Parashat Beresheet: The Avodah Hashem Chose for Us

The Torah tells us that after Hashem completed the creation of the world, Hashem saw everything that He made, and it was very good. וַיַּרְא אֱלֹקִים אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וְהִנֵּה טוֹב מְאֹד There are many things that take place in this world that don't appear good to us, but Hashem sees אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה- the entire picture. We see just one small piece. Many times, what we think would be best for us is not what Hashem knows we need. A woman recently told me that before Simchat Torah, she had been reading a book on emunah. She came across a story about a man who had prepared himself to stay up the entire night of Shavuot learning Torah. He was so excited about it, but then he got sick and all of his plans got canceled. He had a difficult time accepting it until a rabbi helped him understand that obviously Hashem wanted a different tikkun from him that Shavuot. His avodah was not going to be the learning that he planned on doing. It was going to be accepting Hashem's will and doing the best he could in the circumstances that Hashem put him in. The woman had no idea when she read that story how soon she was going to need its message. Her son had made very special plans for Simchat Torah. Over the previous months, he had been learning many masechtot and left the final piece of each one for Simchat Torah. He was planning to make a major siyum on seven or eight masechtot. His father was also planning on making a siyum together with him. It was supposed to be an incredible, joyous celebration of Torah on the day designated for rejoicing with the Torah. But right before Simchat Torah, her son became sick. He couldn't finish the masechtot, and he couldn't even participate in the meal and siyum that they had planned. He was devastated. His mother spoke to him afterward and tried to give him chizuk, and then she remembered the story that she "happened" to read right before Yom Tov. She shared its message with her son. Hashem had sent them that story beforehand because He knew they were going to need it. They took it as a direct message from Hashem. We make plans to serve Hashem, and those plans are great. But sometimes Hashem shows us that the avodah He wants from us is different from the one that we thought we were going to do. This young man wanted to give Hashem seven or eight siyumim, but at that moment Hashem wanted something else from him: to surrender his will and accept Hashem's will with emunah. As we begin the Torah again from Bereshit, we are reminded that Hashem is not only the Creator of the world, but the Creator of every single circumstance in our lives. We don't always understand why He changes our plans, but He always sees the entire picture and knows exactly what our neshamah needs at every given moment. The greatest avodah we can give Hashem is not necessarily the one we planned, but rather the one that He planned for us. Shabbat Shalom.