“Keep on Truckin’!” Part 2
Guidance for Leading the Well Examined Life
with Confidence and Simcha
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
This week’s parsha discusses how after the akeida Avraham Avinu thought about making a shidduch for Yitzchok. After being told about Rivka’s birth he made a plan to send his servant Eliezer to arrange for the shidduch. The parsha goes through all the details. This story teaches us that before we act we need to make a cheshbon, a plan. Once we have made a plan, we need to turn it into action. In a broader sense, we need to take time to reflect about the meaning of our life. We need to take stock of what we have done so far and where we are headed. On the other hand we need to put aside all considerations when it comes time to act and place our full focus on accomplishing the tasks in front of us.
This week, Rabbi Y. Segal, told me a story about a Jew who was a tremendous Torah scholar. He learned in Tomchei Tomimim in the town of Lubavitch and eventually moved to Yerushalayim. He never got married. Once he told Rabbi Segal that when he was already an older bochur, the Rebbe Rashab asked him what he was doing about shidduchim. He answered that he was ‘thinking about it’. The Rebbe Rashab said, “You’re not allowed to think about a shidduch, (you’re not allowed to just take time to think about it)!” Rather, you need to take action. From this story we learn that we need to make plans, but those plans must lead to action. The plans cannot be so overdone that they get in the way of progress.
The Rebbe, in Igros Kodesh, v. 8 pg. 267, says that a businessman doesn’t close his business and make an inventory every time he has a week or two of lower profits. Instead he spends the valuable time to get more business. It is far more sensible to balance your books from time to time and not on a weekly basis. This avoids the upset of the inevitable ups and downs that occur. So too in kedusha, we also need to make cheshbonos. They should only be done however at specially appointed times. This is particularly true if the additional reflection will only bring confusion into our lives.
On page 72 of volume 8, the Rebbe says that the time for this cheshbon is in the month of Elul before Rosh Hashana when a spiritual inventory of the year is proper and necessary. Otherwise, the only way that one should consider making an additional cheshbon is if it doesn’t weaken his service of Hashem. It goes without saying that one should not make a cheshbon if there is any possibility at all that it will lead to any kind of worry or worse, despair. The Baal Shem Tov teaches, ‘Serve Hashem with simcha,’ that the service should be done with simcha, and the word ‘service’ includes “knowing Him in all your ways”, in all areas of life.
The Rebbe brings in the Rebbe Rashab’s name (Igros Kodesh v.12 pg.205) that there is litmus test to determine which side desires or thoughts come from. The test is to see if they will get in the way of positive action. If it does then it is impure and from the other side. The Rebbe writes in v. 12 pg. 431 that a cheshbon that did not bear fruit is not pure. The Rebbe Rashab says, (brought in Hayom Yom) “If it brings confusion about what to do it is from the other side.”
On the other hand (v. 12 pg. 431), the Rebbe wrote the following answer to an individual who told the Rebbe that he tried to influence others but was not successful. The Rebbe gave an example from the mitzvah of searching for chametz. He said that the mitzvah is to search. A person that searched for chametz but didn’t find any (and therefore has nothing to burn), has nevertheless completed the mitzvah according to Halacha. The Torah was not given to ministering angels rather to human beings.
This is also true with regard to the mitzvah of caring for others and Ahavas Yisroel. The Rebbe wrote that since you took the time to point out something that you were supposed to and you tried to help someone to improve their situation; even though it is almost a certainty that a mistake was made in the cheshbon, still (!), one action is superior to a thousand complaints and you should continue to try. By fulfilling your shlichus from above, nothing will be withheld, and eventually your attempts will be successful and lead things in the proper direction.