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Thought for the Day: What? Me Worry? I Am Standing in Front of the King

I have a grandson who is nearly bar mitzvah and lives only a few blocks away. He is now (1) old enough to walk over by himself, (2) between day camp and sleep away camp age, (3) bored (now that school is out). Now that I am retired, I am able to help out a bit with the boredom, and so I have a new chavrusa a few times a week. By his choice, we are learning Yeshayahu, aka Isaiah. He will also occasionally just drop by to hang out with Bubbie and Zeidy. He stopped by this morning on the way to davening, so he got to enjoy a R' Biderman vort with us via the Reb Meilechs Chizuk WhatsApp channel. As it turned out, the vort we heard from R' Biderman dovetailed very nicely to the topic we learned in Yeshayahu.

R' Biderman told over a vort from the Toldos. Dovid HaMelech tells us (T'hillim 16:8):
שִׁוִּיתִי יְהוָה לְנֶגְדִּי תָמִיד כִּי מִימִינִי בַּל אֶמּוֹט/I have placed HaShem in front of my always, I shall not stumble

Just because I have placed HaShem in front of me at all times, why does that mean I shall not stumble? The Toldos explains with a mashal. Imagine standing in front of a monarch (choose your favorite; I liked Queen Elizabeth, personally). You have a personal meeting. There may be others there, but the king is focused on you just now. While you are standing there in conversation with the king, someone comes up and hits you hard on the shoulder. You are absolutely not going to turn away from the king and start yelling at him. After all, this was all in the full view of the king. That means either (1) this person was told to hit you by the king, or (2) the king himself will take care of this chutzpenyak.

Right, says the Toldos. Since you are always standing in front of HaShem, the King, what is there to worry about? Anything that happens was either by direct order, or... well, I wouldn't want to be the other guy!

The prophet Yeshayahu (26:12) says: 

ה' תִּשְׁפֹּ֥ת שָׁל֖וֹם לָ֑נוּ כִּ֛י גַּם־כָּל־מַֽעֲשֵׂ֖ינוּ פָּעַ֥לְתָּ לָּֽנוּ/HaShem, arrange peace for us, even as you brought about all that has happened to us.

The prophet tells us, just look over the past and realize that HaShem has been running everything. That being the case, we can calmly face the future -- the future that HaShem Himself is arranging for us. A future of peace. 

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