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Sometimes, we are worthy. Sometimes we see two random events and never know why they occurred. Other times, we witness two seemingly isolated incidents and watch how they intertwine and come together. We recognize that Hashem placed us in that spot, that office, that street, that city – all for a reason. It is then that we have a renewed appreciation of hashgachah pratis and we marvel in awe and gratitude at how the Creator runs His world using us as his messengers.

It is said that the renowned chasidic mashpia, Rav Dovid Horodoker zt”l, wept when Czar Nicholas II was overthrown during the Russian Revolution of 1917. “Why do you shed tears over the fall of a tyrant?” he was asked. “I weep,” replied the holy chasid, “because a great mashal in chasidus is gone.”

The Gemara recounts how the Sages told Rabbi Zeira, “One should always reject with the left hand and embrace with the right” (Sotah 47b). Rabbi Zeira, however, preferred to focus on the sin, not the sinner. He had faith that even a hard-core sinner, even a hoodlum who is wicked towards G-d and wicked towards people, has a very positive seed hidden away in his soul, which over time can eventually overpower all evil and hooliganism. The Gemara (Sanhedrin 37b) quotes Reish Lakish, who taught, “Even the empty among you are as full of virtuous deeds as a pomegranate.” Rabbi Zeira went even further and deduced the notion of highlighting the positive, even in negative people, from the following pasuk: “And he (Yitzchak) smelled the pleasant aroma of his garments” (B’reishis 27:27): Do not read it ‘garments’ but rather ‘traitors.’”

The problems facing a fellow Jew are our problems, and the tears streaming down their faces are just as real to us as they are to them. If we are looking for ways to repent our sins with a complete t’shuvah and herald the holy day of Yom Kippur when we reunite with our Father in Heaven, this is where we must begin. We reach upwards by reaching outwards.

When Rabbeinu Moshe ben Maimon zt”l moved to Fostat, Egypt, in 4925 (1165), his fame as a physician spread rapidly, and he soon became the court physician to Sultan Saladin, the famous Muslim military leader, and his son al-Afdal. He also continued a private practice and lectured before fellow physicians at the state hospital.

One of the most famous midrashim on the Torah concerns the Arbaah Minim that we take on Sukkos: