This article was prepared from a number of the author's shmuessim published by his son and talmidim yblc'ta.
The following ma'amar is a combination of many different shmuessim that were said by Reb Dovid zt"l over the years as the mashgiach in Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore. This ma'amar was edited and printed together with many other hitherto unpublished shmuessim in two volumes entitled Sichos Chochmah Umussar. This shmuess was chosen to translate and print because of its insight to our present day situation — in particular of the innumerable, seemingly difficult to understand, tragedies that have become commonplace.
The shmuess itself has quotations from seforim whose ideas are profound and consequently very difficult to understand, unless one is familiar with them. Therefore explanations and clarifications were added to the translations of the quotations themselves to explain various parts, even though those comments are not in the original Hebrew text as printed in the Sichos Chochmah Umussar.
Editor's Note: We would like to acknowledge the tremendous efforts that were invested in this important piece by so many, starting with the original translation work almost two years ago before the 25th yahrtzeit, and through the editing and review by many people since then.
Part II
Covert Miracles: The Torah's Promises of Brochos and Kelolos
This matter is explained at greater length in the Ramban's introduction to Iyov:
"We fully believe in complete hashgocho, that, `The eyes of Hashem scan the whole world' (Zecharya 4:10) — that Hashem sees what both the evil and the righteous do. This is also true concerning hashgocho mofsis, i.e., with regard to all the Torah's promises and miracles. There is no significant difference between a promise that a certain tzaddik will live until the end of his days — living eighty years quietly and serenely — and a promise that another [non-Cohen] person who ate terumah will die, or [between these and] what was said to Chananya ben Azur: `You shall die this year, for you have spoken a falsehood in the name of Hashem' (Yirmiyohu 28:16); [or between all these and] krias Yam Suf, the mann falling for forty years, the pesukim of, `I will take sickness out from the midst of you' (Shemos 23:25) and, `I will send the pestilence among you (Vayikra 26:25), `I will also send wild beasts among you that will rob you of your children' (ibid., 22), or the makkoh of the first born, the pestilence and the orov, the drowning of Egypt in the sea, [and] `But against any of the children of Yisroel not a dog shall move its tongue' (Shemos 11:7), and `bnei Yisroel went on dry land in the midst of the sea' (ibid. 15:19). Likewise there is no difference between the tefillos of Dovid Ben Yishai, our daily tefillos, and all the miracles [in the Torah].
"If we were to say that nature sustains everything, we would have to say that no one dies or lives because of a zechus or a chovah. But once we believe that Hashem can cut off someone's life prematurely, we understand that the hand of Hashem can perform miracles and change nature by splitting the sea before His congregation and drowning His enemies within. There is no difference this or that one except the difference between the covert and the openly known . . . "
The Ramban writes the very same thing in his explanation of the brochos and kelolos in parshas Bechukosai (Vayikra 27:11):
"All of the brochos are absolute miracles. It is not natural for rain to fall, for us to have peace from enemies, for them to be frightened and for a hundred to flee from five — all when we do the chukim and the mitzvos, nor for everything to be just the opposite if we sow in the seventh year. Although these are concealed miracles, because the world appears to conduct itself normally during them, they become obvious [miracles] because they always happen throughout the land . . . and the opposite of this will be with the kelolos . . . "
"Although Hashem imparted power to the ma'arochos haShomayim (heavenly bodies) to conduct the world and those who live there, and they can benefit or harm Hashem's creations, the power by which Hashem runs the world, by rewarding those who do His mitzvos and punishing those who transgress mitzvos, is more powerful than the ma'arochos haShomayim and can and does force them to conduct the world in a way opposite from their regular nature. This too is a veiled miracle.
"When Avrom was ninety years old Hashem appeared to Avrom and said to him, `I am Keil Shakai (Shin Daled Yud); walk before Me and be perfect'" (Bereishis 17:1). The Ramban writes (ibid.): "R' Avrohom [Ibn Ezra] explained in the name of [R' Shmuel] the Nagid z'l, that [Shin Daled Yud] stems from the word shodeid (overwhelming) — that He directs and overwhelms the ma'arochos shomayim; and that is a correct explanation. This is the attribute of gevurah with which Hashem conducts the world, the midda that the chachomim (Bereishis Rabbah 35:4) call the `middas hadin of below.' The Torah only now mentions this name of Hashem (Shakai) since with it He makes all the covert miracles for the tzaddikim: He saves them from death, sustains them during hunger, and redeems them from being slain during a war, just like all the miracles done to Avrohom and the other Ovos. They are like all the miracles written in the Torah in the parsha of Bechukosai (Vayikra 26:3-46) and the parsha of Vehoyoh Ki Sovo (Devorim 28:1-68), [the parshos] of brochos and kelolos. They are all miracles, since through nature itself rain will not come in the correct time because we worship Elokim, and the Heavens will not be like iron [without rain] if fields are sown in the seventh year. And so with all of the Torah's promises. They are all miracles, and in all of them the ma'areches hamazolos is overcome [by Hashem's will] but they do not involve changes in the way the world conducts itself [meaning that we don't see here, on this earth, the changes in the stars], as do the miracles done by Moshe Rabbenu during the ten makkos and krias hayam, the mann, the be'er, and others like these, which were miracles that openly changed nature and were done with the Sheim Hameyuchad told to [Moshe]."
