Here is a question I think everyone has asked themselves:
Why does life seem so hard at times?
The short answer:
G-d had a way to make your life effortless. But He refused to give it to you.
This week's Parshas Vayeilich takes us back to the time the Jews were poised to cross the Jordan river and conquer the Land of Israel.
At that time, Moses was their leader. Had Moses crossed the Jordan to conquer the land, victory would have been swift and effortless. Fortified walls would have collapsed and fierce armies would have melted without a single battle. Not only would the military campaign under Moses have been smooth, but our lifelong work of refining the coarse world and lifting it toward heaven would have dissolved in the same painless way. If Moses had just stepped over that border, every obstacle we have faced throughout history, would be totally nullified. Moses was overwhelmingly holy and powerful.
At that time, Moses was their leader. Had Moses crossed the Jordan to conquer the land, victory would have been swift and effortless. Fortified walls would have collapsed and fierce armies would have melted without a single battle. Not only would the military campaign under Moses have been smooth, but our lifelong work of refining the coarse world and lifting it toward heaven would have dissolved in the same painless way. If Moses had just stepped over that border, every obstacle we have faced throughout history, would be totally nullified. Moses was overwhelmingly holy and powerful.
But G-d said no.
Instead G-d turned to Joshua and said, be strong and courageous, for you, not Moses, will bring the Jewish people into the land I swore to them. The effortless option through Moses existed, but G-d deliberately chose the path that would demand strength and courage from that generation and every one thereafter.
Why? Because G-d wants to flood your life with infinite goodness and your soul is hardwired to be embarrassed by an unearned gift. Easy is the “bread of shame.” So, in an act of restraint, G-d held His most beloved servant back at the border. By doing this He left the resistance in your life intact on purpose, so that when the goodness arrives, it arrives as yours.
That changes everything about the challenges you face. The obstacle in front of you is G-d refusing to hand you a gift that would shrink you. He is telling you, I could clear this in a second, but I love you too much to steal your victory. A farmer who wants a field of wheat by tomorrow will find only bare dirt. Wheat needs a laboriously plowed field and months of sun and rain before it becomes bread, and there is no shortcut through the waiting. Every day that obstacle sits unmoved in front of you, something underneath the surface is ripening.
So find the one wall you have been waiting for someone else to knock down. Be strong and courageous, and conquer the land.
Good Shabbos/Shabbat Shalom,
Good Shabbos/Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yitzi Hein