“Yaakov settled in the land of his father’s stays…” (Bereishis 37:1)
Rashi cites the Medrash that when Yaakov sought to live in tranquility, the troubles of Yosef sprang up on him. What was wrong with Yaakov wanting some tranquility? He wasn’t planning to relax or go on vacation. He wanted to be able to learn Torah, do mitzvos and good deeds without distractions and upheaval.
HaRav Aharon Leib Shteinman, the author of Ayeles HaShachar, refers to the Vilna Gaon’s comment on the pasuk in Mishlei (8:19), “My fruits are better than fine gold…,” and says that the tzaddikim prefer to live amid poverty in this world in order to enjoy the fruits of their efforts in the World-to-Come.
The unleashing of adversity with regard to Yosef was for the good of Yaakov so that his reward in the World-to-Come should not be diminished. With this, a novel insight is revealed: The reward is exceedingly great for those who learn Torah despite hardships and privation.
The Talmud in Taanis (25a) relates that R’ Chanina ben Dosa was exceedingly poor. One day his wife remarked that he performs miracles for so many others; why couldn’t he do something for them as well? He prayed to Hashem, and a hand extended from Heaven with one leg from a golden table. That night his wife dreamed that all the tzaddikim were sitting at tables with three legs in Olam Haba, but she and R’ Chanina were sitting at a two-legged table. She immediately told her husband to please return the golden leg to Shamayim.
Commentaries add that R’ Chanina ben Dosa went to R’ Yehuda HaNasi and told him what had happened. R’ Yehuda then tried to convince R’ Chanina’s wife to keep the leg from the golden table. He promised her that if they would be lacking anything in Olam Haba, he would give it to them from his portion. However, she did not agree to his offer.
R’ Yehuda HaNasi had many of his own merits. He wrote the Mishna which everyone studies day and night. Why did she refuse his offer?
She told R’ Yehuda HaNasi: You who are not lacking anything in this world and never worried about your livelihood will not have achieved the same level as my husband and I, who have lived a Torah infused life amid poverty. You will therefore not be able to compensate us for what we are lacking because you will not be where we are.
We learn a very interesting principle with regard to Yiddishkeit. The reward for those who learn Torah amid difficulty and challenges is incomparably greater than one who has a relatively easy life and does not have to worry about his weekly expenses. Likewise, an individual who fulfills mitzvos and performs maasim tovim even as he faces his own hardships, lack of money, or other adversities, is on a completely different level than the person who is more comfortable. We must understand that the reward of those who have lived in poverty and continued to be immersed in Torah study will be very great.
The Sefer Vayedaber tells of two wealthy people who had benefited from the advice of their rav, who met one day.
One had been told by his rav, “Aser bishvil shetis’asher – take a tithe so that you will become wealthy.” He immediately followed the advice of his rav and, indeed, he became very wealthy.
His friend, however, became wealthy following a different recommendation of the rav. He once heard the rav speaking on Shabbos (Bava Metzia 59a), “Honor your wives so that you will become rich.”
Upon hearing this, the first man ran to the rav with complaints. “Why was the advice that you gave my friend to attain wealth to give his wife presents, but I had to expend a lot of money, and disburse charity among others in order to become rich?”
The rav answered: Your friend got a segula (charm) for money only in this world, but you got a segula for riches in this world and in the next.
Rav Biderman told of R’ Zev Ber, who is a maggid shiur and a daily mispallel in the Beis Medrash Nachlas Akiva.
On the morning of Erev Pesach, when he arrived for the morning prayers there was a larger than usual crowd who had come to participate in the siyum on Maseches Bava Kamma.
At the conclusion of Shacharis, everyone gathered to listen carefully as R’ Zev Ber read the last lines of the Gemara. After a few minutes of reading the lines of the daf and explaining them clearly, the rav suddenly realized that he had made a mistake! Somehow, he had become confused, and instead of reading the tenth, and last chapter of the masechta he had somehow been reading the seventh chapter.
How could something like this have happened to an experienced maggid shiur? It seems that instead of removing the last volume of Maseches Bava Kamma from the bookshelf, he had taken the second volume instead. It was obviously directed min haShamayim.
Now the congregation had not fulfilled their obligation and would have to begin all over in order to make the siyum on the last perek of the masechta. R’ Zev Ber was slightly embarrassed that such a mistake had occurred, especially on such a busy day when people were in a rush to get home.
R’ Zev Ber hurriedly read the last few lines on the daf, and began to explain the lines, when he realized that, unfortunately, he had again turned to the wrong daf. Instead of reading from the end of the tenth perek, he was reading from the end of the ninth perek, which was not, in fact, the end of the masechta.
This was truly humiliating! People were becoming impatient and were clearly confounded. How could such a great talmid chacham make a mistake like that twice? The mispallelim still had to get home to burn their chametz in a timely fashion.
“Are you okay?” asked one of the mispallelim.
“I apologize,” answered R’ Zev Ber. “I don’t know what happened today. Perhaps I didn’t get enough sleep with a newborn in the house. I also didn’t have anything to eat or drink yet this morning.”
But we understand that these mistakes happened for a reason. It was hashgacha (Divine Providence) that there had to be a “third” siyum. As the congregants finally partook of the siyum and were wishing R’ Zev Ber mazel tov, people began to bolt into the beis medrash to inform them that terrorists were running around outside with guns and knives looking for victims.
The mispallelim quickly bolted the doors and remained in lockdown until they were officially notified that miraculously not one Jew had been harmed. It was only then that they realized the significance of the morning’s events. Usually, the street of Nachlas Akiva Shul would be filled with hundreds of people, but all the confusion and distress they had encountered in their attempt to make a siyum had saved them because no one was outside. If they would have left the beis medrash any earlier they would have been easy targets for the terrorists.
That is the meaning of the pasuk (Yirmiyah 30:7), “It will be a time of trouble for Yaakov, but he shall be saved from it.” The adversity itself is the path to salvation.
Editor’s Note: Rabbi Goldwasser is currently completing a new anthology of the divrei Torah of the Zera Shimshon, which contains a compilation of the Zera Shimshon’s Torah thoughts specifically on the topics of achdus and shalom. Each chapter includes soul-stirring stories and insights. In the preface to his writings, the Zera Shimshon beseeches people to study his books and he promises that those who do so will be granted family, life, wealth and honor in that merit.
Dedication opportunities for the sefer are currently available for those seeking a zechus and beracha – whether for shidduchim, refuah, parnassah, children, shalom bayis, etc. Monies can be Zelled to 718-954-4343, or sent by mail to Rabbi Goldwasser, 1336 E. 21 Street, Brooklyn, NY 11210.