There are a lot of different ways to daven. Some people are perfectly happy starting on page one and finishing on page 150 in one continuous mumble. Others want to sing with joy as much as possible (“Serve the Lord with joy” as it says in Ps. 100). Others still want to contemplate the meaning of the prayer service as a whole, the vast theological sweep of creation, revelation, and redemption. And there are those who focus in on individual lines that they find particularly powerful and profound, meaningful and even gut-wrenching. And needless to say, everyone does a little of all of these.
Of individual verses that are particularly deep, one of my favorites is “Many are the thoughts in a person’s heart, but it is the plan of the Lord that stands.” This phrase comes from the Book of Proverbs (19:21) and is incorporated into a collection of verses (a florilegium, if you are into crossword puzzles) recited right before the Ashrei.
On the simplest level, the verse means that life is unpredictable. This is illustrated by a famous story about the great Enlightenment Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. One day, he was walking down the street in Berlin when the ruler of Prussia at the time, Frederick II (the Great) drove by in a carriage. Mendelssohn was no stranger to the court, and the King called out to him. “Mendelssohn, where are you going?” Mendelssohn answered, “I have no idea.” The King thought that Mendelssohn was being a little cheeky, and had him taken into custody. After some time, the King came to Mendelssohn and asked him why he was so disrespectful. Mendelssohn replied, “But Your Majesty, I was telling you the truth.” “What do you mean?” asked the King. And Mendelssohn replied, “I thought I was going to the library, but I ended up in jail. I really didn’t have any idea where I was going.”
This verse isn’t only about not knowing the future. On a deeper level, it says something about the overall direction of our lives. File under “der mensch dacht, und G-tt lacht.” (Man plans and G-d laughs). What it tells us is that even if the future is not what we had planned, the direction our life has taken is not random or insignificant. G-d is guiding our steps, whether we know it, or understand it, or not. One practical consequence of this is that we need not be disappointed if things don’t turn out the way we wanted or planned. Instead, we can contemplate the situation in which we find ourselves and ask, “What does Hashem want from me now?” As Rabbi Moshe Alshich pointed out, “G-d’s plans can be accomplished unassisted by human beings, even at times when G-d’s plans never entered anyone’s heart.”