151 - Crowning The King

One of the basic extensions of Emunah is to internalize that we don't understand things based on what we see and on our logic, but rather, we are to believe that everything Hashem does is for the best, and by following His laws and doing our best to live a life of Emunah and Bitachon, that is what is going to bring us to our ultimate destination in the best way in the next world. Sometimes we might feel inspired by what we are doing, but many a time we do not feel any specific inspiration. But nevertheless, Emunah teaches us not to make our decisions based on our logic and what makes sense to us, but rather, to choose to follow Hashem whether we understand or not.

The Gemara relates a fascinating episode where Moshe Rabbeinu encountered Hashem placing what is known as the crowns on the letters of the Torah and within Moshe Rabbeinu's understanding, these crowns were actually not needed. So he asked Hashem, "why are you placing these crowns on the letters of the Torah?" And Hashem responded, "although they are not needed right now, in many years to come there will be a great man who will be so wise that he will be able to derive many laws from each of these crowns that I am placing now. And although you, Moshe Rabbeinu, cannot understand the great deeper meaning behind these crowns on the letters, this individual in many years to come will be able to." 

And Moshe Rabbeinu said to Hashem, "if there is such a great individual that will exist in the future, please Hashem, will you show him to me?" And Hashem teleported Moshe Rabbeinu into the future where he found himself in the Beit Midrash of Rabbi Akiva. The way it would work in times of old, those students which understood the most would sit in the front row, those who understood less would sit in the second row. Moshe Rabbeinu was seated in the eighth row because he was not one of the top students in Rabbi Akiva's lecture. The Gemara relates, in fact, that he could not understand what Rabbi Akiva was teaching because the level of Torah learning was way beyond Moshe Rabbeinu's understanding. Now we all know Moshe Rabbeinu, the greatest prophet that ever lived. We cannot even begin to imagine his spiritual level. Nevertheless, he was told that Rabbi Akiva was even greater, to the point that Moshe could not even understand Rabbi Akiva's lecture because it was too high of a level. 

When Hashem then brought Moshe Rabbeinu back, Moshe Rabbeinu then asked Hashem to please show him what the end of the life of Rabbi Akiva would look like. Perhaps he imagined that for such an incredibly holy individual there would be a grand finale. Hashem then showed Moshe that the way Rabbi Akiva's life would end would be by his enemies torturing him in the most cruel way, and he would die a gruesome, painful death. And when Moshe Rabbeinu saw this, he was completely perplexed and begged Hashem for some explanation. "Such a great individual, Hashem, who would completely devote his life to you, this is his reward?" And Hashem responded to Moshe, "Be quiet; This is My will, and you will not be able to understand the bigger picture of things." 

And similarly, there is a story told about a man who was standing before the Baal Shem Tov, and when the man took a drink of water, he said the bracha hastily, without having the appropriate intention for the bracha, and the Baal Shem Tov said, "You just missed out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, because the soul of your father, because of certain sins that were committed, has been lingering in this water for many years, and if you would have recited this blessing with real meaning and intention, you would have redeemed his soul." We have absolutely no idea of what is going on in the bigger picture of things. What we are called on to do is to follow Hashem's instructions and to make our maximum effort in living a life of sincere emunah and bitachon.