Protekzia

Example; you just landed an amazing new job. Your brother’s friend works in the company and provided you with an insider’s tip that the position was available. He also put in a good word for you with the boss and your connections paid off.

 

Example; you are unexpectedly invited to your best friend’s wedding in California.   It’s high season and the plane is fully booked. A quick call to your cousin who works with the airline and you are able to secure first class seats for the price of coach.

 

If you think you were able to work these wonders simply by virtue of your human contacts, think again. The only protekzia that truly exists in the world is protekzia with HaShem. Nothing happens in this world without G-d taking an active role. Your connections are simply the tools by which HaShem allows you to receive these earthly rewards…… if you so merit.

 

How does one achieve the highest level of protekzia with HaShem?  By abiding by His laws, giving thanks through prayer, repenting for past ill deeds and following the teachings of the Tzaddik. Unlike nepotism, there is no favoritism when it comes to our Father in Heaven. Just as a parent loves each child equally but different, HaShem loves all of His children equally. And just as a child may be given a treat for achieving a goal, we will also be rewarded for all of our efforts directed toward piety in the spiritual realm, as well as our kind deeds toward our fellow man. Our compensation may not be in the form of material or physical gains, but rest assured that all of our actions are weighed on the Divine scales of justice and truth.

 

Enabling HaShem’s protekzia can be likened to swinging. The first time you put a small child on a swing, you push it very slowly.  It’s frightening for this new little soul to suddenly be thrust up high into the air.  But with time, children adjust to the sensation and begin to enjoy the ride.  A swing gains momentum by pushing it again and again, causing it to go higher and higher. By comparison, with prayer and devotion to the Holy One, Blessed be He, there is no limit to the heights one can reach. As you give of yourself over and over, constantly pushing in serving HaShem, the impetus will take you higher and higher spiritually. Only through the momentum of seeking Him out and following His laws will you earn the bond of His protekzia.

 

As toddlers becomes youth, swinging with several friends can be a great way to have fun as swinging with others enhances the human connection. One can also learn through companionship. Pushing each other (remember the ‘underdog’?), laughing, interacting, sharing and relating person to person, is both enjoyable and important for emotional growth in life. Similarly, we are encouraged to daven (pray) in a group (a minyan of at least 10 men) and to learn with others by attending lectures (shiurim) or one-on-one sessions, (chevrutah), thereby bringing down the Divine light into our midst. But unlike swinging which begets only transient happiness, the lofty pursuit of gaining Torah knowledge brings joy which endures for eternity.

 

Another kind of swinging, is swinging alone. In a quiet park, in the midst of nature, pump your legs and up you go! As the breeze cools your face, your mind runs free as you lean back and close your eyes. It’s just you and nature as one – an analogy for hitbodedut, personal prayer. Once the attempt is made to connect with HaShem within nature through personal prayer, one is projected into an unearthly sphere.  HaShem is nature and you are lifted beyond the reality of worldly feelings to higher dimension. It is in those sacred moments of opening one’s soul up to G-d that one can find true solace in life’s challenges.

 

So we see that while one may strive to accomplish the finest protekzia with HaShem for material or personal motives, the only connection truly worth achieving is attaining closeness to Him. That is what He desires of us. And only with complete emuna, will we understand that there is nothing more that we really need.