The Ramban's comments at the beginning of Vo'eiro, explaining the posuk, "I appeared to Avrohom, to Yitzchok, and to Yaakov by the name of Keil Shakai, but by My name Hashem I was not known to them" (Shemos 6:3), are similar. "The posuk is telling us that Hashem appeared to the Ovos with this name that He uses to direct the ma'arochos haShomayim and by which He does with them tremendous miracles, miracles in which nature is not changed. Hashem redeemed the Ovos from hunger and death and from being slain in war. He gave them prosperity, honor, and plenty; and these are the Torah's promises [given with] the brochos and kelolos. A person receives an abundance of good only as a reward for doing a mitzvah, or [receives] harm [only] as a punishment for an aveira, when a miracle is done. If a person went on being guided by nature or his mazel, his acts would not add or detract anything from [his lot]. However, the rewards and punishment in Olom Hazeh allotted in the whole Torah are all covert miracles. An observer might think they are the natural way the world runs, but they are actually man's punishment and reward . . . "
II: Children, Life, and Sustenance Depend Not Upon Zechus But On Mazel
We can question what we wrote above. The gemora (Mo'ed Koton 28a) writes: "Rovo said: `Life, children, and sustenance depend not upon zechus but on mazel, since we see that Rabbah and Rav Chisda were both righteous rabbonim. When one prayed rain fell and when the other prayed rain [also] fell. Yet Rav Chisda lived ninety-nine years but Rabbah lived forty. Sixty simchas were made in Rav Chisda's house, but in Rabah's house sixty misfortunes happened. In Rav Chisda's house there was enough fine wheat flour to satisfy even the dogs, while in Rabah's house people would ask for barley bread and even that could not be found."
The Abarbanel (Voeschanan, Bamidbar 416) wrote: "These three matters: children, life, and sustenance, include all of physical fulfillment." We can infer from the gemora that the way Shomayim deals with man in Olom Hazeh is according to his mazel, even when this hanhogoh does not correspond with that of reward and punishment in accordance with his deeds. This apparently differs from what we quoted above from the Ramban.
The anecdote recounted in Taanis (25a, according to the version of the Ein Yaakov) raises an additional difficulty: "R' Elazar ben Pedas was distressed with severe poverty. After letting blood R' Elazar had nothing to eat [to restore his strength]. He found a garlic sprout and ate it, then R' Elazar fainted [from its strong taste]. Before he had recovered, the rabbonim came to visit him. They saw him crying and smiling with a spark of fire gleaming from his forehead. After he awakened they asked him: `Why did you cry and smile and a spark of fire gleamed from your forehead?' He answered them: `I saw the Shechina and said before it: "Until when will I continue to live in such poverty?" And [the Shechina] said to me: "Elazar, My son! Do you want Me to turn over the world and create it anew? Then it might be that you will be created in an hour of livelihood." I answered: "After all this [the world being created anew], it would be only a possibility?"'"
The gemora explicitly writes that R' Elazar Ben Pedas's fate was dependent upon mazel, and not reward and punishment, and the way to rectify his lot was to be born anew under another mazel — a mazel of abundance.
There is yet a third source apparently contradictory to the Ramban's principle of reward and punishment being done in Olom Hazeh through covert miracles only as a reward for actions:
"R' Chanina Bar Popo expounded: `The mal'ach appointed over pregnancy is called Lailah. It takes a drop [of male seed] and presents it before HaKodosh Boruch Hu and says to Him: "Ruler of the World! What will be from this drop? A strong or weak person, a wise or stupid person, a rich or poor person?"'"
It is obvious from this Chazal that even before a person is born, when reward and punishment are totally irrelevant to him, it is decreed for him whether he will be strong, wise, or rich.
Actually the sugya cited above (Mo'ed Koton 28a) seems to contradict itself. Rovo said that children, life, and sustenance are dependent upon mazel, but he himself said in that same gemora: "I requested three things from Shomayim; they gave me two and one they did not give me. They gave me the wisdom of Rav Hunah and the affluence of Rav Chisda, but they did not give me the modesty of Ravah bar Rav Hunah." Wisdom and affluence are matters explicitly mentioned in Niddah as being dependent upon a decree prior to one's birth. How, then, could Rovo say that these matters were dependent upon his tefilla?
Nevertheless, Chazal's statement in Niddah and what was first mentioned from Mo'ed Koton show that all matters of Olom Hazeh are dependent upon a decree before birth — according to a person's individual mazel.
This matter of mazel needs to be explained in depth. Due to our numerous sins we are jealous about those whose mazel seems better than ours. This causes us to complain about the way Hashem rules the world.
The Ramban wrote in his introduction to Iyov:
"There is a matter that pains our hearts and grieves our thoughts; from it alone many have been lured into total heresy. The world looks as if justice is being perverted in it. A tzaddik suffers and a rosho flourishes. People ask why a certain person succeeds and why those who appear to be tzaddikim are lost. This is the root of the bitterness of all those who have rebelled [against the Torah] in every nation and language."
End of Part II
HaRav Dovid Kronglas zt'l, whose yahrtzeit is on 11 Teves, (5733), was the Rosh Mesivta and Menahel Ruchani in Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore for twenty-five years.
