Divine Feedback

Living Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear

Hashem appreciates every little effort we make in our Torah learning. Sometimes in His subtle ways, Hashem gives a person a little smile, kavyachol, showing him how much He appreciates what he does. A man told me he was living in New Jersey for the summer, but spent a couple of nights a week in his Brooklyn house. It was very difficult to bring his large gemara back and forth , and so he left it in New Jersey. When he was in Brooklyn, he just used the shul's gemara. The problem was that on the days he was in Brooklyn he wasn't able to take notes in his gemara, which he was accustomed to doing. Eventually, he got a paperback gemara just on the perek he was learning, and brought it back and forth for a couple of weeks, taking notes every single day. But then he misplaced it and didn't find it until right after the summer. Recently, he had to travel overseas, and while there, he met some Jews from Panama in the Chabad house. They discussed gemara, and asked him which gemara he was learning. He told them the second perek of Baba Metzia. They said, "Wow, that's what we're learning," and they made up to learn together on Shabbat afternoon. He had his paperback gemara with him, and when he sat down to learn the next day, he asked them where they wanted to start from. They chose the exact word that he had started his notes from in that book. He was so happy that he was able to share with them what he wrote, which helped all of them understand the gemara better. They learned for almost two hours straight, and then, when they got to the last word that he had notes on, they said they had to stop. It was amazing. He had notes on one page in the entire perek , and they wanted to learn that exact piece, not one word more or one word less. He felt like Hashem was telling him how much He appreciated his efforts in taking notes. Another man told me, he had worked very hard on composing his own dvar Torah, which he was so proud of. He told it to his rabbi, and then to any other rabbi he came into contact with. He made this dvar Torah a long time ago, and it happened to be from a pasuk in Parashat Vayera. This year, on Parashat Vayera, he went to a shul that he never attended before, and the gabai who gives out the aliyot approached him and gave him an aliya. When he was up there during the reading, he saw the pasuk that he made his dvar Torah on, and was so inspired. It was like Hashem was telling him, I see the effort that you're making, and I appreciate it. Another man told me, he has a child who has been married for many years without children. This year, he was told of a segula to get the aliyah that speaks about Sara Imenu having a child. He called the rabbi from the shul he normally attends and asked him if he could reserve the aliya for himself, to which the rabbi said of course. He also told his child to get the aliya where he prays. That Shabbat, he was eating by one of his sons-in-law, who requested for whatever reason that he pray with him the next day in shul. He saw that it was important to his son-in-law that he pray with him, but it would mean he wouldn't get the aliya he reserved. However, to make his son-in-law happy, he decided to go with him. Amazingly, when the time came for the aliya that he wanted, the gabai from that shul came over to him and invited him for it. Nobody there knew that this is the aliya he had requested. Only Hashem knew. Hashem put it in the mind of that gabai to give him this aliya. Everything that takes place, every moment of the day, is orchestrated by Hashem. He sees what we do, He knows what we want, and He loves and appreciates all the efforts that we make in Torah and mitzvot. Most of the time, we're not going to get immediate feedback, and that's part of our test. But when we do, it gives us so much chizuk.