[Moshe asked Hashem,] “Let me know Your ways so that I may know You” (Shemos 33:13).
The Torah tells us (Devarim 29:28), “The hidden are for Hashem ….” We also learn in Avos (4:19), “It is not in our power to explain either the tranquility of the wicked or the suffering of the righteous.” What was it that Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to know?
Two answers are given:
Moshe, in fact, wanted to understand why the tzaddikim seem to struggle with difficulties in their lifetimes, while evil people have peaceful and even successful lives.
The Chofetz Chaim explains this phenomenon with a parable. A person arrived in a distant city before Shabbos. In the morning, before krias haTorah, he observed the gabbai in shul distributing the aliyos to various individuals, and he wondered why certain people were getting an aliyah and others were left out. After davening, the visitor approached the gabbai and questioned him. The gabbai said, “Did you come here to judge us? If you were here every Shabbos, you would know that the person who was skipped over had an aliyah last Shabbos; the other person had an aliyah the Shabbos before that. You can’t just come in and think you have everything figured out. There is a system to everything.”
Similarly, a person who lives in this world has not been privileged to see everything from the beginning of time. When he observes certain events, he doesn’t understand why one person has various challenges in life, or why one is successful while the other is not. All is not revealed to the individual, and one cannot evaluate how Hashem runs the world.
Secondly, the Sefer Vayedaber says that Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to be worthy of believing that everything that happens in life is the way of Hashem, rather than happenstance or coincidence. Many times a person experiences difficulty, and he doesn’t understand that Hashem knows it is really good for him. Moshe Rabbeinu asked that when he sees the ways of Hashem he should immediately believe, without any doubt, that he is seeing Hashem conducting His world with precise Divine providence.
When a person has a tzarah, chas v’shalom, he raises his eyes to the Heavens and cries to Hashem. But when everything is good, he sometimes forgets to raise his eyes to the Heavens to thank Hashem for all He has done for him.
The Tzemach Dovid notes that the word tzarah in Hebrew has the same letters as the word retzeh (to want). If a person would understand that Divine providence augurs his ultimate good, he would say, “I want the tzarah; I need it.”
The parents of a large family did not know how they would pay for the weddings of their children. They decided to take out a second mortgage in order to build an extension to their apartment, which would enable them to collect rent and provide additional income.
After months of work, and costs that exceeded the estimate, the apartment was finally finished and ready to rent. They had a number of applicants, among them an elderly woman who wanted to rent the apartment by herself. She gave the family two months’ rent in advance, and the couple looked forward to better days ahead.
The woman proved to be a good neighbor. The family was very happy to have her. She was like a grandmother to the children, and every once in a while, the mother would send her a meal.
A few months passed by, and then one month the old woman did not pay her rent. The family was anxiously awaiting her rent because they needed to pay their bills. But they didn’t say anything. They thought maybe she had forgotten to pay, so the father sent one of the children to remind her. She told them, “B’ezras Hashem, I will pay you soon.” Many days passed but she still hadn’t paid.
It was not easy for the family. They were still making payments for the loan they had taken, aside from their other bills. However, it appeared that she didn’t have any source of income and it would be difficult for them to put her out on the street. Besides, they would never consider doing such a thing. If this was what Hashem wanted, they would accept it and be silent.
One year, two years, five years passed, and the family didn’t say another word about the rent to the old woman, and treated her with the same love and care as always.
One evening, the mother made a beautiful cake for the family, and she brought a portion to the old woman. The tenant didn’t answer the door; presumably she had gone out. The mother left the cake outside the door. However, a few days later they noticed that the cake was still there. Unfortunately, the woman had passed on. The family was saddened; she had become part of the family.
After a few days, the couple entered the apartment to clear out her belongings, as they would have to find a new tenant for the apartment. Among her belongings they found a letter addressed to them.
“Dear Mishpachas Cohen,” the letter read. “I wanted to thank you for all the years that you cared for me even though I did not pay my rent. I want you to know that you passed the test with great success. I own a house in Tel Aviv, which I have signed over to you. Please take it with great success and continue your good deeds.”
To their amazement, the couple discovered that their inheritance was worth three million shekel. Needless to say, the praise and thanks that the family had for Hashem knew no bounds.
Often a person experiences difficulties which are not easy to understand. Ultimately, though, the person will merit to see the Hand of Hashem, and will come to the realization that all was, in fact, good from the beginning.
This was Moshe Rabbeinu’s request: Help us, Hashem, to know, trust, and believe that all You do is good for Klal Yisrael.