Page 57 - HaMizrachi Yom HaAtzmaut AUS 2021

Rabbi Binny Freedman

Consider the importance of this Mid-
rash. I can learn to become a more ethi-
cal human being simply by studying the
hairs on my forearm! After all, if every
hair on my arm has its place, then how
much more must I consider that every
human being, and every event, however
challenging, has a place in G-d’s plan.

The Baal Shem Tov points out that we
often make the mistake of missing the
messages sent our way. If you see some-
one desecrating Shabbat, do not assume and being active partners in building a Perhaps, like the metzora, we need to
it is because you are meant to exhort better world on the other? take some time for introspection, to
them on the error of their ways. Rather, consider how best to find that balance.
assume it is a message to you regarding This question was at the root of a It was only after the war they found
an error of yours. Imagine if we really controversy that remains a prominent out what had really happened in Tzfat.
lived life this way, struggling with what social issue in Israel even today. If after It seems the Arabs’ greatest fear was
we need to fix in ourselves, instead of 2,000 years, G-d has decided it is time
spending so much time figuring out to bring us home, who are we to try and the fact that most of the people behind
what we need to fix in everybody else. take it into our own hands? Maybe the the development of America’s atomic
What a different world it would be! best thing for a young man or woman bomb were Jewish (most notably Ein-
stein and Oppenheimer), and the Arabs
On the other hand, if I took the time to do is to be immersed in Torah and had heard a little bit about acid rain. So
to analyze every leaf, twig, insect, and good deeds, and leave the destiny of the they assumed the Jews had just set off
sound that came my way, I would never Jewish people (and the defense of the an atomic bomb, and the rest is history!
get to shul in the morning. Yet to ignore Land of Israel) up to G-d?
the many powerful messages that often Every tour guide worth their salt will
cross our path is to risk living a life of Clearly, we need to be willing to trust show their tourists this spot and with
callousness and lose so many oppor- in G-d that life will send us what we a smile, ask the same question: was this
tunities to grow as a person and as a need to receive, as well as to be partners a miracle? Or just a freak of nature? In
society. How does one find the balance? with G-d in making that happen. As Tzfat, there are no miracles, because all
And more: if everything is G-d-sent, the Vilna Gaon suggests, faith without of nature is miraculous, and miracles
where is man’s role? hishtadlut is not really faith. It bespeaks surround us every day…
The Talmud (Sanhedrin 72a) states: אבה a certain arrogance; who says I have
וגרוהל םכשה ךגרוהל – If a person comes to earned the right to have faith that G-d
kill you, arise and kill him first. Indeed, will help me? On the other hand, the
when Abraham’s nephew Lot is cap- assumption that I can do it all, and that
tured by the five kings, he does not
wait for G-d to perform miracles – he it all depends on me, stems from this
musters an army and saves Lot himself. very same arrogance. Rabbi Binny Friedman is the Rosh Yeshiva
How are we to find this ever-elusive Ultimately, once I have done my bit, of Orayta.
balance, trusting in G-d and recogniz- then I have the right to believe that G-d, A member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau
ing his master-plan on the one hand, in one way or another, will do His. mizrachi.org/speakers

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