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Doing Without Questioning
In this final chapter, we will deal with another point, without which one cannot attain oneness with Hashem.
People have all sorts of questions about life: They don't understand the Shoah (Holocaust), they wonder why one person suffers while another leads a happy life, and so on. There are many things they don't understand, and they ask, "Why is this so?"
A question implies that while some things are clear to a person, and so, he doesn't ask about them, there are certain things that are confusing, about which he does ask.
But the truth is that the whole world is one big question. The answer to all the questions is very simple: Hashem responds, "Don't ask questions!" On Pesach (Passover), there are questions and answers. Pesach is the first of the holidays, and the beginning of one's avodah is based on questions and clarifications. But the last of the holidays (in the yearly cycle) is Purim, and "Purim" has the same numerical value as "she'eilah" ("question," i.e. 336), because on Purim we rectify the problem of questioning. In the process of one's avodah, a person enters more inward, and yearns to reach the truth. He must then understand one fact: we don't ask "Why" about the world, we ask only "What?" - "What does Hashem request of me?"
One must know what his responsibility is, but he needs no answer to why Hashem requires something or why He did a certain act. There are two deep reasons for this:
The first reason is that man is a creation and Hashem is the Creator, and we cannot understand anything about His acts. We don't even have the beginning of an understanding of His world. The attempt to understand His works - the mere thought of it-shows the pathetic lowliness of the created being who thinks he can understand it. We can't understand anything! We don't know why we wash our hands, why we must learn Torah, or why we must keep the mitzvos! We know what we must do, and we do it because we were commanded to!
Chazal ask (Rosh HaShanah 16a), "Why do we blow shofar on Rosh HaShanah?" They answer, "Hashem said to blow!" There is no question as to why we blow. Hashem said to blow, so we must blow, without asking questions!
We cannot understand anything! The only thing we can understand is that we must observe the 613 mitzvos of the Torah, the 7 mitzvos of the rabbis, and all the details. Other than that, we know nothing of Hashem's thoughts.
Our avodah in Torah is to understand what we can, but we must remember that we don't understand the essence of the Torah. Why, then, must we engage in the study of something that we cannot fully grasp in any case?
The answer is that Hashem said we must learn! If He would have said, "Count from morning to night, ‘1,2,3,4...' until reaching a certain number, and then go to sleep, that is exactly what we would have to do! Why does Hashem care if we count? I don't know, but if He said, I will do! Hashem did not tell us to count from morning to night, but He ordered us to learn Torah and keep the mitzvos, and thus, we do so! What does He get out of the Torah and mitzvos? It really makes no difference! We can't understand why we learn or do mitzvos, or why there is a world, but Hashem tells us, "Listen to what I say, and do it!"
Another reason we should not seek answers to the questions of life is that every moment and every power we have is given to us so that we can serve Hashem. If one uses his time and energy to figure out why things are as they are, he is investing them in matters that are not Hashem's will. Hashem does not ask us to understand "why;" He only says, "Do!" When a person asks a lot of questions, he is wasting his precious time and energy.
Thus, there are two general reasons why we should not ask questions: 1) We cannot receive answers, because a mortal cannot understand such concepts with his intellect. 2) Our resources and time are limited, and we must utilize them for their intended purpose. Every moment must be devoted to serving the Creator, and if He has not commanded us to ask questions, it is not our avodah to do so!
Comprehending that I Cannot Comprehend
This principle cannot just be heard and grasped to be adequately absorbed. It is not enough to intellectually be aware of the fact that we cannot understand Hashem's ways. We have a heart of stone, and the heart always demands to understand.
We must take this desire for understanding and nullify it. Although the nature of the heart is to understand, we must strive to understand only what Hashem wants us to grasp, such as the Torah. Beyond that, there is no need to understand anything! Any attempt to understand Hashem and His ways is automatically a fault!
Although we find that the sefarim hakedoshim do explain much about the ways of Hashem, we must know that those explanations are only for one who has not yet perfected himself. If we do not give explanations to calm his heart, his heart will oppose the ways of the Creator, and he will not be able to progress in his avodah.
