Why? Abba!
Why was I put through that traumatic experience? What's my purpose in life? What's going to be with me? Rabbi Arush shows how all of these deep questions are really one question with a single answer...
Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna.
The Answer to All Questions
Do you know what all problems in life have in common? In fact, one can say that there is only one problem in life, and if you overcome it, you can say that you lead a happy life and have no difficulties whatsoever. So what is this one problem?
The only problem is questions! A question is called in Aramaic a kushiya, as in the Hebrew word koshi (difficulty). Among Torah scholars, asking a question is expressed by the word maksheh: the Gemara is maksheh, Rashi is maksheh etc. and the holy Zohar says about the pasuk “The Egyptians imposed back-breaking labor on [Bnei Yisrael] embittering their lives with harsh work (avoda kasha)”1 – that ‘harsh’ here means a kushiya! In other words, all the bitterness in one’s life comes from kushiyot – from questions!
And so we see that the only solution to all our difficulties is to find an answer to our questions.
And just like the problem is one – so too the solution is one, because deep down there is only one answer to all questions. To be more precise, all the answers have one common denominator.
This is actually the beginning of the book The Garden of Emuna, which I had the Heavenly merit to write for the Jewish People. It was accepted with much enthusiasm all over the world, by Jews and by non-Jews alike. For everything in the world is connected – the entire world, despite the huge differences among human beings, is one unit. Everybody, everywhere and in every culture is coping with the same difficulties, as we explained in depth already – truly, the difficulties are only the questions!
I began the book The Garden of Emuna with the following statement: Emuna (faith) is the answer to all the questions!
My Father, My Shepherd – I Will Not Lack
Just as a wonderful and blooming garden such as the garden of emuna develops and improves and grows every day and every moment, so too the garden of emuna never stops renewing itself and surprising us. In the past few years, we have had the merit to teach the Jewish People that all the foundations of emuna can be summed up in one word: Abba (father)!
And as to our discussion, we will try to explain and sharpen the message, and say that the word ‘Abba” is the answer to all those questions. In other words, the word ‘Abba’ is the solution to every difficulty in life and is the key to a happy life!
Abba does only good and will do only good. And even when you’re not perfect, Abba loves you and sees only the good in you.
We have three kinds of questions:
- Questions about things that happened in the past – traumatic events, about which we ask “Why?”
- Questions that we ask about ourselves and about our faults – who and what am I, and what’s my purpose in life?
- Questions that we ask about the future: “What will be?”
There is one answer to all these questions: Why? Abba! Abba knows what’s good, Abba has done only good to me. What will be? Abba! Abba will do only good things for me and things will get better and better.
We have written at length, in many books and articles, about the past – the “why?” question, discussing faith, gratitude, and more. Also, about who I am and why do I have faults and what my role is, we have written already in the book The Garden of Wisdom and in many essays designed to empower people. And there is still more to say about it.
But in this essay we wish to deal with one of the big difficulties that arise from the questions, “What will be? How will we manage?” Because most of the people who are living good lives now, have food in the refrigerator, their children are in good health, and more – and yet, they feel disturbed. What is bothering them and stealing their peace of mind? The worries about the future; what will the future be?
And the word “Abba” is the answer and the true calming thought and the only source for peace of mind!
What Will Be? “Abba”
“Abba” means that things will be only good and will get better and better. “Abba” is a word that encompasses not only all the foundations of faith, but also all the foundations of our trust in Hashem. I have a father – so I feel secure, because there is Someone who takes care of all my needs.
Abba will give me everything. Abba will take care of me. Even if I cause Him distress, it is the way of a father to forgive his children, and a father who forgoes his honor, his honor is forgone. And even if I make mistakes, it is the way of a father to have mercy on his son, even if he made mistakes.
Hashem yitbarach is a living G-d, King of the World, but before that, and above everything else, He is a father. A king acts according to laws and principles, and G-d, too, has levels, worlds, and angels. But a father has no laws and no rules and no barriers and no limitations, and there is no end to his love and mercy.
