Interested in Only One Thing

Living Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear

The Ohr Hachayim writes on the pasuk, " וַיָּבֹא מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן אֶל־פַּרְעֹה וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כֵּן כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ה '", that the will of Hashem is more precious to the Tzaddikim than anything else in this world. Here the Torah testifies that although Moshe and Aharon had just performed an open miracle in front of Pharaoh by turning a stick into a snake and they could have felt very proud of it, nevertheless they were only interested in one thing: " כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ה '", doing it because it's what Hashem wanted. Hashem loves when we want to do His will. If a person truly has a desire to do the ratzon of Hashem, then Hashem will give him Heavenly help to accomplish it. A man told me that after his father passed away, he accepted upon himself to continue doing the chesed that his father did for others, which was placing older people in the right care, including putting them in the nursing homes that would suit them the best. The man felt that every chesed he would do in this area would be honoring his father and honoring Hashem. And because of his passion, he has seen tremendous Siyata Dishmaya in finding ways of helping people. For one example, recently, he was on a business trip across the country. While he was there, he received a call from a woman crying that her mother wasn't being taken care of properly and she needed help. He asked her where she was located. Amazingly, she was in a home in the city in which he had just landed. He told me he hadn't been in that city for over a year and had never received a request for help from that city. He didn't even know how she heard of him. He said he wasn't familiar with the area, but he would do his best to help. He told her he would call her right back after his business meeting. He then went to the meeting, and afterward, his partner wanted to go to a certain shopping center with him to look at the merchandise in the store window there. They used Waze to locate the store. Waze took them to the back entrance of the shopping center, and a sign on one of the doors there caught his eye. It was the office of the local Bikur Cholim. He went in, and the president of Bikur Cholim happened to be there at that moment. He was able to get from him all the information he needed. He then called that woman back and helped her in the best way he could. He said he had no idea how he was going to help her, but Hashem led him to the one place that was able to provide the information he needed to help her the right way. Another man told me he was working very hard on guarding his eyes from seeing the wrong things. He got rid of his smartphone. He put a strong filter on his computer, and he even moved to a very religious block. The day after he moved into his new house, he was looking out of one of the windows and was able to see clearly into an apartment building a few blocks away. There was one apartment that caught his eye. The entire apartment was visible, especially at night, as they didn't close their shades and the occupants dressed very immodestly. This was visible from two of his main windows. On the following nights,the same scene repeated itself. They never closed their shades. His family loved natural light, but by keeping their shades open, it would pose a hazard to him. For the next few months, they kept the shades closed, and then they went away for the summer. The man prayed very hard to Hashem to solve this problem for him. He did not want the daily test of having to hold back from looking at improper sights. He was trying so hard to avoid this test, and now it was right in his face. He begged Hashem to help him, and lo and behold, when they came back from the summer vacation, they were pleasantly surprised. A neighbor on the next block built a large extension just tall enough to block that apartment building from their view. They were so thankful to Hashem. This man really had no idea how he was going to solve this problem, but he didn't need to know. All he needed was a yearning to do the will of Hashem, and he prayed for help, and Hashem gave him the help that he needed.