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will to nullify the trait of anger. He persisted in his private talks with lived a miraculous, wondrous mode of life, and who are called “the members upon the rock. “My heart, my heart, for their casualties!”
the Creator of the world and pleaded with Him to help him and generation of knowledge”—they reached such a foolish conclusion? (siddur: Nachem).
rescue him. He did not give up. And the following was the manner of their thinking. (To clarify:
what I write here about Hashem is not my own view, heaven forbid, Something Here Isn’t Logical
Not Getting Confused by the Results but represents the mistaken understanding of the generation of the
desert). In regard to faith as well, which is our central work and goal in
And what happened? When he was tested, he did grow angry— the realm of “doing good,” a person who does not devote time
“The Creator hates us, and so He has thought of how He might
very angry. But he was not broken, because he reminded himself kill us. Having thought and thought, the Creator at last came up to personal work regarding the trait of faith every day of his life
about the simple words that he had heard: that when he prays will not change but will continue to live with heresy, troubles and
and asks for help, heaven has no claim against him because he has with the following plan: ‘I will bring about ten plagues and split the worries, and he will continue to live a life filled with fears and
Sea of Reeds, I will kill millions of Egyptians and I will defeat the
done all that he can. No one promised him results here and now. Amalekites. Then I will give the children of Israel the Torah at an anxieties. He will fear that people might harm him and he will fear
But the way is a true path—that is to say, he must carry out his his own shadow. He will be filled with evil thoughts about himself
obligation, and the essence of that obligation is to dedicate time to awesome prophetic event, face to face with each individual. All and others—thoughts of jealousy, vengeance and envy—and he
along the way I will give them manna, a well, clouds of glory, clean
praying. He has done his part. He is committing all of his heart to will be filled with resentments and insolence toward Hashem, with
his intentions and prayers. Anything beyond that is not under his and laundered clothes that grow together with them, and more. I complaints and self-pity—all of which come from just one thing: a
will do all of that in order to bring them to the land of Israel, so that
control. He must only pray and continue, and pray again, and wait there the Amorites will help Me destroy them….’” This is absurd! lack of faith.
for Hashem’s salvation.
Their ingratitude rose to the heights until their intellect was entirely A person who does not do the work will not change. Our
He encouraged himself to pray every day, and he did not allow contorted. It is not enough that in one moment of being tested they forefathers, the generation of the desert, learned and learned and
his current reality and descents to weaken him. And the results did erased all of Hashem’s favors and miracles from their minds, but saw miracles (as we described), yet nevertheless they did not attain
not take long to come, because “when a person prays at length, that their ability to think was itself entirely erased! To us this even proper faith. As Rashi states in his commentary to the verse, “How
his prayer does not return empty” (Berachot 32b). At first, he saw a appears humorous, because if Hashem hated them He would have can I bear your burden and your strife” (Deuteronomy 1:12): “This
slight success in overcoming his anger. And he also saw that after he killed them during the ten plagues or by drowning them in the sea, teaches that they were heretics.” This is truly appalling.
expressed his anger, he was able to calm down more quickly. And or He would have allowed the Egyptians and Amalekites to do the
the most important thing was that he was happy and he thanked work for Him. Did Hashem need to wait until they would come to As we study many verses, we tremble when we see the ingratitude
Hashem for every slightest bit of progress. Finally, he saw with his the land of Israel? of the generation of the desert (as discussed at length in my His
own eyes how the tough husk of anger that had dominated his heart But at the moment that a person is tested, he responds in precisely Gates with Thanksgiving, and as everyone recognizes and
broke, and he succeeded in maintaining his equanimity and staying this way. If some small matter does not go his way, he forgets all knows). Here let us look at one verse from Moses’ rebuke of the
calm even when he faced difficult tests. nation of Israel, from which we will understand the low level of
of the favors that Hashem has done for him, he feels that Hashem faith to which the nation of Israel had fallen. The verse states, “You
Before he had heard the recording and begun to follow its advice, hates him, and so forth. At the moment that a person is tested, complained in your tents and said: Because Hashem hates us, He
he had almost despaired. He had even thought that his anger might nothing helps him, because his mind is taken away. Only a person’s took us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the
be a genetic disposition that he cannot overcome. And now this personal work stands with him at the moment of the test. Amorites to destroy us” (ibid. 27).
great wonder occurred right before his eyes. He saw with his own
eyes that this was the sole approach that helped him and literally Remember and Do Not Forget When I read this verse, I did not know whether to laugh or cry. Is
changed his nature—an absolute miracle. what is written here logical? Can it be that when something did not
Thus, if a person does not do the work of the will, he will not please these people—who experienced so many miracles in Egypt
As a result of his initial successes in nullifying the trait of anger, change. He will not attain his rectification, and he will not fulfill and at the Sea of Reeds, to whom Hashem spoke face to face,
he came to meet me. I told him that he was going on the right 3 his mission—moreover, he will be in terrible danger. The who saw the presence of the Shechinah in the Tabernacle, who