In EmunahSpeak:
The Wake up Call, we spoke about the nissim that Hashem is showering upon
us like rain in a cloudburst. The main
point there was that we
should rely on Hashem, not the Iron Dome rockets and in any case, the
Iron Dome rockets that shoot down the Hamas missiles, the missiles that don’t
explode in shuls and houses, and those that fall into open fields are all the
same nes.
We said there that the Rav (Moshe Sternbuch) makes it clear that we are being enveloped
by nissim day and night, and that we are required to take five minutes a day to
intensely focus on the fact that Hashem is both knocking the missiles out of
the sky and scattering the rest to the four winds. He lets us hear that Hashem has opened all of
the Sharei Rachamim of Shomayim to deflect the missiles from harming Klal
Yisroel and if we don’t recognize this we are sinners.
Recognize it we do. But do we feel it?
Emunah enables us to see behind the teva and intellectually
understand that when an Iron Dome rocket intercepts an incoming missile Hashem
is making it happen. That’s a very high
madreiga to be sure, but it’s usually not high enough to affect us viscerally because
our correct understanding of the matter notwithstanding, what we see is still the teva
of a rocket exploding a missile albeit that we morph it into a nes in our heads.
What’s missing is the emotional component of the nissim
that we are observing, and without that regesh what exactly is there to seep
into our bones and give us a palpable feeling for what we are experienceing?
Understanding can only go so far, but seeing is
believing, and that’s what separates the real Ba’ale Emunah (Baal Shem Tov, the
Vilna Gaon, et al. and those few rare yichidim that are still with us) from the
rest of us. They see the world through eyes of Emunah, not merely by means of a
heart full of it. And for starters, those
who see through eyes of Emunah don’t see any Iron Dome rockets or any other
manifestation of teva in the present salvation of the Yishuv.
In EmunahSpeak:
The Wake up Call, we said that the
Brisker Rav’s real gadlus was not his lomdus as great as it was. It was his Emunah. If we had that level of Emunah we would be
going out of our minds right now. We would be higher than on Purim.
So what would
the Brisker Rav z”l see that we fail
to see in daily nissim that we are
experiencing by way of the Iron Dome?
It would be k’eelu (as if) he saw the Yad Hashem
smack the incoming missile out of the sky.
And from such a sight a person can dance already.
Those who view these nissim through eyes of Emunah
actually witness the miracles, while the best that the rest of us can do is realize
that they took place.
And that’s no small thing either.
