When Everything Changes

There's an interesting phenomenon in life that we don't usually stop to think about. It's called laughter. Why did Hashem create laughter, and what exactly causes a person to laugh? Rabbi Zamir Cohen explained that generally, laughter comes when we are expecting one thing to happen and suddenly something completely unexpected takes place. We expect someone to say one thing, and then he says exactly the opposite. We think we know where something is headed, and suddenly there's a completely unexpected turn. That surprise brings about laughter. David HaMelech said about Hashem, " יוֹשֵׁב בַּשָּׁמַיִם יִשְׂחָק — He Who sits in the heavens laughs." Hashem sees people making their plans, thinking they know exactly what's going to happen, while He knows that everything is going to turn out completely differently. Pharaoh was told that the savior of the Jewish people was going to be born and was ultimately going to be struck through water. Pharaoh thought he had the perfect solution: throw every Jewish baby boy into the Nile. But Hashem took Pharaoh's very plan and used it against him. Not only did Moshe survive, he was brought directly into Pharaoh's palace. As a result of his decree, Pharaoh's own daughter raised him, and Moshe's own mother was paid to nurse him. The very man who was trying to prevent the Jewish savior from growing up ended up raising him in his home. Pharaoh thought he knew what he was doing, but Hashem had a completely different plan. Haman built a gallows fifty amot high because he wanted Mordechai's death to be seen by everyone. But Hashem was preparing a completely different ending. The gallows that Haman prepared for Mordechai became the gallows upon which Haman himself was hanged. This is the way Hashem runs the world. People make plans. Circumstances seem to be moving in one direction. Sometimes everything appears to be falling into place for the wrong outcome, and then, in one moment, Hashem turns everything around. We recently witnessed an extraordinary example of this in the attempted hijacking of that Dubai flight. Suddenly, the lives of so many people were in grave danger. The plane was about thirty seconds away from crashing, but Hashem had prepared a salvation that no one could ever have expected. First, the pilot managed to open the door. Then a passenger overpowered the co-pilot, and that passenger happened to know how to lift the plane out of potential disaster. Then there happened to be qualified pilots on board as passengers who were able to come forward, fly the plane, and land it safely. A string of events that no one could have planned came together at precisely the right moments. The passengers went from a potential tragedy to singing the praises of Hashem, thanking Him for His great salvation. We only see situations as they appear right now, but Hashem sees the endings, and this knowledge should give us tremendous chizuk. A person may look at his life and think he knows where things are headed. The shidduch doesn't seem to be coming. The parnassah isn't working out. The medical situation doesn't look promising. A family problem seems to be getting worse. He looks at all the circumstances and sees no reasonable way for things to turn around. But we only see the middle of the story. Hashem sees the ending. Sometimes the very thing that appears to be taking us further away from our salvation is what Hashem is using to bring it about. We don't have to know how Hashem is going to do it, but we know that Hashem is never limited by what we see. In one moment, everything can unexpectedly change. That is what we can learn from laughter. And the greatest laughter of all is still awaiting us. David HaMelech said, " אָז יִמָּלֵא שְׂחוֹק פִּינוּ — Then our mouths will be filled with laughter." When the final Geulah arrives, it will be the greatest reversal imaginable. The nation that was persecuted throughout history, driven from country to country, attacked and threatened with annihilation again and again, will suddenly be elevated before the entire world. Everyone will look and say, "This is the nation that everyone tried to destroy, and now they are on top of the world." That is going to engender the greatest laughter of all. We should all merit a year filled with this kind of laughter—the laughter that comes when Hashem reveals His yeshuot and suddenly turns situations around in ways we could never have imagined. We should have a year filled with happiness, berachah, yeshuot for all of Klal Yisrael, and the coming of Mashiach.