“With G-d’s help” is an expression we hear ourselves saying many times each day. Assuming we actually think about the words we say, it is interesting to ask: What do people mean when they say, “With G-d’s help”?
Over time, I have come to understand that “with G-d’s help” has one very simple meaning: G-d will help. He most certainly will help. He is always here to help. As Rabbi Shimon ben Levi said in the Talmud (Kiddushin 30b):
“A person’s evil inclination overpowers him every day and seeks to kill him… and were it not for the Holy One, blessed be He, helping him, he would not be able to overcome it.”
But—and this is an important “but”—He will only help. My role is to act, to do, to make the effort, and He will help me, with G-d’s help.
Our Sages said:
“Open for Me an opening the size of a needle’s eye, and I will open for you an opening as wide as a great hall” (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 5:3).
The Creator of the world is saying: I am ready to open for you a gateway as wide as a grand hall. I am ready to help you in every way. But it all begins with your effort. Even if your opening is tiny and narrow, like the eye of a needle, make it. Open the door, and I will already be there to open it into a great hall. That is the meaning of “with G-d’s help.”
This week’s Torah portion, Beha’alotecha (which we will read tomorrow outside of Israel), describes how the Kohen lights the lamps of the golden Menorah in the Holy Temple. He prepares the lamps and kindles them until “the flame rises on its own.”
In other words, the goal is not for the Kohen to stand there forever tending the lamps and reigniting the fire. Rather, the lamp and the flame should burn independently. More than that, the flame should become one that “rises on its own.” The light should grow stronger, brighter, and higher than it was at the moment it was first lit by the Kohen. We see this in a simple physical sense: when a wick is first lit, the flame is small and weak, but gradually it rises, strengthens, and develops its full form.
As with everything else, the Rebbe, in a talk delivered on Shabbat Beha’alotecha 5750 (1990), translates the Temple service into a personal, practical lesson for our own lives.
The Menorah represents the human being. The light represents the Divine soul that pulsates within us. The Kohen who kindles the flame represents the Holy One, blessed be He, who ignites that flame, connecting body and soul and making them into one radiant unity.
As King Solomon says in Proverbs, “The soul of man is the lamp of G-d.”
Like the Kohen, G-d stands ready with the fire, prepared to bring it to the lamp and ignite it. Indeed, He does ignite our Menorah. But how brightly it will shine, how enduring that light will be, how powerful it will become, and most importantly, whether the flame will rise on its own—that depends on us.
As the Rebbe explains, “That the flame should rise on its own” means that the Jew chooses this through his own inner strength—in a world that conceals G-dliness and leaves room for two possible paths—so that his soul shines openly and illuminates even the body, until he comes to recognize that his very body is a ‘Menorah made entirely of gold.’
How do we accomplish this?
Perhaps sometimes it simply requires choosing it. Wanting it. Looking at it and saying: Yes, I want this.
And even if, at first, my heart is not yet on board, it is only because I have not yet allowed my Divine soul to show it the goodness contained within it. The heart seeks what is good and pleasant. Sometimes all that is required is to let it see, as the Psalmist says, “Taste and see that G-d is good.”
Chassidim would often translate this verse into Yiddish and repeat it to themselves in a language their soul instinctively understood:
“Try it and see that the Eibershter is good.”
One more practical thought:
When we encounter a particular difficulty or stand before a challenge that seems especially daunting, before we throw up our hands and say, “G-d will help,” we should remember that He will only help.
We must first make the effort and take one more step toward the goal—even a very small step, an opening no larger than the eye of a needle. Then He will help and open for us a gateway as wide as a great hall.
To me, this is the preparation required to receive G-d’s assistance.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Zalman Wishedski