In EmunahSpeak:
The Great Tikkun, we opined as follows:
Just
prior to the forcible eviction of the Jews from Gush Katif and its sister
communities, in those last few hours allotted to the Tekufa of Zionism, it was
reported that some of the Gush leadership met with Rav Elyashiv to ask him for
a brocho that they would be matzliach in their endeavors to remain in Gaza.
At least they had the right address.
Had they asked the right question they
could have set off a revolution instead of almost igniting a civil war.
What they said in effect was this: We have assessed the situation, and there is no possibility
that the correct plan of action should be anything other than the course we have set upon. We
would like your blessing that all of our plans should come to fruition just as we have worked them out…
…instead of this: The government
has given us until August 15th to vacate our communities. What
does the Rav advise that we should do?
If
this is not the way one approaches the Gadol Hador z”l then it’s most certainly
not the way to dialogue with Hashem. And
dialogue we must for as was put forth recently in EmunahSpeak:
Talk To Hashem First (2), what one
should be doing is talking to Hashem on a constant basis.
And that means, as
we further stated, that we must attain the
habit of uttering words of tefillah (a.k.a talking) directly to Hashem
throughout the day, in the second person because when you speak to Hashem you
are speaking to Him as one friend speaks to another.
Now
if one approaches Hashem as one friend
speaks to another and on a constant basis as was suggested above, the
thrust of such a relationship will be a mutuality in which things are worked out
together, as presumptuous as that might appear to be on the surface.
We are talking
about a partnership here.
And as Rabbi Itamar Schwartz
puts it, it goes something like this:
You enter into a conversation with
Hashem, and tell Him about everything you’re going through. You express your feelings: “I’m having a hard time right now. I’m trying to keep my spirits up but I keep
falling.” After relating everything, you
present this as a tefillah. In other
words, you must involve Hashem in all that has happened up to this point of
contact.
Most of us, however,
to the extent that we are flying at
all, are flying solo, and so our relationship (or more accurately, our
non-relationship) with Hashem bears a striking resemblance to the relationship
that General Motors has with Washington.
When we are in need we cry out for a bailout.
But
if a person comes before Hashem,
says Rabbi Schwartz, with only his
conclusions, and presents them before Him without laying out all of the prior doubts
and difficulties, there is no real partnership.
The
only way to truly include Hashem in your life on a partnership level is to
share and discuss with Him even the subtle feelings of the heart, the thoughts that
never come to fruition, the failures and the tests.
