Building Emunah

Many times, we wonder why things happen to us. We have no clue what the answer may be. For a massive example, we will never be able to comprehend the Holocaust, no matter what terutzim and "proofs" we come up with. That question will only be answered when Moshiach comes, speedily with our days.

There are also other little questions that we have no answers to. Questions like:

1. Why does Yankel have a skin disease? He learns and is very kind. What has he done to deserve this?

2. I want to visit Sarah at the hospital. I have only 3 hours to do this mitzvah before I have to work. There is a traffic jam, and thus I am unable to visit her.

3. The boss is acting strange to Richard, despite countless hours of dedication to his job, the boss decides to promote Tom, who spends too much time chatting with co-workers and is obnoxious around the office.

WHY?

Hashem has 2 systems in which we need to relate to him: deah(knowledge) and emunah(faith).

In a deah system, we know and understand clearly the reason why Hashem is doing a certain thing. For example we saw Hashem take us out of Egypt thousands of years ago. We know that if I go to work and do what I have to do, I will get my paycheck. If not, then face consequences!

However, we also were put into this world to develop emunah (faith) in Hashem. Emunah only can be developed when the brain kicks out, and says "This does NOT make sense!"

When things dont make sense then our job is to say "This is for the good. I dont know why, and I dont know if I will ever learn it for a while. Therefore, I must stop trying to figure out what's the deal here....and realize that it's for the best."

Stories abound about deah coming out of an emunah situation. The classic one is the guy who misses his plane and thus a key business opportunity where he could make millions of dollars. 2 days later, he finds the plane has crashed in the middle of the ocean leaving no survivors. Before the crash, he had to rely on emunah to see it for the best, and now he has deah post-crash.

Obviously this doesnt answer the horrible question of why the other people had to die and he survive. Or why some people survived the holocaust and a few escaped. That is in the Emunah realm!!!!

Our job is to

1. Use deah when we know the answer.

2. Use emunah in the rest of the 99% situations that Hashem gives to us where we have no solutions.

Use these situations to build emunah, and have faith that Hashem will give us the answer when it's the right time!