Daily Chidush: How to apply Emunah through financial and other Hardships?

0:00Hello, how are you? Hope you're doing well. We're back here from Israel, Baruch Hashem. We're back in the U.S. On one end, it's great to be back here so we can do a lot more work, a lot more kiruv in the U.S. and many other trips we have planned. On another end, it's a little painful to leave Eretz HaKodesh, the Holy Land, you know, the... and Chazal says, what's the significance of Am Yisrael and the Jews? Why did Haman, for example, want to destroy every single Jew? Why did he want to destroy the nation of Israel? Because Haman was from the nation of Amalek. And just like the Kisei HaKavod, missing a leg. The Throne of Glory is missing a leg so long as there's a single Jew that's not connected to Hashem, a single Jew that's not saying Kaddish every day, a single Jew that's not doing tefillin or keeping Shabbat in the world. The Throne of Glory is missing a leg, but so is the throne of the Satan also missing a leg so long as there's even a single Jew left in the world and

1:08So when we went to Eretz Yisrael, Baruch Hashem, we did many, many lectures over there in Netanya, in Yerushalayim, in Rishon LeZion, and Beit Shemesh. Some we recorded, and some were during the holiday or Shabbat, so we couldn't record them. But Baruch Hashem, we really saw a lot of amazing things in Israel. There's a lot of work to be done over there, but also a lot of people are yearning for the truth. And I think that one of the reasons why Hashem gives us this feeling when you leave Eretz HaKodesh because in order for you to deserve to be in Israel, you have to yearn for it. And just like in the Torah it says that when people make sins, the land vomits them out. At the same time, if we ever want Mashiach to come, if we ever want to have an Aliyah, If we ever want to be truly connected to the holiness of the land, we have to yearn for it. So in order to yearn for it, you have to know what you're missing. So when you go there, B"H (Baruch Hashem), you have a lot of opportunities to seek Kedushah. But this also brings us to the daily Kiddush of what we need to learn from all of this. What is the common problem that we see everywhere in the U.S., in Israel, everywhere in the world? It's a common issue that people have a constant problem with Parnassah.

2:30And the problem is not necessarily the parnassah itself, the making of financial means themselves, but it's an understanding of how Hashem runs the world. When we got to the Yam Suf, the Sea of Reeds, the nation was very scared, as we've mentioned in previous lectures. They didn't know what to do. Some wanted to fight the Egyptians when the Egyptians followed us and wanted to attack us. Some wanted to go back to being slaves. And some wanted to just go into the sea and drown and just kill themselves. They just didn't know what to do. And in Parashat Beshalach, when Moshe Rabbeinu prays to Hashem, begging Him, "Please, help us." It says in Exodus, chapter 14, verse 15, "Vayomer Adonai el Moshe, ma titzak elai, daber el Bnei Yisrael v'yisa'u." Hashem said to Moshe, "Why do you cry out to Me? Why do you scream to Me? Speak to the children of Israel and let them journey forth." Now, if you just read the basic understanding, which some people try to do on their own, they just try to understand the basic literal meaning of the Torah—this means absolutely nothing. What do you mean, go into the sea and just drown? What do you mean, move forward? What do you mean, journey forth?

3:55didn't know that Hashem is going to make a miracle. He didn't tell us. He didn't tell us He's going to split the sea. He didn't tell us He's going to do something completely unnatural. So what do you mean, journey forth? How do you expect us to know this? Hashem does not give us a test that we can't pass, and we can't even know that we have a chance of passing it unless we have even a small concept of what's happening here. So what Hashem is telling Moshe Rabbeinu here is that at this point... All of the zechuyot, the few zechuyot that Am Yisrael has, have been used up. I made all of the miracles for you in Mitzrayim, in Egypt. I brought the plagues. I destroyed the largest civilization in history. I freed you from being slaves. But at this point you are at Yam Suf. And the Mekatreg, the angel of Egypt, came to me and told me, listen, why would you open up, split the sea for them and drown my people? Yes, I know the Egyptians are idol worshipers, but so are the, uh, Jews. Not too long ago, they were also worshiping idols. They're idol worshipers and they're idol worshipers. And since your Torah is full of truth, how could you, uh, split for one and kill the other? This is exactly what Hashem was telling Moshe. He says, unfortunately, at this point, I don't have enough of a reason. I don't have enough of a reason to help you.

5:18So, the first time Moshe Rabbeinu tried to split the ocean, he couldn't do it. And he screamed to Hashem to help them. And Hashem said, "Why do you scream to Me? Journey forth." What does it mean by "journey forth"? Do something to give Me a reason. Do something to show Me that you have faith. Because if you do it, then you could just reverse... into one of my personal favorite, or perhaps even my personal favorite, verses in this particular parasha, and perhaps even in the entire Torah. It's Exodus 14:14. Just the previous verse, this is Moshe saying to the nation of Israel, "Hashem shall make war for you, and you shall remain silent." When you truly believe in Hashem, when you truly believe that Hashem is running the world and everything is under His control, you have nothing to worry about. Hashem will fight your battles for you. Why? Because it's enough of a reason that you believe in Him for Him to do it. And this is exactly what Hashem is telling Am Yisrael and He's telling Moshe Rabbeinu. Show me your emunah. Saying you believe in Me means nothing. Kissing the mezuzah 87 times a day means nothing.

