Welcome to the Daily Chizuk. Today’s words are dedicated to Le'ilui Nishmat (for the elevation of the soul), Mr. Charlie Sultan, alav hashalom (peace be upon him). The Gemara at the end of Masechet Makkot tells us that the basis for all 613 mitzvot (commandments) is emunah (faith). As the Pasuk (verse) says, Tzadik be'emunato yichyeh (The righteous shall live by his faith). There’s also a Pasuk in Tehillim that says the same thing: Kol mitzvotecha emunah (All Your commandments are faithful). The Vilna Gaon writes in his commentary to Mishlei: “The most important thing is to have complete trust in Hashem, and that incorporates all the mitzvot.” The more emunah you have, the better your service of Hashem will be. How does one acquire emunah?
There’s a letter signed by two Gedolim (great sages), Rav Moshe Feinstein and Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, stressing how important it is for us to internalize that Hashem watches personally over the lives of every individual, and that a good strategy for reinforcing mitzvot is to keep a notebook and write down any situation in which a person feels or sees Hashem’s direct supervision in matters of daily life. The letter concludes by saying, “By strengthening this mitzvah, all the other 613 will be fortified, and then we will experience the words of the Navi (prophet) Chabakuk, Tzadik be'emunato yichyeh.”
This letter was found after the passing of Mr. Charlie Sultan. His son discovered that he had written 14 notebooks of Hashgacha Pratit (direct supervision) stories, spanning over two decades. The letter was at the beginning of one of his diaries. He wrote to himself, “Try it, a few words at a time, so as not to make it a strain.” One of his children said that he scanned every page of the 14 volumes into the computer, and when the scanning was complete, he couldn’t believe his eyes. There were exactly 600. 613 pages. That’s the way the letter concluded: “Do this and fortify yourself in the 613 mitzvot.”
A prominent rabbi in our community was so inspired by this that he compiled a Hashgacha Pratit journal with various quotes on emunah and bitachon (trust), and he left blank pages for people to start their own diaries. He graciously donated hundreds of copies to Emunah Daily. If you would like a copy of this vital tool to strengthen your emunah, please send an email with your mailing address to emunahdaily@gmail.com. The stories you will write in this journal don’t have to be anything major—just little tidbits of when you felt Hashem was guarding you.
I wanted to conclude with an example of what type of story to write, and I remembered that someone had given me a book on emunah. There was a section there titled Hashgacha Pratit, so I thought maybe I would see a nice story. The book has 550 pages. I randomly opened it to page 15, and I was amazed to see the Pasuk quoted from the end of Masechet Makkot, the exact Gemara that I started off today’s lesson with. I thank Hashem for the perfect story. Have a great day.