Pulling the Strings

One of the basic principles of emunah is that causes are not what bring about events. The events happen because they are what Hashem wants and the causes are just one of the millions of ways that Hashem brings them about. For example, the way it looks is, if someone is late for a meeting, it's because he missed his ride. In reality, however, Hashem wanted this person to be late for his meeting and, therefore, He caused him to miss the ride. If a person tried to sell a house or buy a house and the buyer or purchaser backed out at the last minute, it's not because they backed out that the house wasn't sold. Hashem didn't want the house to be sold, and that's why the person had to back out. This is the way it works with everything in life. If we would be able to truly internalize this fact, it would save us from so much stress and heartache, and would also protect us from ever getting upset at other people for their actions. Rav Elchanan Wasserman, zatzal , once traveled to America to raise funds for his yeshiva. At one of the shuls there, he gave a passionate speech about the value of supporting Torah and the entire congregation was visibly moved. The rabbi of that shul, however, was from a different school of thought and after the speech, he got up and told the congregation, even if they would just give a few dollars, it would be a great zechut . With those words, the crowd went from potentially giving thousands of dollars, to not even giving a hundred dollars. Afterward, the rabbi was worried that Rav Elchanan was angry with him. He went over to the rabbi to apologize. However, Rav Elchanan told him he wasn't the least bit upset. Rav Elchanan proceeded to give him a Devar Torah as follows. “When Hashem commanded Moshe to build the Mishkan , He told him, the actual builder should be a man by the name of Betzalel ben Uri ben Chur from the tribe of Yehuda. Moshe then went to search for this person. He must have gone to the tribe of Yehuda and asked the first person he saw, ‘Are you by any chance Betzalel ben Uri?’ If the man said no, Moshe would have gone to another person and asked him if he was Betzalel ben Uri. And if that man said no, Moshe would have continued until he found the person he was looking for. “If those people replied they were not Betzalel, did Moshe get angry at them for not being the person he was looking for? Of course not. Those people were not zocheh to be Betzalel. The same applies here. “I came to America looking for Betzalel ben Uri to help support my yeshiva. There are certain people who will be zocheh to be Betzalels and support the yeshiva, and others who won't. It is clear that the members of your congregation are not from those people who are going to be Betzalel ben Uri. Should I be angry at that?” A person who is able to look at every situation in life and recognize it's always Hashem pulling the strings will have a much easier time dealing with everything. This, besides for the enormous rewards he will receive for having this pure emunah in the hashgacha of Hashem.