Sandy that is.
So asked the
representative of the garage door company who came to take measurements for our
new door meant to replace the one that Sandy
used for target practice.
For an
uneducated workman to ask such a question is already somewhat of a
madreiga. But for frum Jews to be
anything but slam dunk certain as how to answer it is a sad commentary on their
understanding of the very basics of how Hashem runs our world. And, nebach, there are all too many of us
keeping company with the same uncertainty.
It seems that
there is some confusion as to the nature of teva (no pun intended). A number of us have picked up the idea from
certain well respected seforim that Hashem deals with Eretz directly and that
He jobs out the nuts and bolts of the daily coming and goings in Chutz
L’Aretz to the melachim (angels) union (Intergalactic Brotherhood of Melachim) to
take care of business.
Rabbi Yitzchak
Fabian tells us in the name of Sefer Ali Shur that a person who looks at the
world with Emunah looks for the Hashgacha Pratis. He sees Hashem in nature and in every
historical event. He lives in a
spiritual world even though his two feet are firmly planted here in this world.
So what did such
a person see in Sandy?
He saw the same
Yad Hashem that the Chofetz Chaim z”l saw in the severe natural
disasters that devastated vast areas in interior Russia (where hardly any if any
Jews lived) in the late 1920s.
As is well
known, the Gemara teaches that every disaster that comes upon the world comes
only because of Klal Yisroel. It’s always about us. It always was
and it always will be.
So in response
to this devastation the Chofetz Chaim called for public fasting and Teshuva.
In the same
light Rav Miller, z”l used to say that if you see a small news item on the
bottom of page 89 in the New York Times reporting a cyclone in Bangladesh that
killed 200,000 people, the whole purpose for this devastation was that a Jew
named Miller in Flatbush should hear about it and do Teshuva. And if he
doesn’t do Teshuva, then it’s a waste of a lot of goyim for nothing.
These days
everything is teva. Up to a point, that
is, because even those who hold from the concept that the Intergalactic
Brotherhood of Melachim keeps things humming on an average Tuesday in November
as well as on all similar occasions, when teva does something to catch our
attention they understand that NUMERO UNO is now running the show hands on.
In EmunahSpeak:
A Divinely Pulled Punch, we said:
Had Hashem stuck with the original picture of Irene that He revealed to the
weather satellites, the storm would have whacked us pretty good. But at
the end of the day rather than devastating most, if not all of the kehillas
stretching from Baltimore to Boston, He withdrew His Hand and threw water
in our face instead.
To answer that workman’s
question, that was an act of G-d.
But all we
saw was rain.
So this year was
an act of Din (strict justice) instead.
