HaGaon HaRav Don Segal addressed thousands who assembled last week in Yerushalayim. Harav Segal stood in front of the crowd, his eyes shut with his hand pressed against them as he whispered a fervent prayer. Then he began to speak, at times quietly, and at times with great passion.
"Not only will there be a salvation, but it will come from the tzarah (trouble) itself" he began. "Tzaddik Hashem bechol drachav vechassid bechol maasav" - really it would seem more correct for the word "tzaddik" to be appended to the word "maasav" and the word "chassid" with "drachav" - but this teaches us that each maaseh (action) of Hashem is a chessed (kindness). Hashem is constantly doing chessed with us through His actions, even those that seem bad.
"Generally speaking, the ways of Providence are supposed to be steeped in din (judgment). After all, it says "Bereishis bara Elokim" - the world was created through midas hadin (the trait of judgment) and He combined it with rachamim (mercy). Hashgacha, in general, is supposed to be with justice. Nevertheless, every one of His actions is interlaced with kindness and mercy.
"A terrible tragedy once occured in Klal Yisrael and when the Beis Yisrael zt"l heard about it, he said "This could only be done by our mercy-filled Father". And He truly is a merciful Father. Every single kindness, every single thing in creation is from Him. Sometimes this kindness is hidden from us. But what do you think? that we have mercy and He does not, chas v'shalom? On the contrary, as difficult as our questions might be, it is plain to see that there must be an explanation here. If all the oceans were ink and all the trees paper, it would still not be enough to describe the depth of love that Hashem feels for His nation.
"The mishnah says "Just as one makes a blessing on the good, so too he should bless on the bad". But isn't the phraseology in the two blessings different? Rather the analogy indicated here regards the joy with which one has to say both blessings. This seems like an enigma: suppose someone viciously beats another person and then tells him to sing and dance - we would say such a person is an achzar. And yet, Hashem asks of us to be happy?
"Yet this is a sign that it's good! We need to know that it is good! And that is why we could be happy.
Regarding the maxim "Those who are insulted and don't insult, who hear their shame and don't answer back, they do so with love and rejoice with their suffering:, the holy Chafetz Chaim asks "How can a person rejoice with the suffering of embarrassment? People can literally commit suicide as a result of being humiliated..." The Chofetz Chaim answers: "Only through the pure belief that Hakadosh Baruch Hu watches over him and is doing everything for his benefit".
Rav Don sighed deeply, immersed in his thoughts, and then powerfully continued to elaborate on the Chafetz Chaim's words.
"It's not enough that we know that Hashem watches over the world; we have to know that He watches over every single person! And not only does He watch over each person, but He watches out for the person's good. If a person is afflicted with suffering, apparently he is supposed to welcome it by dancing. And how is this possible? Through the pure belief that Hashem watches over every person and that he does everything for the person's good...and in the words of the Chovos Halevovos "Because he knows that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has his best interest in mind, even more than he himself does, and He cares about his every concern!"
"When earth-shattering events occur, the first thing we need to know is that it's from the One Above and that it is for the good. The Rosh Yeshiva of Mir, Harav Shmuel Birnbaum zt"l who experienced several personal tragedies, once said an amazing vort: "In the parsha of the akeidah, it says that the heavens opened up because the angels wanted to watch what was happening and cry along with Avraham and Yitzchak. Do the angels need the skies to open up? Couldn't they see what was going on even when the skies were closed?
The angels wanted to empathize with Avraham and Yitzchak; they wanted to identify with the feelings of our avos, who were part of the human world. But they had a heavenly point of view. Through this perspective, the perspective of ultimate truth, there is no crying! Nevertheless, they did want to cry, to identify with their distress. Therefore they, so to speak, opened up the skies in order to look through an earthly point of view, a point of view from which you do cry."
"It is brought down in the Yalkut Me'am Lo'ez that the Ramban had a student who was on his deathbed and the Ramban prepared him for what he would encounter in the World to Come. He told his student that he would go through several "worlds" and he asked of him "When you get to the inner world, please present three questions that I have concerning the ways of hashgacha (providence)".
A year after he passed away, so it was told, the student revealed himself to the Ramban and said "Rebbe, everything that you told me was indeed true. I passed through all the chambers that you told me about, and then I reached that world you spoke of, but when I got there, I remained silent... I was embarrassed to say that my Rebbe had asked these questions - because over there everything is crystal clear. There are no questions, everything is clear."
A Time of Confusion
Rav Don then raised his voice and cried out "Tatte... what do you want? What does Hakadosh Baruch Hu want? What does our Father want? The situation is so unbearably hard. We live in a time of confusion. So many tragedies. It used to be that if someone passed away, people would gather in the shuls for a kinus (gathering)... and in this month alone, hundreds of children have become orphans... What does Hakadosh Baruch Hu want? We cannot close our eyes."
The Financial Crisis
Rav Don also touched upon the financial crisis. "Wealthy individuals have gotten to a state of having only a piece of bread. I am talking from firsthand knowledge, not just from assumption. The navi (prophet) - [Amos 9:10] - talks about the end of the generations: Bacherev yamusu kol chata'ei ami. The Zohar says that the sword has been replaced by poverty. And all the trouble and all the sicknesses and the lack of rain - for rain is the symbol of bounty, and that is why we pray so strongly for it... even the coin in the pocket, it says, is blessed by rain.
"Hakadosh Baruch Hu is waking us up. We need to pray and cry out. Had we merited it, we would have already awoken, but no, we did not awaken, so Hashem, who wants us to fear Him, shakes up the world... Everything hinges upon yiras Hashem (fear of G-d). Normally things are supposed to be conducted according to the laws of reason, but if we don't wake up, then things are conducted differently.
It says that if we don't sing to Hashem where there is middas harachamim (mercy) then it will have to be when there is middas hadin (judgment) - we'll have to thank Hashem that we're still alive.
He then added that we must strengthen ourselves bein adam lechaveiro (between man and his friend) also.
He emphasized that we need to understand that there is no such thing as a coincidence! "We give all sorts of explanations and reasons, but this is a lack of emunah (faith)" he said. "This is the reason why we are afflicted with tragedies that seem like inexplicable flukes.
"Let us cry out, let us daven, let us believe that every single thing that happens is directly from Him. These are not "natural" occurrences. Let us increase our good deeds and our Torah learning!"
Written by Tzvi Yakovson
Reprinted from Hamodia Weekly
