The Key to Redemption – Thank You

Translated by Hillel Millman

 
Emuna is the key to Redemption, knowing that everything is for the best. Since the full manifestation of emuna is to thank Hashem in every situation, we cite the familiar words of Rebbe Natan: “If everyone would listen to the tzadikim [the righteous] and have emuna that everything is for the best and thank Hashem both for the good and the bad – All misery and all of the exiles would be nullified and the final redemption would already have come.“
 
These words won’t give me any rest. We have the ability to bring the complete redemption simply and easily and without suffering, just by internalizing and understanding that everything is from Hashem and everything is for the best, through the knowledge that there is no bad in the world. Like we say in Hallel and every morning: “Give thanks to Hashem because He is good, because His kindness is forever”. Give thanks to Hashem – why do we need to thank Hashem? Because He is good! Hashem is totally good. Because His Kindness if forever – his kindness is infinite. After these words what more is there to say? We need to go over this every week, every day, every moment! Everyone needs to ponder this simple truth, the emuna that Hashem is total good, total mercy, total endless love and He alone created the world to have mercy on us and give us good.
 
When we hear or read words like these, we need to think deeply and find advice of how to implement them. We need to live these words. Really, it is not so simple to have the emuna that everything is for the best and to say “thank You” for everything. Over the course of a person’s life, he comes across things that his mind just doesn’t have the capacity to see as good. It’s the opposite, there are things that look really bad. When he doesn’t want what’s happening (and so can’t accept what Hashem wants), how is he going to say “thank You” for it? He doesn’t even want it. This is the hard part – to accept what’s happening, to believe and to live the fact that its all for the good and that there is no bad in the world.
 
Last week a couple came to me  who were still childless after eight years of marriage. They told me that they went to all of the rabbis and to all the graves of tzadikim, tried all of the segulas [spiritual ploys] and all of the prayers, but still weren’t blessed with children. I told them: “Say thank You to The Creator for half an hour every day that you don’t have children.”
 
The woman answered back astounded – “Say thank You?! All I do is cry all day long and you tell me to say thank You?! How is it possible?”
 
It looks to us like she’s right. This is a hard test and understandably she’s really tormented from being without children. How could she say, “Thank You, Hashem”? How could the “thank You” that she says bring her salvation?
 
The Vilna Gaon asks a question on the verse, “The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous”. We would think that Hashem first brings a salvation and then afterwards, there is rejoicing and praise as a result of the salvation. If so, the verse should have been written “The voice of salvation and rejoicing…”. Why is it written the opposite? The Gaon answers that the verse first mentions the rejoicing, because when a person gives thanks and praise and sings to Hashem (the voice of rejoicing), through this itself comes the salvation – every salvation and all of the abundance.
 
We need to look into this. What’s standing behind the scenes? Why is it that by thanking Hashem, the salvation comes? The One who graces man with knowledge gave me the merit to explain this in a wonderful way. May Hashem save Am Yisroel from every pain and difficulty. When there is such suffering and difficulties (may they not come upon us) such as being unmarried and getting older, problems between husband and wife, no children, sicknesses, debts, or anything else, emuna says: Since everything is from Him, certainly everything is good. “From the mouth above doesn’t come bad,” and “Everything Hashem does, He does for good”. Every Jew has an obligation to believe this. A person’s first reaction must be: This is what Hashem wants for me, and this is for the best. This is what Hashem wants, and He surely understands the situation better than me, so therefore, I also want what He wants. There is only one possibility here. If Hashem wants this, then this is the most beneficial for me and for my ultimate task in life. If I understand differently and I want things to be different, it means that I’m going out against the desire of Hashem. Maybe this is natural, but Hashem wants us to subjugate our own desires to His desires.
 
When His desire and your desire don’t go together, nullify your own in favor of His desire. Like the Mishna says in Pirkei Avot, “Nullify your desire before His desire so that the desire of others will be nullified before your desire.” Where are all of your troubles coming from? The spiritual prosecutors that are going against you and cutting off your spiritual and physical abundance. This is the “desire of others”.  When you nullify your desire to Hashem’s desire, Hashem will nullify the “desire of others” before your desire and save you in any way you need. With every hardship and every difficulty in life, we need to say wholeheartedly,  “If you want this Hashem, then for sure this is good for me. I also want it and I thank you for it!” This is the way to give thanks on all of the hardships and this is the way to bring every salvation in the blink of an eye. Internalize it, and you’ll see big miracles!