Ashrei part 9
טוֹב ה' לַכֹּל, וְרַחֲמָיו עַל כָּל מַעֲשָׂיו
Hashem is good to all; His mercies are on all His works.
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At this point, we certainly understand that all that Hashem does is for our good. Here, David HaMelech tells us that Hashem extends His goodness to all (לכל), regardless of whether or not we currently deserve that goodness. Hashem even gives us the time and the opportunity to return to Him and repent. Our focus in Ashrei 9 will be on the second half of the pasuk: ורחמיו על כל מעשיו.
What is compassion (רחמים), and to whom does Hashem extend His compassion? The S’fas Emes1 teaches that רחמים is when one spends time thinking about and contemplating the pain of another. To do this, one must have an understanding of the recipient of his compassion. Since Hashem created all beings, He understands them all, and therefore only He can truly have compassion for ALL creations.
The Gemara in B’rachos 12b, as explained by Rav Chaim Friedlander zt”l in his sefer שפתי חיים,2 states that when one is sick and is in need of רחמים, we must put ourselves in the situation of that person and pray for him as if we ourselves were the ill one. That requires the kind of thinking and contemplation that the S’fas Emes (above) described. I recall vividly how his mother a”h, upon hearing tragic news from Israel, would literally sit and cry. It was as if the news was about someone she knew and was extremely close to, though she did not know the specific soldiers/individuals involved at all. The Chazon Ish zt”l, to whom so many flocked for counsel, stated that if people who came to him with their troubles knew how much their troubles affected him (because he felt like they were his personal troubles), these people would surely have come back to him to share with him news of recoveries and reversals of those troubles, when applicable, so that he could rejoice with them. While we may not react immediately and instinctively to others’ pain, and while we may not always be able to stop and spend time to think about their pain, we can do so on occasion, and perhaps briefly, even as we say this pasuk in Ashrei periodically. Then, at some later time, we can invest the time to think and contemplate how it would feel if we were the ones in need of compassion.
Unfortunately, there are so many in need of compassion these days. Certainly, the hostages and soldiers in battle have been and continue to be in our hearts and minds. Our fellow brothers and sisters are in pain over anti-Semitism and hatred around the world. Additional issues include physical illness, mental illness, financial troubles, children at risk, childless couples, and loneliness, just to name a few. There is one more group in need that has particular application to this pasuk (כל – even those so distant from Hashem now), and who perhaps may not regularly be at the top of our minds.
Rabbi Noach Weinberg zt”l, the founder of Aish HaTorah, called our period in history a time of spiritual Holocaust. We lost millions to death in the Holocaust, and we are losing millions spiritually today. Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl (the world-renowned former chief rabbi of the Old City of Yerushalayim), in one of his talks on Parshas Sh’lach, pointed out how, when captives are taken (or after a kidnapping), we are able to easily feel the pain (and we all rally together to daven for their immediate release). Yet, a large percentage of our brothers and sisters are each halachically considered as a young baby who has been taken captive. They do not know their heritage and they have no connection to Hashem. Others who attended yeshivos and Bais Yaakov have drifted away. Can we imagine the pain of G-d-fearing parents if, chas v’shalom, they had eight out of ten children who left the path of Torah? That is the painful situation today, where more than 80% of Hashem's children have little or no connection to their Father.
We should do our best to emulate Hashem’s רחמים and fulfill the mitzvah of following in His path. Just as Hashem has רחמים for ALL of His creations, let us have רחמים for all of His creations and for Hashem. Let us daven that His estranged children return to Him in the near future. This is what Hashem desires, as we say when we conclude the brachah of “Hashiveinu” in Shemoneh Esrei: We say “הרוצה בתשובה–Who desires return.” It is the only brachah we say with the expression that Hashem “desires.” Let us include in our tefilos those who have no background at all, as well as those who do but who have strayed or are struggling. We should try to feel the pain they and those close to them feel. Let us daven for the millions at large, those individuals we know specifically, and for Hashem, Who is in pain and Who “desires” his children to return to Him. May Hashem answer all of our tefilos soon.
שפת אמת תולדות תרס"א1
שפתי חיים, מדות א', עמוד 398 2