Chazal, our Sages of blessed memory, compare Shmini Atzeres to Shavuos. Shavuos comes 50 days after Pesach and is treated as a conclusion of the Pesach period; the holidays are combined together by Sefiras Ha’Omer. Just as Shavuos is a conclusion to a holiday period, Shmini Atzeres is a conclusion to the Sukkos holiday period. The Midrash states that just as Shavuos is 50 days after Pesach, Shmini Atzeres should have been 50 days after Sukkos. But, as the Midrash points out, this would have meant people would need to make pilgrimage to Yerushaliyim during the winter when it is cold (unlike south Florida in December, where many people make a pilgrimage in the middle of the winter). Hashem did not want to make us suffer, so He made Shmini Atzeres immediately after Sukkos. Hashem constantly makes things easier for us, without us even realizing it! Unfortunately, many times, we focus on the negative and miss all of the good that is done for us.

Let me share an example of something that gets many people upset even though it is full of good: a person in a grocery store waiting in line. For some reason, every time I go to the grocery store, I always end up in the longest line. I stand for what feels like hours (even though it is only 5 minutes) while I watch all of the other lines move faster. Then, if I decide to switch lines, the new line becomes the slowest while the line I just left becomes super fast. It is extremely frustrating and upsetting. But let’s think why I am in the grocery store. If it was not for the grocery store, I would need to be a farmer, butcher, and baker to be able to get all of my food. It would take many, many long hours to be able to make even one meal for myself. Instead, I am able to eat food already prepared by the experts without making me use much time. If we realize this “hidden” kindness from Hashem, we will live a much happier life.

But this is not all. In the 1980’s, the Soviet Union sent over about a dozen hockey players to play professional hockey in America and Canada in the NHL. There was a story that a coach took one of the players to the grocery store. When the player arrived there, he started filling up the shopping cart with packets of tissue paper. Seeing a huge pile of it in the cart, the coach asked why the player took so much. The player looked at him with a puzzled expression. “We never got stuff in the Soviet Union because there was not enough of it. I want to make sure I don’t run out of it.” The coach then explained that the grocery stores never run out of tissue paper and the player put many of the packages back. This story shows us how lucky we are to have a surplus of so many items that not everyone in the world today has.

So the next time we are in a grocery store, let’s remember how lucky we are. And the next time we start to feel upset, let’s remember how kind Hashem is to us. He does so much good for us! Everything He does is kindness – our job is to recognize it.

Good Shabbos! Chag Sameach!
-yes
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