A man told me he used to think that emunah was only for the holy and pious individuals, but over the past couple of years, he has discovered that emunah is for everyone, even the regular Joe. It’s easily attainable and makes life so much better. He added, he used to think that he needed to have a big story with a glorious ending happen to him to see Hashem, but now he knows, he can see Hashem all the time. This past year he had an important meeting in a place that was a two-hour drive from where he lived. The day that was chosen for the meeting was a hard day on his calendar to make that meeting, but he went, anticipating a favorable turnout. On the way there, he decided to listen to an emunah message that came to his phone daily. That day the message was about a rabbi who was given the wrong information on where a wedding would take place, and he ended up driving two hours to get there. When the person realized his mistake and apologized the next day to the rabbi, the rabbi told him, “I believe b’emunah shelemah, for whatever reason, Hashem orchestrated the events to have me drive all the way to that hall and I accept it with joy.” When this man finally arrived to his meeting that day, the customer called saying he’s sorry, but he wasn’t going to make it. The man immediately said, “Thank You, Hashem, for giving me the chizuk that I needed for what I was going to go through today. I will accept this with happiness as well.” Recently, someone saw this man reading a book on emunah and commented, “Oh, I didn’t know you’re on such a high level.” To which he replied, “You don’t have to be on a high level for emunah; it’s for everyone.” And that is the absolute truth. Both the emunah that Hashem controls everything and does what’s best for us, as well as the emunah that Hashem could help us with anything we need is attainable by all. Emunah should be instilled in our children from young ages. It’s even for the very, very young. A man told me his brother was recently in Israel, and he took his three-year-old son for the first time to the Kotel. He told him, “You could talk to Hashem here and ask Him for whatever you want. Hashem is listening to you and He wants to give you.” The little boy had a pair of yellow goggles that he kept on him at all times, he loved them so much, he never took them off. On the way out of the Kotel plaza, his father watched as the boy took the goggles off and threw them in the garbage. His father asked him why he did that. The boy replied, “I just prayed to Hashem to give me a new pair of blue goggles. I want blue ones now, so I don’t need these yellow ones anymore.” His father was so happy to see the emunah peshuta that his son had. He was convinced, right after he prayed, that Hashem would help him to the point that he even threw out his goggles. When they got back from Israel, the little boy’s grandmother had a gift for him. What was it? A blue pair of goggles. His father was so excited, he told his mother the story. She said, “I can’t believe it. I always see him wearing those goggles so I figured he wanted another one, so I decided to get him a new one and they had nice blue ones there, so that’s what I got for him.” Emunah is for all ages and having emunah gives us a golden opportunity to reach the highest levels in religion. It says in the Yalkut IyovI that if Iyov had not questioned Hashem when he was suffering terrible yissurin, the same way we say, “????? ?????, ????? ???? ?????? ???? we would have added "????? ????". Let us analyze this. We have no concept of how great our Avot HaKedoshim were. The Rambam writes, the Avot and Moshe Rabbenu were the four greatest people our nation has ever had. And if Iyov would have had more emunah, he would have been on par with the Avot! Of course his tests in emunah were extremely difficult, but look at what emunah is able to do for a person. It could quickly elevate him to be on the level of the greatest of the greats. Everyone could practice emunah in their own lives in the circumstances that Hashem puts them in. We don’t have to be Tzaddikim to practice emunah, but if we do practice it, it will turn us into Tzaddikim.
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