Therefore, in the beginning, the avodah is to explain to the heart, just as on Pesach we ask and give answers. But you must know that this is not the goal; it is only a means, so as to calm the heart while one is on the path! One can utilize information from these sefarim to answer particular questions: "Why would such a thing happen?" "It is to rectify a certain sin." Why did that tragic event happen to him?" "It is to rectify something from the previous gilgul (incarnation)...."
If one asks why he was punished, and is not calmed until he learns that he is punished for a certain sin or a previous gilgul, he does not possess simple faith in the Creator! What difference does it make to you? Did Hashem do it? Yes! Does He know what He is doing? Yes! So what does it matter why He did it?
If you ask, "Now that I have suffered, perhaps I need to correct something," that is an acceptable question. But there is no real place for merely asking, "Why did this happen to me?" All the explanations written in sefarim are just to calm a person who is in the process of avodah. But when a person wants to reach the inner essence of avodah, "the goal of knowledge is to know that we do not know." One must comprehend that he cannot comprehend anything.
This work of understanding in our heart that we cannot understand is an inherent contradiction to the heart's own nature, for it is called "the understanding heart." The nullification of one's wisdom is a nullification of a created being's natural yearning. If one nullifies himself and is full of emunah, he is no longer a separate entity, but an agent of Hashem. If he insists on understanding things and tries to fit Hashem's acts into a human's vessels, he separates himself from Hashem and cannot be one with Him.
Every one of us will eventually reach this level of emunah, but the question is if it will be in this world or the next. The path to this level is long, and one must fulfill all that has been presented up to this point, but the inner goal is for one to realize that he is here for one purpose: to do the will of Hashem and to understand that he cannot understand!
This comprehension that one cannot comprehend is an awesome level that only very few people truly attain. Many can say the words, "I understand that I don't understand," but the way of their heart is completely otherwise.
"Be Simple - with Hashem, your God."
If one is truly on the level where he is not bothered by the fact that he does not understand, if suffering comes to him, not only will he not be angry, but he will have no questions! He will say to Hashem, "Even if this suffering does not rectify any sins, I don't care why they came. If you did this, Hashem, it must be perfectly fine!"
As long as one seeks answers, he is far from this point. If when receiving some form of suffering, one thinks, "Thank God, this is a rectification for my sins" (or, as people say, "an atonement for sins"), he should know that he is not yet on this level. If he thinks that suffering must atone for sins, and calms his heart that way, he still has a desire to understand suffering.
A person must feel inside that he doesn't care why he suffers! One thing must be clear to him: Hashem sent the suffering, and He knows very well what he is doing! That's all! One doesn't need to understand any more than that. Even if Eliyahu HaNavi would come and reveal to him that there is no such thing as reincarnation and rectification of sins (he wouldn't say that, because the sefarim hakedoshim have already stated these truths), he would not be bothered at all. It is clear to him that the One who brought the suffering was the Creator, and there are no questions on Him!
We are familiar with innumerable questions: "Why is he having such a hard time finding a wife? Why does that kind person have financial troubles...?" The truth is that there isn't even a single question; essentially, there are no questions in Hashem's works.
One must live with true simplicity with the Creator. "Be simple with Hashem, your God" (Devarim 18:13). A simple person has no questions. It is not that he doesn't understand enough to ask, because that person is on the lower level known as "he who knows not how to ask." A simple person is on the level where he doesn't ask because he understands that there is no need to ask. He has no interest in receiving answers. He yearns only to do the will of Hashem, without knowing why.
When a person lives this way, he reaches the true inner state of simplicity. With simplicity, he has no questions at all throughout life, and if he fulfills, "Be simple," he is "with Hashem, your God" - he attains awesome deveikus (attachment to Hashem)!
The Inner Recognition of "He said, and it came to Be"
As in all areas of middos (character traits), which exist both on the conscious and the subconscious levels, so, too, there are questions in the conscious mind and those in the subconscious. Even if a person thinks that he has no questions, he must check very deeply within: is there really nothing about life that bothers him, or are there certain details that do bother him?
