My good friend made his second wedding in six weeks this past Sunday, and of course we were present.
One thing he learned from the previous wedding was to make sure there was plenty of alcohol. It didn't need to be fancy. Could be rubbing alcohol, he figured. Either way, he bought 700 NIS of "spirits." He was surprised to see, before even the first dance, that all the alcohol disappeared! He couldn't imagine it was the boys from the yeshiva on the groom's side. It's a yeshiva, well-known for good, solid boys.
But, lo and behold, one of them came up and told him, "We took all the alcohol from the table, because the Rosh HaYeshiva will be showing up soon, and will NOT be happy if he sees it. Don't worry, we'll return it when he leaves."
And that's exactly what happened.
Of course, the alcohol disappeared again shortly after, but at least this time, the boys left the empty bottles on the table.
And the best part? Their behavior was outstanding. No wildness or craziness. No drooling messes. Just slightly-drunk boys dancing in honor of their friend.
Of course, I couldn't say the same for my bloodshot friend with his slurry speech by the time the meal was served.
Can't blame him. It's been a rough two months.
I had an interesting thought this week.
One has to wonder, what exactly was going through Pharoah's head during all of the plagues? He sees very clearly that Egypt is getting destroyed, yet he continues to be stubborn and refuses to let the Jews leave. You would think that a normal human being would look around and simply give in, in order to hold on to what he has left.
Of course, the Torah tells us that Hashem hardened the heart of Pharoah, which allowed Pharoah to remain stubborn.
Perhaps, though, we have a clue in how Pharoah's heart was hardened. We know that Hashem prefers not to use miracles when not needed, is there a "natural" cause to this?
If we look at the warnings given to Pharaoh, along with the first two plagues, perhaps we can see something that we didn't notice before.
When Moshe and Aharon went to Pharoah to give a warning of what was to come, Aharon threw down his staff, which turned into a snake, and Pharoah's magicians did their "hocus pocus" to turn their staffs into snakes. So, Pharoah gives a chuckle and tells Moshe to go away.
When the first plague, blood, hits Egypt, Pharoah's magicians had a few bottles of water fresh from the Swiss Alps sitting around, took them, did their hocus pocus, and turned the water into blood. So, once again, Pharoah gives a chuckle and ignores everything.
The second plague then hits. Frogs! Frogs here. Frogs there. Frogs are going everywhere.
Pharoah's magicians did their hocus pocus, and bam! More frogs! Of course, they had a small problem … they couldn't get rid of them. So, at that point Pharoah turns to Moshe to remove the frogs. But, right after, Pharoah's heart becomes hardened and remains so.
Then came the lice.
At this point, Pharoah's magicians could not reproduce it, admitting that it was "the finger of G-d."
Now, at this point, you would think Pharoah would realize that as well. But, Pharoah was already conditioned to ignore all the previous plagues. Every single sign or plague that came before lice could be replicated and therefore Pharoah was able to wave it off as a mere trick or luck, and not attribute it to Hashem.
And once he was conditioned to think like that, nothing could change his mind afterwards.
Of course, this is 100 percent applicable to us today. Both as individuals and as a nation at large.
We often look at the world, as individuals and as a nation, in a natural way. Things happen and even if they seem out of place, we attribute it to "nature." Either it was nature itself, or the "nature of the world."
When the "12 Day War" with Iran started, the Israeli government expected tens of thousands of dead. Yet, in the end, I think it was 28? Most people attributed it to the Israeli air force, the US Navy/Air Force, the Iron Dome, etc, And yes, they did the action, but in the end, Hashem was behind things. And we, by nature, seem not to be too impressed by the results. Why? Because we have trained ourselves to always attribute things to nature.
Perhaps, and I kid not, that is why Hashem put Trump into office.
You could not have had a more unpredictable president in office than Trump. Nobody, most likely including his own cabinet, knows what he is going to say or do next. It makes great entertainment, if you look at it from the "Hashem Runs the World" point of view. Because, you cannot possibly predict him. You cannot say, "Oh, America HAD to do this, because of this and that reason," because he doesn't run according to "had to."
It's important for us to shake ourselves awake and realize that Hashem runs the world. Even in things that are natural, all the more so, when things seem supernatural. And when we internalize this message, we can relate to the world in a calmer manner.
Have a wonderful Shabbos!