The Joke is told of a guy who goes for a job interview and was asked “What would you say is a weakness of yours?” Without flinching he responds, “I’m so lazy that I do everything correct the first time round so I don’t have to do it again!”.
I recently read an article that was giving advice for people about how to represent themselves on a job interview. They suggested a whole list of things; 1) Look confident 2) Stay calm 3) Act natural 4) be put together… and so the list went on.
One may ask, why cant I just be myself? The answer is because if you are trying to get a job you have to try to give a good impression to your potential boss in order to find favour in his eyes.
The same is true with Hashem. If one wants Hashem to help him then one has to impress him in order to find favour in his eyes.
This idea we find by Queen Esther wide of Achashverosh. When Mordechai requested of Esther to go and speak to Achashverosh to vito his decree to allow Haman to wipe out the Jews, we know that Esther faster for three days and three nights and prayed to Hashem that she should succeed. The Gemora relates that Esther was so weak from fating that she needed assistance from her servants to be able to walk to wards King Achashverosh. One may think that Esther approach wasn’t very logical at all. If she was looking to impress the king then this type of behaviour would definitely not endear him towards her so she could make her request.
But the truth is that the reason why Esther behaved the way she did was because she knew that the only way she was going to succeed was only with the help of Hashem. The way to secure Hashem’s Divine assistance and find favour in His eyes was through fasting, repenting and prayer that she should succeed. By doing this she hoped to be assisted by Hashem. Indeed this was the outcome and through Hashem’s help she managed to overturn the wicked decree that Haman had intended against the Jews.
The same thing applies in our everyday life. If we want Hashem to give us what we need – health, wealth, happiness and success we must make sure that we are living our life in a way that we are going to find favour in Hashem’s Eyes.
Good Shabbos & Happy Purim
Aaron