Each year we put up a huge sukkah in Ruppert Park on the Upper East Side, and on Chol Hamoed we organize a family Sukkah party. It’s always a huge success and people talk about it for weeks afterward. This year we sent out a huge mailing, hired a clown, and ordered food, tables, chairs, music, cotton-candy and pedi-sukkahs. Everything was planned and organized, we were expecting 300 people to show up, and then I checked the weather: 70% chance of rain.
I told myself that surely the weather report was wrong. There’s no way it could rain! G-d is on our side – He wants hundreds of people to come and eat in the Sukkah, shake the Lulav and Etrog and making the blessings.
There is a new app called “Dark Sky” which allows you to check the rain minute by minute. At 10am, the app informed me that it would begin raining at 11am, which was precisely when our party was scheduled to start. People were calling non-stop to check if the party was still on, and it was! I truly believed that everything would work out.
As predicted, 11am brought rain, and it didn’t let up until late afternoon. I was surprised and impressed that 50 people bearing umbrellas showed up anyway, but the party was largely a disaster. I struggled to understand how this could have happened. Didn’t G-d want hundreds of people to share the joy of Sukkot and perform the holiday mitzvot?
I learned an important lesson that day. Of course, we have to believe that things will work out, but sometimes G-d has very different ideas about what that actually means. G-d’s love for us is similar to the love from a parent to a child. G-d knows what’s really best for us, even if it contradicts with what we think is best for ourselves.
A friend called me on Friday to say he had just lost a deal worth $10 million. Understandably, he was very upset. I tried to explain to him that the deal obviously wasn’t meant for him, so G-d had actually just done him a favor, and saved him from losing lots of money.
Of course, it’s hard to see the good in certain scenarios, even if we believe that G-d is doing the best for us. Sometimes it seems bad to us. This is why we pray daily not just for good, but for revealed good. We want to be able to see and appreciate what He does for us.
In this week’s Torah portion we read about the first Jew, Avraham, and the first of his ten tests. Avraham’s father, Terach, was an idolater and an idol merchant. One day, young Avraham destroyed all the idols in his father’s workshop as a demonstration of his belief in monotheism. Terach took Avraham to the king, Nimrod, who offered the young boy a choice: Reject G-d and bow down to the idols, or be thrown into a fiery furnace. Avraham chose the furnace, and by a miracle, he was saved. The fire burned around him but did him no damage. He emerged alive and unharmed.
Avraham’s nephew, Haran, was given the same choice, but was not as sure as Avraham. He told the king, “If Avraham survives, I believe in his G-d, but if he dies, I believe in the idols.” When Avraham survived, they asked Haran who he now believed in. When he answered “the G-d of Avraham,” he too was thrown in the furnace, but unlike Avraham, he perished.
Why? Why didn’t G-d perform the same miracle for Haran? Because his belief in G-d was conditional. G-d wants our unconditional trust and acceptance. Sometimes He does things we don’t understand, but our job is to trust Him nevertheless.
I still don’t know why our party was rained out –and perhaps it will never be clear to me- but I have come to terms with the fact that for some reason, this is what G-d felt was best for me, and my community.
XRumerTest wrote...