If one feels pain - not physical, but emotional - due to any problem in life, he is not yet at this level to the fullest extent. Certainly, to reach this level, one needs tremendous effort, and each person should take these ideas and progress with them as much as he can, but the goal is to live with simple emunah in the Creator, without any questions. No matter what happens to a person, he should accept it literally with joy, with the faith that "He said, and it came to be," and accept that Hashem knows what He is doing.
In the previous chapters, we dealt with emunah: "Chavakuk came and placed them (the mitzvos) on one pillar - "the righteous man lives with his faith." This is the inner sense of the emunah; there are no questions! This is not just the emunah that there is a Creator, and not just the sense of Hashem's Presence, but an emunah that makes a person calm and serene his entire life!
As we said, the numerical value of "Purim" is the same as "she'eilah" (question; 336). It is also the value of shalev (serenity), because when one nullifies all his questions, he has true serenity, "a repose of truth and faith, a repose of peace and serenity." This is the deepest concept that a created being can grasp. On this level, one totally nullifies himself before Hashem. He asks no questions, but walks with Hashem with simplicity. The more one is close to the awareness that he can have no questions, and is always happy with Hashem's actions, the closer he is to Hashem. The further one is from this awareness, the further he is from Hashem.
The Goal is One - "I Shall Walk Before Hashem in the Land of the Living"
Throughout this entire series of classes, we have had one goal: to bring a person to the state of being attached and bound with the Creator! The reader must take one important message from this book: there is nothing to do in life other than to serve Hashem and truly be close to Him!
We must, of course, work with all the methods that have been presented at length, but the main impression that one must attain from all of this is that there is nothing to do in this world other than to serve Hashem! This is not a matter of working to nullify the material, but a feeling that comes from a pure soul. One will feel in his heart the words of the wisest of men (Shlomo HaMelech), "Vanity of vanities, said Kohelles" (Kohelles 1:2).
The Mashgiach, Rav Yechezkel Levenstein zt"l, said that every Jew must write with the blood of his heart the pasuk, "Vanity of vanities, said Kohelles, vanity of vanities, all is vain." It is not enough to just trust Shlomo HaMelech. Of course, we must trust our Sages, but one must really sense that there is nothing else to pursue here in the world - whether silver, gold, food, or anything else of this world! It is normal to have a fleeting pleasure when eating, but one must in general have a tremendous feeling that something is missing, a feeling that there is nothing to do here in the world other than to serve Hashem and be close to Him!
This does not only apply to people on a high level. Anyone who considers the world a bit sees all the instability, day after day, hour after hour. Everything is confused; nothing has permanence. If someone has bright expectations about the material world, he must be very delusional. One should reach a simple discovery about life: either we serve Hashem, or we are lost!
We must instill this deep in our hearts. On one hand, there is nothing to do here, but on the other hand, there is much to do: we can become close to Hashem here in this world!
Our avodah must be based on one simple point: to negate the material world while truly entering the awareness that there is what to do in this world: "I will walk before Hashem in the land of the living." This is all we can do here - to walk only with Hashem!
Certainly, the way to get there is through Torah and mitzvos and the methods we have discussed, but the goal is one: to live with the Creator! There is nothing else to do; either we live with the Creator, or we have nothing!
"Even when I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I shall not fear, for You are with me" (Tehillim 23:4). If we don't live with the Creator, we are in the shadow of death. We have nothing.
One who thinks a little sees that our world is literally a valley of the shadow of death. Everything is like a fleeting shadow. If one has "for You are with me," he has everything; if not, he is totally empty.
We must realize that even if one has the gifts of this world, such as a family, it is nice, but that is not the goal! The goal is one: to use everything in this world for coming close to the Creator!
The goal is one, but the means change from one person to the next. The pace one adopts for his own work is not the pace required when guiding family members. Not everything taught here is appropriate for everyone. It can be most harmful if one tries to impose levels on his family for which they are not prepared. One always must think very carefully about this when trying to guide them, and daven from the depth of his heart.
May Hashem enable all of our work here to be beneficial, and may each one us receive from this what he must. May we all have the privilege to become close to the Creator and please Him - as it says (Berachos 17a), "Happy is he who is raised with the Torah, toils in Torah, and pleases his Creator" - and may we draw every single Jew close to Him.
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