“Moshe said, ‘I will turn aside and I will see this great sight. Why doesn’t the bush burn? Hashem saw that he turned to see and Hashem called out from the bush, ‘Moshe, Moshe’ and he said, ‘here I am.'” (Shemos 3:3-4)

Why did Moshe merit to be chosen by Hashem? When explaining what happened at the Burning Bush, the Torah seems to use extra words. It mentions that Moshe consciously made a decision to turn and look at the bush. Hashem noticed that Moshe turned and then spoke to him. The reason it mentions Moshe turning is to teach us a lesson: we need to stop and look around. Don’t just rush through life without looking. When we stop and look at what is happening around us, sometimes amazing things can happen.

Rabbi Avraham Yachnes once told me a story. A Jewish man was driving down the Long Island Expressway and noticed a limo stuck on the side of the road. The man saw that the limo was having trouble so he stopped to see if he could help. It turned out the car had a flat tire and the driver was having difficulty fixing it. The Jewish man helped the driver and was able to fix it. The passenger then came over to the Jewish man and thanked him very much. The passenger then reached into his pocket to give the Jewish man some money for helping. Oh, by the way, the passenger was Donald Trump. Mr. Trump offered the man one hundred dollars. The man said he didn’t need to be paid for doing the deed of kindness. Donald Trump insisted but the man refused. Finally, Mr. Trump said to the man that he sees he is a religious Jew and knows he celebrates the Sabbath on Friday night. Donald Trump offered to buy some nice flowers for the man for the Sabbath and have them delivered to his house. The man said this would be fine and he gave his address to Donald Trump.

That Friday afternoon, the man received a beautiful bouquet of flowers. In the flowers was a card that read, “Thank you. – Donald. p.s. I have paid off your mortgage.”

Hundreds of people were driving on the Long Island Expressway that day and drove by this broken down limo. Only one of them took time to notice it and stop. Many people rush through life and never take time to look at what is going on around them. Moshe stopped and looked at a burning bush that was not being consumed. Because he did this, he became the greatest Jewish leader of all time. A Jewish man once noticed a car in trouble. Because he stopped, he saved himself thousands of dollars (and also got a nice bouquet of flowers!)

Good Shabbos!
-yes
please send any comments or questions to: [email protected]
to see previous Divrei Simcha on the Parsha, please go to www.divreisimcha.com OR www.chesedclub.com > Torah Study