The Spider Injected Faith
A religious Jew came to me with his son who had gone off the path of Torah and mitzvot. He was so far from anything Jewish that he was contemplating intermarriage. This son had been educated in his youth in the way of Torah and had even learned in a prestigious yeshiva. But he fell in with the wrong crowd and was influenced to leave the path of Torah.
The man had a hard time convincing his son to see me. The man described his sinful son to me and asked for my help in the matter. After much pleading from his father, the son agreed to come. I tried to strengthen his emunah, but my words fell on deaf ears. The boy simply ignored or ridiculed whatever I said. As a last resort to awaken the spiritual side of the young man, I asked him if he believed in a Creator.
- With Maran HaGaon Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, shlita
His reply was a resounding, “No.” Then he added, “Why don’t you prove to me that there is a Creator?”
I thought for a moment, and then asked, “Is there any creature in the world that you are afraid of?”
“Yes,” he replied, “I am scared of spiders.”
“In that case,” I told him, “You should know that even the spider is supervised on High. It is not for nothing that it scares you. It is a messenger from Heaven to scare you when you sin. Hashem created the world so that man rules the animals and does not fear them at all. But when a person sins and angers Hashem, the animals are permitted to scare him.”
“Prove it,” was his response.
The evidence did not take long in coming. We had not yet finished speaking when a spider suddenly appeared. It quickly climbed onto the table and stood in front of the young man. The boy became very afraid. His face turned white, and he was filled with dread. I must say that I, too, was quite taken aback. Where had this spider appeared from? Spiders are scarce in the winter, when the weather is cold. How had it known the exact moment when it was needed, in the right place, and before the right person?
The stupefied boy began retreating from the spider, but with each step backward, the spider took one step forward.
As I watched the goings-on, I turned to the boy. “Is this enough proof for you that Hashem runs the world? I had no idea you were afraid of spiders before you walked in here. And you surely realize I did not invite this spider to our meeting.”
He was quiet, so I continued. “Watch how it follows only you. I do not interest it in the least. This spider was obviously sent as a sign to you that the world has a Creator, Who manages it at every moment. He is the One Who sent the spider specifically to you.”
The young man, who realized that Hashem was sending him a message in the form of a frightening spider, understood that he was given a wake-up call to teshuvah. He immediately listened to this message and repented completely. He left his gentile girlfriend and became a devout servant of Hashem.
I thought that it is likely that Hashem created this spider for no other reason than to bring this man to teshuvah. It had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, exactly when the young man asked for proof of Hashem’s existence.
When I related this incident to the Rosh Kollel in France, who knows this boy’s father well, he related that a similar story happened in Bnei Brak, with Reb Chaim Kanievsky, shlita:
Reb Chaim and his chavruta were once engrossed in a sugya dealing with various grasshoppers. They were involved in distinguishing which are kosher and which are not. Reb Chaim sighed and said, “What a shame we don’t have a grasshopper here, in order to study its build and learn from it the relevant halachot.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a grasshopper flew in through the open window and landed squarely on his Gemara. Reb Chaim and his chavruta realized that this grasshopper was Heaven-sent. They studied it intently from all angles and learned whatever they needed to know. Then they left it alone, to return from where it came. However, moments later the chavruta cried out, “What a shame we let the grasshopper go! There is one more point we might have clarified.”
“Why didn’t you say so before, when the creature was still here? We could have studied it even further,” replied Reb Chaim. But suddenly, as if on call, the grasshopper returned and took its former place on the Gemara. The Sages realized it had returned from Heaven as a teaching aide. They studied whatever they needed to, and then allowed it to fly away.
Reb Chaim vouched for the authenticity of this narrative.
Hashem created the entire world for the sake of Bnei Yisrael. From the time of Creation, He upholds it and controls it. Every creature has one objective – to serve Am Yisrael and help them study Torah and mussar, glorifying Hashem’s Name in this world.
