Rebbe Akiva’s Fox

“It’s an outrage! Didn’t you hear? The crooked government lifted the retirement age from 65 to 67. I was really looking forward to being able to sit and learn all day. What a dream retirement! Now, the government ripped me off and I’ll have to work for another two years. And I’m just one person! They’ve pocketed at least 100,000 shekels of my hard-earned money! What a bunch of crooks! They should all be in jail, not in the Knesset! Don’t they know that there are 350,000 families in Israel that lack food?! Nine-hundred thousand children in Israel go hungry every single day! Those aren’t my numbers – they’re official Israeli Government statistics that the State Comptroller’s Office issued. It’s a crime! And talking about crime…”
 
I thought I was going to have a quiet ride home on the bus from Jerusalem to Ashdod. It was after nine p.m., and I had been on my feet since four-thirty that morning. Obviously, Hashem had other plans. The bus was crowded and my neighbor, who was returning home after a visit to the Kotel, the Western Wall remnant of our Holy Temple, sat down next to me. Usually, people are inspired and illuminated after visiting the Kotel. Shlomo, my neighbor, was a ball of nerves.
 
I tried to put my head back into my paperback travel-size Gemara, but Shlomo flashed a Haredi daily newspaper in my face. He continued on with his tirade about the government upping the retirement age. I smiled to myself; this week, the milestone of my 65^th birthday is also on the calendar. The government’s decision apparently affects me too. But even if they would enable me to retire, I’d keep working as long as Hashem gives me the strength to do so. Retirement? Just yesterday, I was doing wind sprints on the way to the orchard for my personal prayer session. Who in the world is thinking about retirement? Besides, if Shlomo wants to spend his entire day learning Torah rather than working as an accountant for the City of Ashdod, then why is he reading the silly Haredi newspaper instead of learning some more Torah in the spare time that he does have?
 
From the Givat Shaul intersection at the exit of Jerusalem all the way down the mountain until Shaar Hagai, Shlomo complained about the government. He bemoaned the fact that the Hareidim were in the opposition. He cried that his married children were getting a third of the child allowances that they used to get. He lambasted the politicians for throwing yeshiva boys into jail for failing to register for the draft. On and on…
 
“Lazer, how can you sit there like a fish with your mouth full of water? Don’t you have an opinion? Why don’t you talk about these things? Sometimes, a person has to take his had out of the Gemara and do something for the Jewish People…”
 
I don’t exactly spend my days fishing…
 
Fortunately, Shlomo wasn’t a truck driver. His mouth certainly didn’t stop at any red lights. Continuing on his soap box, Shlomo asked, “Can’t you see what a disaster this government is? They’re going to destroy the country! They’re destroying the Torah! They’re turning us into slaves and ruining our lives! They’re the worst thing that ever happened to this country! Nu?”
 
Nu in Yiddish is a cue for the other person to say something. Literally, it’s a rhetorical, “so?”
 
“Do you really want to hear my opinion, Shlomo?”
 
“Of course, Lazer!”
 
There are surprises in the world.
 
“I think that the current government is the best thing that ever happened to Israel…”
 
Shlomo almost choked. When his coughing spasm ended, I said, “Shlomo, I’d be delighted to return to my Gemara…”
 
“No, no – how can you say such nonsense?” he asked indignantly.
 
“Do you really want an answer, Shlomo, or a debate? I’m just a simple baal teshuva; why don’t you just let me return in peace to my Gemara?”
 
“No, I want an answer…”
 
“Then listen to me for sixty seconds. Even though the columnists in your newspaper have beards and wear kippas, you guys toe the party line. You believe in politics, that if your party is in power, then it’s fat city. You think that income and benefits come from the government. When the Hareidim are not in power, your world comes to an end. But you see, I don’t look to the government for a thing. All I see is Hashem. The first thing a Jew believes in is that Hashem did, does and will do everything. The second thing that a Jew believes in is that Hashem does everything for the very best…”
 
“That’s Baal-teshuva gibberish…”
 
“No, it’s not,” I said, pulling a travel siddur (prayer book) out of my breast pocket and showing Shlomo the first of the Rambam’s Thirteen Principles of Faith. “If Hashem doesn’t want us to retire, then it’s all for the best. And if Hashem decides to give us less money, then maybe it means that our wives shouldn’t be spending $2,000 on some stupid wig. And if our boys are getting less stipends for learning Torah, maybe Hashem wants more dedication in the yeshivas. Besides, thanks to this government, there has never been so much unity between all sectors of the Torah population – Sephardim, Lithuanians, and Chassidim. Who dreamed that one-million people would stand together in complete unity in the streets of Jerusalem while calling out Shema Yisrael?”
 
“Yeh, but the government intentions are are all bad.”
 
“Shlomo, Hashem turns everything around for the best, no matter who is in the government. It doesn’t matter to a believing Jew. Besides, this is the Omer period. 24,000 of Rebbe Akiva’s students died because they didn’t properly respect each other. Since we didn’t have the sense to achieve unity on our own, Hashem had to give us a hostile government to force us to be unified and thereby correct their sin. Mashiach is fast on the way and Hashem wants us to rectify everything, fast!”
 
“You really believe that, Lazer?”
 
“For sure. Talking about Rebbe Akiva, you remind me of the Gemara where he was walking by the ruins of the Temple Mount with the generation’s other spiritual leaders. They cried when they saw a fox run out of the Holy of Holies. Rebbe Akiva laughed. His colleagues asked why. Rebbe Akiva said that now that the prophecy of desolation had materialized, then the prophecies of redemption and national rebirth will also be realized. Rebbe Akiva was a baal teshuva too; he was the one who said that Hashem does everything for the best. I guess it takes baalei teshuva like Rebbe Akiva and Rav Shalom Arush to teach emuna to the Hareidim. Believe it and you’ll be happy too!” Fortunately, the bus had reached my street and it was time to get off.
 
How can a person be brought up in an ultra-Orthodox home and not believe that Hashem does everything for the best? Sure, our kids can read at the age of three, and by seven, though know entire tractates of Mishna by heart. But unless we give them heavy doses of emuna in their most tender years, they’ll grow up vulnerable to the strong winds of heresy and disgruntlement.
 
Each of us has periodic “Rebbe Akiva’s fox” moments in our lives. Things happen that seem horrendous, more than good reasons for concern and worry. But if worry solves nothing, complaining solves even less. When we react instantly with emuna, believing that Hashem is doing everything for the best, then things always turn out for the very best. Mashiach will prove it, in the nearest future, amen!