WHY is Hashem Doing This to Us?

Excerpted from Rabbi Arush’s weekly class in Holon from Thursday night 5 Cheshvan 5784 – Oct. 19, 2023. 

Today I am going to focus on self-strengthening (hitchazkut). 

I had prepared a different class, but on the way here there was a siren. My driver pulled over to the side of the road, and we stood there thanking Hashem that He protected us until now with outright miracles and is protecting us now too. I saw how terrified people were, so Hashem put into my heart a different lesson on how to be strong right now, and what we need to do. 

Hashem, the King of Kings, God Almighty – He loves us so much! He is protecting us with outright miracles! “Behold, the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” God is guarding us! So, what exactly is Hashem doing right now? He is showing us how much He loves us. Eye to eye, we are seeing how much He loves us! 

Look – thousands of rockets, missiles, bombs, whatever they are called – are falling on the Land of Israel and almost zero have been killed! Statistically, the percentage is called zero, the number of people dying is essentially zero. 

Hashem sends one of their missiles, but He turns it around and makes it land on them, killing a lot more people. (Editor’s note: This is the missile fired by Hamas toward Tel Aviv. Instead, the missile misfired and landed next to a hospital in Gaza.) You see what just one bomb can do. 

So, Hashem is showing us eye to eye – I love you! I am guarding you! 

They have sent so many missiles and zero have died! Every missile is another miracle! This one falls in between buildings, that one Hashem made sure no one was there.  

So, what does Hashem want?  

Hashem wants the Jewish people to return in repentance and do teshuva. This is what Hashem wants!!! 

Hashem is making us scared in order to make us do teshuva. All these sirens, everything that is going on, all of it is to scare us and get us to repent and change our ways. That’s the general message.  

What exactly are we supposed to work on? Where do we need improvement? A few things: 

Hitbodedut – Personal Prayer  

Someone who does personal prayer every day including 30-60 minutes cheshbon nefesh, doing an accounting of everything he did from the last hitbodedut until now – is totally fine. Such a person isn’t scared at all! He’s totally fine, every day he repents. 

Shabbat 

Shabbat guards us!  

 

The two communities around Gaza that keep Shabbat – they were both saved! The families were saved! Shabbat guarded them! “The one who guards Shabbat, God guards him.” What miracles there were! 

 

One story: A boy at the party (the Rave) saw the terrorists shooting and felt guilty for being there. He said to Hashem, “If You will save me, I promise to keep Shabbat!” He managed to grab a gun, kill some terrorists. Hashem guarded him until he was able to run away. 

 

Another story – one of my students who is going to the IDF bases told me about a soldier who was given my booklet Source of Salvation, about bringing in Shabbat earlier. This soldier never kept Shabbat, but he told my student that last week he kept Shabbat and even brought in Shabbat early! 

 

Hashem wants that people should see eye to eye how He wants us to return in teshuva. 

Modesty 

The first story – My daughter told me this story, she knows the girl personally and the girl told her this story: This girl was at that party on Simchat Torah but she was dressed modestly. The terrorists surprised the party and started shooting. The terrorist saw her covered properly, STOPS SHOOTING and yelled – “Get out of here! You don’t belong here!” He stopped shooting! 

Editor’s Note – This girl not only saved her life with her modest dress, but she surely saved the lives of others, since the terrorist stopped shooting, giving others time to run away. 

I also heard the story of another girl from the party not dressed properly. She was forced to walk two hours to the border of Gaza to be a hostage. As she saw the wall and understood what was about to become of her, she said to God, “If You will save me, I promise to start dressing modestly!” 

Suddenly the terrorist turns towards her and says, “Get out of here!” She started running, afraid he would shoot her. She made it all the way home safely. 

Girls, you must know – when you dress modestly, you are guarding our soldiers. And if you don’t dress modestly, I don’t want to say what will happen, G-d forbid.  

It’s against all reason! There is no terrorist, no nothing – there is only God in the world! Only Hashem! She took upon herself to dress modestly, and Hashem saved her. 

Ladies, this is critically important. David Hamelech says, “There is no breach, no going into captivity, and no cries on the streets. Praiseworthy is the nation that is like this, praiseworthy is the nation that Hashem is their God.” 

If there is no pritzut – immodesty (“breach” – paretz), if there is no lack of modesty (again Rabbi Arush plays on the word used in Psalms) – then there is no screaming on the streets! Praiseworthy is that nation, praiseworthy is the nation that Hashem is their God! 

Ladies, now all together, be careful with modesty! Dress modestly, the pinnacle of modesty! Be a model of modesty! You are guarding our soldiers, and the entire Jewish people! And the opposite – you are endangering everyone. If you would like to take on some kabbalah in modesty as a merit for the captives, see JustOneInch.com.

Thanking Hashem 

Here is a story that needs to go into the next book “Say Thank You and See Miracles.”  

A woman in the south has a safe room in her house, but the handle broke. Someone managed to get it working so that the door can lock from the inside, but it can still be opened from the outside. (The idea of the safe room is that it can also protect from terrorists in that it can be locked from the inside and then cannot be opened from the outside). 

Now, in this war, the sirens went off and she went into the safe room. Twelve terrorists came into her home, and they were trying to get into the safe room. What did she do? She stood there thanking Hashem for every second He protected her. She didn’t keep Shabbat or anything, but Hashem put into her heart to thank Him. She was saved – they didn’t manage to open the door! I said thank you, and my life was saved! 

We also must thank Hashem for protecting us! Thank you, Hashem, for every missile that falls, and no one was killed!  

God Fights Our Wars 

The last thing we need to strengthen is staying far away from “the might of my right hand.”  

Read this section in Tanach, Chronicles II, Chapter 20. The story is about King Yehoshafat, a mass of soldiers of Amalek, Moav, and Amnon come to Jerusalem. The King calls the people to the Holy Temple, and speaks to Hashem, “Behold You are God and You rule all the nations! With any suffering that comes to us, You tell us to come to this House and cry out to You from our suffering, listen and save us!” 

We need to scream to Hashem: “Listen and save us!” 

There was a prophet there who received a prophesy at that time and said, “Hashem says, Do not be afraid!”  (Chronicles II, Chapter 20:15)

The prophet tells us not to be afraid! First thing, don’t be afraid! 

“…and do not sin before this mass… because this war is not for you, because Hashem will fight for you…” (Chronicles II, Chapter 20:15)

Do not let your spirits be broken! Do not sin, do not lose your emuna! Hashem will fight for you! We must pray and ask Hashem to fight for us! 

So what did King Yehoshafat do? He got a band! He got everyone singing “Thank you Hashem, because His mercy is eternal” (הודו לה’ כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו) and at that time they starting singing and praising Hashem… Hashem smote them with a plague! (Chronicles II, Chapter 20:21-22)

Everyone needs to sing and dance and thank Hashem! How many miracles, how much Hashem is protecting us! I know an elderly tzaddik, every night he dances with his community 2-3 hours after evening prayers. In my community we dance to “Hodu l’H’ ki tov” for an hour or more! 

May it be Hashem’s will that everyone should be scared and return in complete repentance! 

Segulot for Protection

Please read the article Not Just Another War which includes specific segulot for protection during this very dangerous time.

Don’t forget – I want everyone to have a Likutei Moharan in their house. Recommended – Rabbi Arush’s Likutei Moharan-One Million Edition, or for the car, stroller and more, the pocket-sized edition. Distribute them to others! Distribute books of emuna to others!