And when you say and remind yourself: “Abba”, you live with bitachon (trust/security). And when you live with bitachon, your prayers are received, and therefore a prayer that begins with the words: “Abba, You love me” produces yeshuot (salvations). And we must make sure to use the highest Name of Hashem – Abba. Abba, thank You; Abba, You love me!
The Connection Between Shabbat and Har Sinai
There are many mitzvot in our parshah. A long list. And in this list we have an interesting flow of psukim: “For six years, sow your land and gather its crops but in the seventh let it rest and lie fallow. Let the needy of your people eat from it, and what they leave, let the wild animals eat. Do the same with your vineyards and olive groves. For six days carry out your work, but on the seventh you must cease, so that your ox and donkey may rest, and even the children of maidservants and strangers be revived. Take care in all that I have said to you. Never invoke the names of other gods; let them never pass your lips.”2
What is the mitzvah of Shabbat doing here? We spoke about Shabbat in the previous parshah, in the Ten Commandments, and the Torah mentions Shabbat a few more times in Shemot and in the next chumashim (books of the Torah). What is it doing here?
Here, Shabbat appears in close proximity to the mitzvah of Shmittah. What the two mitzvot have in common is the middah (trait) of bitachon. Shmittah involves complete trust in Hashem yitbarach – extreme bitachon. The farmer leaves the land fallow for a full year; for a full year, the main source of his livelihood is gone!
The Torah tells you that to have such bitachon one must practice – every week anew. You must stop working for a whole day and even more, and on that day use your existing resources without earning any new income and believe that all the blessing of the six days of work come from that one day.
The idea is that in order to have the merit to withstand the huge nisyonot (trials) of bitachon in our lives, we must work on the middah of bitachon every single day. That is why there is a mitzvah to think and remember Shabbat and to prepare for it every day during the week, thus remaining connected to the middah of bitachon.
The Sweetest Name
One can say that this is hinted to in this pasuk: “Never invoke the names of other gods”3, as we explained in the booklet It Will Be Only Good! and in the book I’m in Your Hands. He who believes in Hashem but does not believe that Hashem is a father actually believes in another god, one of his own invention.
The name of our G-d is Hashem echad (Hashem is One). The word echad has the gematria (numerical value) of ahavah (love). In other words, the true belief in Hashem is that Hashem is a father. And if you don’t mention the names of other gods, but, rather, always turn to Hashem and say to him, “Abba, You love me” – that is the best way to practice bitachon. And that is the source of our ability to keep the Shabbat. In the holy books it says that Shabbat is actually a visit to our Father, Who hosts us and invites us for the meals. And so, we are able to strengthen our bitachon and pass the big tests such as the Shmittah year.
This is also what is behind Purim, which is coming up soon. The whole yeshua (salvation) there came from Esther’s trust in Hashem, as is brought in Psalm 22 in Tehillim, which is Esther’s prayer: “In You, our ancestors placed their trust; they trusted and You delivered them. To You they cried out and were saved.”4
The midrash says that Esther was saying: “Hashem, the G-d of Yisrael, Who has ruled from long ago, and You created the world, please help your maidservant, for I have been left an orphan, without father or mother, and am like a poor woman who goes from door to door to collect alms. So too, I am asking for your mercy from window to window in the house of Achashverosh, and now, Hashem, give success to this poor maidservant of yours and save your herd of sheep from these enemies that have come upon us, because nothing inhibits You from saving us, a lot or a little. And you, father of orphans, stand by the side of this orphan who trusted in your kindness, and make this man look upon me mercifully for I am afraid of him, and degrade him in front of me, because You degrade the proud ones.”5
May Hashem let us know that He is our father and loves us, and so we will acquire the middah of bitachon and receive all the salvations and merit the full light of Purim.
Editor’s Notes:
1 Shemot (Exodus) 1:14
2 Shemot 23:10-13
3 Shemot 23:13
4 Tehillim (Psalms) 22:5
5 Midrash Rabbah – Esther 8:7
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