The Chovot HaLevavot writes that one of the benefits of being a bote’ach b’Hashem is that a person could stop feeling like he has to be a slave to others or like he has to impress others. When a person feels like he needs other people to help him, he’ll naturally feel the burden of having to do whatever it takes to please those people. But if he knows Hashem is the only One in charge of giving him everything he could ever want, he will only need to focus on Hashem alone. It takes a lot of work to fully believe that people are just messengers and that everything that happens is only by the word of Hashem. But the closer we come to that realization, the closer we’ll be to attaining full bitachon.

A man who we’ll call Rafael told that he has been praying in a certain shul for a number of years and, one day, a nearby shul closed its doors and many of the congregants began coming to his shul. One of those congregants was an elderly gentleman who sat down right next to Rafael and prayed next to him every day. Rafael was able to feel this man’s tranquility and genuine happiness in life from getting to know him. Like everyone else in the shul, this gentleman got called up for an aliyah once every few weeks. It was never a special aliyah. Those were reserved for people who needed them.

One Shabbat, on parashat Shemot, without any explanation, the gabai went over to this elderly gentleman and called him up for a special aliyah – aliyat Maftir. After he finished reading the Haftarah, the gabai then invited him to be the chazan for Musaf. Then, during the Kel Maleh Rachamim, this gentleman mentioned the name of his mother, aleha hashalom. The gabai asked him afterward if it was his mother’s yahrtzeit that day, to which he replied yes. The gabai then said, “Why didn’t you tell me in advance? Then for sure I would have given you the Maftir and Musaf.”

The gentleman replied softly, with a smile on his face, that he never asks people for anything. As usual, he asked Hashem for help, namely to give him Maftir and Musaf and, lo and behold, he was invited for both of them.

Rafael said what impressed him so much was that this gentleman didn’t even view his getting Maftir and Musaf like a miracle. It was a matter of fact. He asked his Father to help him and He did. When Rafael spoke to this gentleman afterwards about that episode, he told him he developed such a close relationship with Hashem, he talks to Him all the time and everything that he ever needs, he only asks Him for.

It is true that, in general, we are supposed to make a regular hishtadlut and use the natural means of the world which Hashem provided us with to get what we want. However, it is clear from pesukim and Chazal that the more bitachon a person develops, the less he needs to involve himself in the regular way of the world. The pasuk says, when a person puts his bitachon in Hashem, then והיה ה' מבטחו– Hashem will be his guarantor. Another pasuk says יהי חסדך ה' עלינו כאשר יחלנו לך – the kindness of Hashem upon a person depends on how much hope and bitachon the person puts in Him.

Having bitachon is a mitzvah which provides benefits in this world as well. The pasuk says in parashat Behar ואיש כי לא יהיה לו גואל והשיגה ידו ונגאל. And the tzaddikim found a hint in this pasuk to the great rewards given to those who put their bitachon in Hashem. ואיש כי לא יהיה לו גואל – a man who does not put his trust in his relatives and truly understands that there is no other redeemer – then השיגה ידו ונגאל – he will get what he needs and be redeemed.

אשרי הגבר אשר יבטח בה' – fortunate is the man who is able to have complete bitachon in Hashem.

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