I was thinking of a dvar Torah about Ellul and found myself looking at Dovid Hamelech’s Psalm that we customarily say between Rosh Chodesh Ellul and Shemini Atzeres.
I was struck by its principle concept and if one sees the true meaning of Dovid Hamelech’s words, one can peer at the foundation of a Toras emes Hashkofo.
In order to demonstrate the beauty of one message in the Psalm I will use a parable.
Imagine the scenario…you’re walking down the street kicking a few cans as you go and all of a sudden a magic genie comes out of one of them and says those famous words “I Will Grant You One Wish”. Because you only have one wish and you wouldn’t want to waste it on anything you could come to regret, you’re going to think long and hard about what you want. I think that most people will eventually come up with the following: “My wish is that you grant me as many wishes as I want!”
In a similar vein Dovid Hamelech writes
“Achat sho’alti me’eis HaShem, oisa avakesh SHIVTI BEVAIS HASHEM KOL YEMIE CHAYAI…”
-One thing I ask from HaShem, that I request to DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF HASHEM ALL OF MY LIFE…”-
Although one could easily skip over this line as a nice complement to HaShem, missing its significance is missing the importance of man’s relationship to G’d.
For King David to ask to live in HaShem’s house as it were, he was like the can kicker in our parable asking for ‘as many wishes as he wants’. Someone who lives in the King’s palace is provided with everything they could possible need. Bringing the idea more real we could say that HaShem is the real Bank Manager, and He is the real Doctor…HaShem decided everything – and someone who is closer to HaShem will get better treatment then someone who isn’t!
With Rosh Hashona and Yom Kippur fast approaching, perhaps we shouldn’t be focussing our prayers on the specific things that we think are best for us, but should trust that our All-Giving, All-Loving King in Heaven knows and wants what is best for us and even if we want a particular job or a certain grade…in the long run WE don’t know what is best for us – but HE does, and if we are His loving children living at home – He will always provide what we need.
Perhaps the focus of our Prayers should be to develop trust in HaShem.
To give a simple example…:
Rather than saying “Please give me that job, it is best for me” !
Perhaps one should be saying “Hashem, please give me the best job for me – I think that it is this one and I really want it, but if it is not best for me, please find me a more suitable job very quickly !”
If our minds can be trained to think that HaShem knows what’s best for us and that we don’t necessarily- then we can develop a trust in HaShem that will never let us down.
