He Yearns for Everyone

Living Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear

We say in the Yom Tov Amida , אתה בחרתנו מכל העמים אהבת אותנו ורצית בנו – Hashem chose us from all of the other nations, He loved us and wanted us. In the siddur of the Gr"a, the question was asked, seemingly love is more powerful than ratzon . So if we already mentioned that Hashem chose us out of love, why do we also say that he chose us from ratzon ? The answer is that love is based on certain qualities that people possess, but ratzon implies desiring something without any specific cause. And thus we add ורצית בנו – Hashem yearned for us to be His Nation and still yearns for every single Jew to be close to Him, even if they don't possess the qualities that they should have. Hashem's desire for us is not dependent on our past performance of mitzvot, He yearns for everyone no matter what they have done in the past and wants more than anything for them to come close to Him. Sometimes, Hashem gives people extra siyata d'Shamaya to realize that there is nothing better for them than to come close to Him. A man who made a complete turnaround in religion was asked what prompted his big change. He replied, he had everything he could possibly want, money was no object, he had a great wife and great children. One night, while driving home, he looked up into the sky and asked Hashem if this was the pinnacle of what life could be, because if it was, he had nothing else to look forward to because he already reached it. The next day, he decided to go to shul and on the way out, he grabbed a CD to listen to in the car. The first words from the speaker on that CD were, "The purpose of life is," and then he quoted from Mesilat Yesharim . The man was floored. The very same night, his mother asked him to stop by because she got him a gift. When he got there, he couldn't believe his eyes. It was a Mesilat Yesharim . He said, "Hashem, I get the message." And since that day, he has grown leaps and bounds in religion and now knows the real purpose of life and couldn't be happier. A young woman emailed that her best friend recently got married and another close friend of hers is dating seriously. This meant, out of her large group of friends, she was going to be the only one left not married, which basically meant she was going to have no friends. She felt lost and alone and knew something needed to change. She had heard of a new program in her community where post high school girls would form groups and get together once a week to learn with a teacher. A girl on her block was hosting the classes for one group, so she decided to try it once. She was older than most girls in that group and they all seemed more religious than her. It was a little awkward in the beginning, but she loved the way that the learning made her feel, so she continued going weekly. Because of the age gap, she would just go to the class, sit there quietly, and leave right when it finished. As the weeks went on, she found herself changing, but the people in her life were making not such nice comments to her. For example, "Why are you wearing that skirt? You look like a grandma." Or, "You are going to class again? Didn't you just go last week?" One night, she got so fed up, she started to doubt what she was doing. She cried to Hashem saying she felt so alone and nobody understood her. She asked Hashem to please help her see that she was taking the right path. At the next class, she started zoning out a little towards the middle when, all of a sudden, the teacher said, "Hashem is telling us, 'I love you! Keep going! I'm so proud of you.'" She immediately zoned back in and felt as if Hashem was talking directly to her. She started crying tears of joy and felt like she got the biggest hug. Since then, she has been growing more and more each day and she couldn't be happier. She also became closer with all the girls in the class and she especially became close to that teacher. Hashem loves every one of us and He yearns for everyone to be closer to Him.