Where do you want to go?

A basic tenet of Chabad philosophy is that G-d is ever present and it is the Divine concealment (Tzimtzum) that causes our inability to see Him at work that prevents us from experience G-dliness in a revealed fashion.

This is a necessity because it allows us to experience free choice which is the ultimate purpose of our existence on this earth – to make good choices, to choose good over evil and to make the world a more G-dly place.

One of the side effects of this reality is that we can convince ourselves that we are actually in control of our destiny. In truth, it’s all a set up for us to make the right choices.

One of the “set ups” is the fact that G-d (seemingly) helps us get to whatever destination we wish to get to. If we wish to get to a good destination and our committed, we’ll get there with G-d’s help. Conversely, if we choose to go to a bad destination, we’ll seemingly get assistance to get there as well.

Case in point, this weeks portion we read about Bilaam the Jew hating Prophet who wishes to curse the Jewish People. G-d tells him not go, but then a few verses later we see him actually going to curse the Jews.

The Talmud uses the following phrase to describe these events; “in the path in which a person chooses to go, that is the path he is lead on”. In other words, if you want to go down the bad path, G-d says I’ll help you along.

Don’t think you’ll necessarily be able to achieve anything that G-d didn’t have planned, but you can think that you are. Again case in point, Bilaam didn’t end up cursing the People and in fact gave them some powerful blessings. But, he sure thought he was going to succeed

So, where does that leave us? Wherever you want to go, you can go and you’ll get the help to get there, but at the end of the day only G-d’s Will will be fulfilled so you might as well choose a good path!