I recently attended a celebration for the birth of a baby girl. Baruch Hashem, the baby was healthy, the mother was healthy, and everyone was coming in smiling and saying, "Mazal Tov!" It was a beautiful, happy occasion. At one point, the grandfather said something that really struck me. He said, "Everyone is walking in here and seeing the end of the story. You see a beautiful baby. You see happy parents. But nobody knows what happened before we got here." The baby was born on Erev Rosh Hashanah. The labor had gone on for a very long time, and then things became very frightening. The baby was breech and was having tremendous difficulty coming out. The mother was bleeding heavily. Eventually, the baby was delivered, but she had to be taken to the NICU. The young husband had walked into the hospital expecting the happiest day of his life. This was his first child. But suddenly, he was terrified for both his wife and his baby. When his father came to the hospital shortly before Rosh Hashanah, the moment his son saw him, he broke down crying on his shoulder. He was so scared. Would his wife be okay? Was the baby going to be okay? Nobody knew. His parents had to leave the hospital and rush home for Rosh Hashanah. Throughout the holiday, they were on edge. How was their son doing? How was their daughter-in-law doing? How was the baby doing? But after Rosh Hashanah, they found out everything had changed. Their son was smiling and laughing. Their daughter-in-law was doing well. The baby was out of the NICU. Baruch Hashem, everyone was healthy and everything was wonderful. And now, everyone was coming to the celebration saying, "Mazal Tov! What a beautiful baby!" But they were only seeing the end of the story. This reminded me of an Or HaChaim in Parashat Yitro. The Torah tells us that Yitro heard about all the great miracles that Hashem performed for the Jewish people. He heard about Keriat Yam Suf and the war with Amalek. Yet, when Yitro arrived, Moshe sat down and told him everything that had happened. The Or HaChaim asks, what did Moshe tell him? Didn't Yitro already hear what happened? That's why he came. He answers that Yitro had only heard the end of the story. Moshe told him what happened before the end. Yitro knew Hashem had saved them, but Moshe told him about all the trials and tribulations they experienced along the way. Yitro heard about the amazing miracle of Keriat Yam Suf, but Moshe told him what it was like when the Jewish people were trapped at the sea and Pharaoh and his army were coming from behind, threatening to kill them. Yitro heard that the Jewish people defeated Amalek, but Moshe told him what they went through before the victory. When you only hear about the yeshuah, you appreciate it on one level. But when you know what happened beforehand, you appreciate it on a completely different level. Furthermore, there is something even deeper. The difficulties along the way are what build us. Of course, we don't understand Hashem's calculations or why any particular difficulty has to happen. There are countless reasons for everything Hashem does, but we do know what difficulties can bring out of us. When the Jewish people were trapped at Yam Suf, they cried out to Hashem. When Amalek attacked, the Mishnah tells us that the Jewish people looked upward toward Shamayim and subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven. It was the difficulties that made them look upward. It was the difficulties that brought out their tefillah and their emunah and brought them so close to Hashem. This is part of the glorious life of a Jew. Yes, there are times when life is very scary and we don't know what's going to happen next. But those are also times when we can reach deep down and pray differently, recognizing how completely dependent we are on Hashem. And then, if and when Hashem brings the yeshuah, our gratitude will be so much greater because we know where Hashem brought us from. And sometimes, we don't even know the full extent of the yeshuah when it happens. We recently spoke about the Flydubai flight and the tremendous salvation that took place. At that time, we thanked Hashem for saving the people on the airplane. But now, new information has come to light that makes the salvation so much greater. According to investigators, the co-pilot had been planning a September 11-style suicide attack, intending to crash the plane into the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport and cause mass casualties. What we thought was a salvation of one plane full of people was also the prevention of a potential catastrophe on an enormous scale. We said Baruch Hashem then, but now we can say Baruch Hashem with an entirely new appreciation. Sometimes we see the end, but we don't even know the entire story behind it. In our own lives, there will be so many times when we say Baruch Hashem without even knowing what Hashem saved us from. And if we are living through a difficulty, we have to remember that we're still in the middle of the story. We haven't reached the end yet. These moments can bring us so close to Hashem and build us in ways we cannot even realize. We should always merit to see the salvations and be able to give the proper hakarat hatov to Hashem, but we can never underestimate the levels we can reach even before the salvation comes.
