, a great lesson in Bitachon.
We trace this back to a pasuk we have quoted many times and the the Bet HaLevi quotes in his essay on bitachon. It is a pasuk from Yeshayah.
G-d says,
ה֥וֹי אַשּׁ֖וּר שֵׁ֣בֶט אַפִּ֑י וּמַטֶּה־ה֥וּא בְיָדָ֖ם זַעְמִֽי׃
“Whoah! The Assyrians are the the rod of my anger”
G-d is saying they’re just a rod that He is holding. They can’t really do anything.
We have to constantly remind ourselves of this tremendous principle.
It goes quite far, as the beautiful thought of the Chatam Sofer illustrates: He says that one the first miracles when Moshe Rabbenu came to Mitzrayim was that of the staff and the snakes. They threw down snakes and they turned into a staff. Paroah compared himself to a serpent, or lizard; so here G-d was telling him, “You think you’re that powerful serpent? You are nothing more than a staff in My hand. So now we are going to take the snakes and turn them into a staff.” There is nothing else in the world. It is all a staff in G-d’s hands.
We can all apply this: Anytime we say “Please” to any person, we can think that we are saying, “Please Hashem.”
For an extension on a lease, of whatever we may need, when speaking to someone, we should think, “I’m not really talking to him. I’m asking Hashem for help.”
What a wonderful lesson.
We hope we can reach these great levels.