Objects - The Sequel

Part 1 resonated with many people and I continue....

This Chanukah I attended the tisch of the Tolna Rebbe Shlita on the last day. The custom is that during the tisch the people write kvittlach [notes] with their requests and pass them up to the Rebbe Shlita who reads them and then they are all thrown into the fire and burned with the used wicks from Chanukah. It is QUITE a event:-). Lots of spirited singing and laughing and primarily - chizuk in Avodas Hashem.

I happened to have been sitting right behind the Rebbe Shlita and watched as he went from kvittel to kvittel and read the tzaros of Yidden. From time to time he would read out loud [without mentioning names, of course], sometimes for comic relief ["I urgently need a million dollars from America. When I get it, I will give ten thousand dollars to Tolna's new Beis Medrash." I, for one, felt that giving one percent was a bit too little, but that's just my opinion...:)].

One kvittel [now we will translate "complaint"] he read out loud said as follows: Since I have come to the Rebbe nothing has changed in my life....

Meaning, "What good are you, Rebbe. You are an object whose job it is to make sure that things in my life turn around for the better. If they remain the same, then I have no use for you."

That is the EXACT same way many people relate to Hashem. His job is to make sure everything goes well with me and if He is not doing His job then I don't want to have anything to do with Him. I mean, doesn't He know that I have been looking for a husband for ten years? Doesn't He know that I have no money in the bank and a family to support? Doesn't He know that my grandmother is sick and needs a refuah shleima?? Every davening is another opportunity to complain...

The CORRECT attitude is that we are NOT davening in order to inform Him of our problems. He is well aware of them:). We daven because we have a mitzva to daven in order to connect to the Source of all being. Our davening is that IF we receive what we ask for we will use it not to enhance our personal status but to bring kavod shomayim. So it is NOT an exercise in narcissism "gimme, gimme, gimme" [the Zohar Hakadosh compares it to dogs who say הב הב - give, give] but a plea to the Divine to help us bring a greater awareness of His presence in the world.

This is a much longer and deeper topic but beyond the scope of this post at this time.

But definitely food for thought.