Tapping In to Your Hashem Part

Living Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear

https://www.artscroll.com/ Books/lemynh.html Living Emunah on Yamim Noraim Gaining faith from the Days of Awe One of the ways that a person can receive an abundance of mercy from Hashem is by emulating His character traits. One of the middot of Hashem is called מי קל כמוך . The Tomer Devorah explains, this is referring to Hashem's attribute of having mercy on people despite the fact that they sin against Him. The pasuk says, ואתה מחיה את כולם - Hashem actively gives life to every living creature. A person cannot live without Hashem saying so. The way of the world is if someone gives another person a gift and that person uses the gift against the giver, the giver will most probably never give that person a gift again. And if he was able to, he would take back what he had already given. Hashem on the other hand, gives a person the gift of life and even while the person uses that gift to sin against Him, Hashem continues giving him the gift. Imagine a poor man pleading with a wealthy man to give him money. Finally, the wealthy man takes a large wad of cash and puts it into the hand of the poor man. At that same moment, the poor man takes the wad and smacks the wealthy man across the face with it. The obvious reaction of that wealthy man would be to take back what he had given. But what if instead the poor man then asked the wealthy man for another donation? This is the midda of מי קל כמוך . Even while we're sinning against Hashem, He continues pumping into us the gift of life. The angels call Hashem the מלך עלוב - the King who bears insult and shame. If someone is able to emulate this midda , that act would go up to the highest places in Shamayim and arouse so much Heavenly mercy for him and for the world. I read a story about a man who was making a Sheva Berachot in the courtyard of the building in which he lived. He wanted to have music and dancing and needed a place to plug in the speaker system. He asked the people who live on the first floor, who we'll call the Steins, if he could plug in the speakers to their outlet. Mr. Stein happily agreed and wished the man a mazal tov. That night, many guests came, and the party was very festive. However, it was almost midnight and the music was still blasting. Mr. Stein was trying to sleep, but he couldn't. He sent one of his children to tell the host that the hour was late and he had to shut off the music. The host replied that he would do it soon. Mr. Stein didn't know what soon meant. It could be another half hour or even an hour, especially since the people were having such a good time. Then, Mr. Stein's wife reminded him that they had the ability to shut the music whenever they wanted to because the speakers were plugged into their outlet. At that moment, Mr. Stein breathed a sigh of relief and proceeded to go over to the outlet to pull out the plug. But before he did, he looked out the window and saw how much the family was enjoying themselves. He thought about it a little more and then decided to emulate Hashem's midda of מי קל כמוך and continue supplying the power to the people who were "using it against him." That was a heroic act and it activated such a special siyata d'Shamaya . A person should never say emulating Hashem is too hard. Because when Hashem created man, He blew a piece of Himself into him. We all have that same piece of Hashem inside of us. That neshama tehorah is capable of being like Hashem, and if we tap into it, we could accomplish amazing things. The next time we are tested in this area, we should stop ourselves from reacting with the animalistic part of us and instead follow what the Hashem part of us really wants to do.