6:36Show me you believe in me, and if someone really takes this into perspective and applies this to their life, it could help them with parnassah and with everything in life. Why? Because if you truly understand how Hashem runs the world, you'd understand that every single person in the world gets exactly what they deserve. As Rabbi Shalom Arush says in his book, no person is ever getting any type of punishment unless there's a sin, and no person is going to get a reward without having a reason for it, without having a mitzvah. This is in The Garden of Emunah. That's a very, very good book I recommend for everyone to read because he speaks the truth, using sources from the Torah itself. is ever getting any type of punishment unless there's a sin, and no person is going to get a reward without having a reason for it, without having a mitzvah. This is in Gan Emunah, "The Garden of Emunah." That's a very, very good book I recommend for everyone to read because it speaks the truth and exactly how it's, you know, using sources from the Torah itself. it will give a person an understanding of how Hashem runs the world. So much so that if a person truly gets to emunah, he understands that no person in the world can ever suffer anything without them truly deserving it. And no person can ever be rewarded anything without giving Hashem a reason for it. For example, in an extreme case, if chas v'shalom, someone in the world got a decree of the death penalty, they did. They made some type of major sin and they ran out of mitzvot to use up. The tzedakah they gave was just enough to buy them enough time until now, and the mekatreg gets to Shamayim and says to Hashem, "Listen, Your Torah says death penalty." Now Hashem reviews the whole entire world of that person.

7:56they got a decree of the death penalty. They did; they committed some type of major sin and ran out of mitzvot to use up. The zechut they had was just enough to buy them enough time until now. And the Mekatreg gets to Shamayim and says to Hashem, "Listen, Your Torah says death penalty." Now Hashem reviews the whole entire world of that person. Instantaneously, he sees who are the people that will be affected by this person. Which person is going to hear this bad news, and how is it going to affect him? If that person who deserves this death penalty has even one friend or one person in their life that would be truly affected by it and doesn't deserve it, why? Because he's righteous or she's righteous and doesn't deserve to get... This bad news, Hashem could literally save this person's life just for that reason. Not even for the person that deserves the punishment, not even for his own family members, not even for his friends, but just for maybe some class member that he had 30 years ago that became a big tzaddik.

9:02So, number one, this teaches us that it's good to have righteous friends. But number two, it also teaches us something much more significant. It's worthwhile to be righteous ourselves. Because when we're righteous ourselves, we're giving Hashem a reason to give us good things. If you deserve to be poor, you'll be poor. If you deserve to be rich, you'll be rich. If you deserve to have a happy life, happy wife, happy husband, happy kids, you deserve it. You'll get it. But if not, then this means that you're doing something wrong. It's not Hashem's mistakes. Never Hashem's mistakes. And this is exactly what we learned from this entire situation here in Parashat Beshalach, is that yes, we deserve to leave Egypt. But to survive it, we had to show Hashem a reason. And how did we show it? Nachshon ben Aminadav went into the sea with full emunah that Hashem will save him. He showed Hashem that he believed. that he didn't bring them all the way here just to kill us. So he said, I'm going to go into the ocean. He said, move forth. I'm going to take it literally. I'm going to take him at his word and I'm going to move forth. And he went into the ocean all the way up to the point where his nose was covered. This also reminds me of a story of someone who came to Shlomo HaMelech and he says,

10:26You know, your highness, I wanted to give you a very big present, and he gives him all these diamonds and wonderful things. Shlomo HaMelech was grateful. As time passed, the time came to exchange gifts, and Shlomo HaMelech gave him a very simple ring. A simple ring that says, "This too shall pass." "This too shall pass." So the person says, "You know, with all due respect, Your Highness, I mean, I gave you diamonds and gold and all types of wonderful things, and all I get is this ring. What's the meaning of this?" He says to him, "This ring is much more valuable than what you gave me because this is a life lesson that if you apply it to yourself, you'll realize that everything will pass." ...you look at the ring every time you remember when there is a problem. For example, if there is an argument at the house, instead of shouting back, instead of screaming back, you look at this ring and you remember: this too shall pass. This tension will pass. If there is financial hardship, if there are difficulties paying the bills, remember, look at the ring: this too shall pass. If there are any issues in the world, they will all pass...

11:54but why will they pass? We get back to our verse. God will fight your wars and you will sit silent. If you have the full emunah, it will pass. It will pass and you'll learn a lesson from it that's priceless. You'll grow with it because that's exactly why Hashem gives us all these different tikkunim, all these different problems that we have in life. It's to build us. a diamond is not made in an instant. The diamond is made from much, much pressure throughout many years. There's a lot of pressure in the earth, and eventually a diamond is formed. Any successful person in history, regardless of whether it was in religion or in any other type of intellect or any other type of profession, had to go through much hardship. You cannot become a CEO by simply walking into a job and saying, "I want to become a CEO." You have to go up the ladder. So if anyone realizes that difficulties are here to build us and the ones that we don't necessarily understand, as long as we have Emunah and Hashem, this too shall pass. But if we don't have the Emunah and Hashem, then all Hashem is going to tell us back is, why are you screaming to me? Journey forth.

13:11So B'ezrat Hashem, this will teach us how to apply our Emunah, and not just say we have Emunah. And B'ezrat Hashem, reach the highest level of connection with Hashem, and understand that everything we have, including the pain, is always for the good. Chazakim u'Berukhim, thank you for learning with me, and may Hashem continue to bless all of you.