Did That Really Just Happen????

How ironic, or is it coincidence? That this happened. I could say it wasn’t my fault. You could say that it wasn’t your fault. And it wasn’t. It happened. Like all things that happen in our lives. It just “happened.”

What am I talking about? What am I not talking about? The thing that happened that you weren’t expecting. The thing you didn’t plan or foresee. The exact thing that you didn’t want to happen, it happened. And now what? Should you just shrug your shoulders and sigh, “Oh well, it happened?”

I love to move and I love to be busy and this makes me happy. I was supposed to give a class today and I know that I would have come home rejuvenated from it. I had two clients call me today who wanted to come and I know that I would have loved to receive them, but something else happened and I had to cancel the class and tell my clients that they couldn’t come. Instead of doing I’m sitting around lying in bed and I’m thinking to myself that (I’m so bored!), “This didn’t just happen. G-d made this happen and I’m not in control and there’s a reason for it and it’s giving me time to sit and not do so that I can reflect and know that nothing, absolutely NOTHING just “happens.”

If a man or a woman has spots on the skin of their flesh, white spots, the kohen shall look, and, behold! there are dim white spots on the skin of their flesh, it is a bohak [pigmentation] which has spread on the skin. He is pure-uncontaminated (Vayikra 13:38-39).

Since a bohak is not contaminated in any way, why must one show it to a Kohen [for evaluation]? Any undesirable change in a someone’s physical or economic circumstances-even if it is only a relatively minor inconvenience, such as a bohoak-should be taken as a possible punishment and the victim should seek guidance in determining where he has fallen short and how he can improve himself…-Rabbi Moshe Feinstein

Wow. It could be that the happening is a possible punishment and it could be not. And if it’s a punishment it’s still not about “fault”. The goal of even the minor inconvenience is not to get us down and make us feel terrible about ourselves, but it is to get us to think and reflect. There is a purpose behind this! What greater joy than to know everything is for something, hand picked and personally designed for what we need to grow and improve ourselves.

The unexpected things that “happen” show us how loved we are by the understanding that things are not left to chance. Everything that happens is done for a purpose by a Force that loves us more than we could possibly love ourselves. The happenings are done to teach us and to provide us with the opportunity to grow and better ourselves in each and every way. So don’t take anything as chance, know that this happened and that happened and it happened all for a reason and all for our best to be our best.

***

She’s so humbled. She feels like she’s being knocked down. Why is she being tested in this exact area? The area where she would normally feel so strong, so confident, so at home with the situation?

It’s not a test that has an obvious solution. It’s not one where it would be easy to relinquish control. No, this is her test and yes, it’s to knock her and humble her. Why?

When you come to the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as a possession, and I place a lesion of tzara'ath upon a house in the land of your possession…the kohen shall order that they remove the stones upon which the lesion is [found], and they shall cast them away outside the city, to an impure place... And he shall scrape out the house from the inside, all around, and they shall pour out the [mortar] dust from what they scraped, outside the city, into an impure place... (Vayikra 34:14-41)

and I place a lesion of tzara’ath: Heb. וְנָתַתִּי, lit. and I will give. This is [good] news for them that lesions of tzara’ath will come upon them, (Torath Kohanim 14:75), because the Amorites had hidden away treasures of gold inside the walls of their houses during the entire forty years that the Israelites were in the desert, and through the lesion, he will demolish the house (see verses 43-45) and find them. — [Vayikra Rabbah 17:6]-Rashi

Why, you ask. Why are you being tested in the one area where you feel so home? In the one area where it would appear that you’re confident and that you should know? Why are you being tested in the one area which humbles you and makes you feel like you’ve been demolished? To build you! To have you find the greatest treasure of all. Because exactly with that test and that challenge you’re going to see blessing and growth.

Once again, remember that you are loved and that this is all for a very big and important, beautiful reason.

Sending blessings from Jerusalem. May we merit to find the treasure in our tests and be able to stay focused that we’re loved and there is an opportunity for growth and greatness in each challenge and every occurrence.

Shabbat Shalom,

Elana