From a Different Angle

Living Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear

Sometimes a person wants something very badly and sees his peers receiving it, while he remains lacking. Naturally, he feels bad, wondering why everybody but him seems to receive. Yet, this is not necessarily a feeling of jealousy. They just see how easy it is for Hashem to grant it, and that makes them feel worse. No matter how many times we hear a concept in emunah, hearing it again can have a greater impact. Sometimes, reacting the way Hashem wants is very hard. Even though we know it's what we're supposed to do, it is still difficult to implement. Hearing it again from a different angle may provide the chizuk a person needs to react better than they would have without that chizuk. Rachel Immenu performed a heroic act by giving her husband-to-be to her sister to spare her embarrassment. She did eventually marry Yaakov as well, but she remained childless while Leah was having children. She watched as her sister had child after child while she remained barren. Then she gave her maidservant, Bilha, to Yaakov and had two children through her. Rachel named the second child נַפְתָּלִי as a description of what she was going through at that time. Rashi explains she was saying how hard she was begging and pleading with Hashem to give her a child, and at least she merited to have a child through her maidservant. The Malbim explains that the word נַפְתָּלִי implies a covering as in צמִיד פָּתִיל . Rachel was saying, "The reason my sister keeps having children while I do not is completely hidden(covered) from me. It is from the hidden ways of Hashem that are beyond my comprehension." And then she said, גַּם יָכוֹלְתִּי , "But I am able to accept it with happiness because I know that Hashem only does good." After that reaction, she merited to have her very own child, Yosef. Perhaps one of the zechuyot she needed to finally merit a child was this reaction to her situation. Accepting the will of Hashem with joy is an enormous zechut. When a person doesn't see any reason why he shouldn't have something, and everybody else seems to get it, it's extremely hard to accept the will of Hashem with joy. We know that this is the way we are supposed to respond. And we know that Hashem always acts with our best intentions. It's just not easy to accomplish. The pasuk says about Naftali: " נַפְתָּלִי שְׂבַע רָצוֹן וּמָלֵא בִּרְכַּת ה ' "—"Naftali is satisfied with favor and full of Hashem's blessing." Rachel's attitude when naming that child affected his very essence. It must have been extremely hard for her to maintain that attitude, but it accomplished so much. Our actions and thoughts are very powerful. When a person is struggling with something, the last thing they want to do is to be happy with it. They simply want the difficulty to end as quickly as possible. Being able to be happy with the emunah that Hashem is doing the best possible thing for us is very difficult but very rewarding. However, it cannot be done as a ploy to get what we want. We have to truly work on ourselves to genuinely feel happy, knowing that Hashem is doing the absolute best for us right now. The reward for maintaining such thoughts might eventually change our circumstances, but that cannot be our sole motivation. May Hashem help us cultivate the right attitude in all situations. And may Hashem bless everyone with כָּל מִשְׁאֲלוֹת לִבְּכֶם לְטוֹבָה .