Back in 1996, Rabbi Finman was asked to speak to the niece of one of his students. After spending many hours answering her questions, the woman gave Rabbi Finman her e-mail address. Rabbi Finman wrote the woman a note and included in it a short insight into that week's Parsha and a short Chasidic story.

Realizing that this was something no one was yet doing,, Rabbi Finman sent the missive to his mailing list of about 30 people. Requests from recipients friends came pouring in. The next week Rabbi Finman sent the e-Parsha to 100 people. Within a year more than 2000 people were receiving it. Today, more than 14,000 receive the e-Parsha weekly and the requests keep coming in.

Yisro 5785
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Beshalach 5785

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This week's YouParsha Beshalach http://youtu.be/EtCTnlaF0Jk Don't walk too far.

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This week is Parshas Beshalach, Exodus 13:17 - 17:16. The Jews crossed the Reed Sea and Moshe led the Children of Israel in song. One of the verses of the song is, "Your right Hashem is awesome in strength. Your right Hashem crushes the enemy." Rashi comments that your right is mentioned twice in the verse because Hashem's left also becomes a right when the Jews do the will of Hashem.

Left and right of Hashem refer to the divine attributes of kindness and severity. We ascribe an act of divine kindness to be when things go the way we want them to go. Malevolent occurrences are ascribed to divine severity. This is, of course, all according to our perception. It could very well be a negative incident is actually an act of divine kindness. We just do not understand how.

Several rabbis were travelling together. The topic strayed to, "What would you do different if you were G'd." The conversation continued some time with the senior member of the group, the famous Levi Yitschok of Berdichev, keeping dubiously quiet. They turned to Reb Levik and asked him to answer the question. Without pause, the venerable rabbi replied, "Were I Hashem, I would understand that everything being done is the very best way of doing it and I would not change a thing."

The differences of right and left exist only in a very low sphere of existence called the World of Atzilus - Emanation. Our prayers are filled with references to divine mercy, compassion, father, king, etc. These are all expressions of divine revelations in Atzilus. The Zohar comments, "leis smallah b'high atticka - there is no left in atik. The first manifestation of the creation process introduces a limited infiniteness into an unlimited finiteness (There are levels of infinity. Only the essence of Hashem is truly without limit. Revelations of G'dliness have infinite qualities [such as the number of fractions between zero and one] but are limited in their magnitude. Hashem has the ability to limit G'dly revelation. That ability to limit is infinite. The point of tangency between the limited infinity and the unlimited finiteness is atik). Atik contains the entire creation in a primordial state, similar to a zygote that contains every characteristic of the eventual human in a single cell. It is understood that there is no severity or limit within this point. It is an expression of total kindness; the beneficence of the Almighty creating the world.

Doing mitzvahs attaches the Jew with Hashem (mitzvah means attachment). Mitzvahs are expressions of divine will that emanate from the world of Atzilus. A person severs that connection when they transgress a mitzvah as they are acting contrary to divine will. A person can reconnect with the Almighty through teshuva - repentance. This feeling of wanting to reattach after the severing is an essential soul expression. It relates to the essence of Hashem - the master of divine will.

We can now understand how prayer helps. Everything is divine providence. How can our prayers "change G'd's mind"? Divine will is only expressed in the lower divine attributes. There are times when divine will is enclothed in divine kindness. There are times when will is garbed in severity. When we pray, "May it be your will…" we appeal to the essence of Hashem, higher than divine will (G'd who controls divine will). It makes no difference to G'd how a person behaved once they relate to G'd's essence - higher than will.

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The financial situation of the central Lubavitcher yeshiva founded in Rostov, Russia, in 1897, was very difficult in the years of Bolshevik and Communist oppression. There was never enough food for the students let alone money for other necessities. One time, in the early 1920's, one of the directors of the yeshiva approached a very wealthy Jew in Rostov and asked him for help. At first, the man refused, but after much prodding, he finally agreed to contribute on one condition: He and his wife had been married for many years and still had no children. If the rabbi would promise them a son, the man would help the yeshiva.

The yeshiva desperately needed the money. Feeling he had no choice and trusting Hashem, the rabbi promised the wealthy man that in the merit of his charity, he would have a son. A year passed but the couple still had no children. He went to the director of the yeshiva and said, "You promised me a child. I kept my part of the deal but you haven't kept yours." The rabbi encouraged the man to have faith and to wait patiently. Another year passed and still no children. This time the wealthy man approached the rabbi angrily. "You deceived me. You promised me a child and we do not have any children!"

The rabbi went to the Rebbe Rayatz and told him the whole story. "Who told you that you could promise someone that they will be blessed with children when you cannot keep your word?" the Rebbe asked sternly. "But Rebbe," the rabbi replied, "the yeshiva was in dire straits and I was certain that in the merit of his donation that would enable hundreds of students to study Torah that he and his wife would be blessed with a child." "Still," said the Rebbe, "it is forbidden to make a promise that you cannot personally keep."

A few years passed. The man began harassing the rabbi on a daily basis. Day after day he confronted him, crying bitterly, "Where is the child you promised me?" The rabbi went again to the Rebbe. "He will not leave me alone. He does not let me live," the rabbi told the Rebbe. "Go to the man," said the Rebbe, "and tell him in my name that he will have a child this year. And never again make a promise that you can't keep." The following year the man and his wife made a festive celebration for the bris of their son.

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