We continue with the message that Bitachon has to be in the heart. It has to be real.
The Chazon Ish writes that it’s easy to have Bitachon when things are going well. It’s nice to sing Bitachon when G-d is smiling at you. But the true measure of your Bitachon, the way to take your Bitachon pulse, is when things aren’t going according to your plans. His example is a man who’s “Mr. Bitachon.” But then a competitor opens a shop right across the street from him and he starts losing customers. Now he starts to think of ways to undermine his competitor and do whatever he can to cause himself to be the successful one on the block. What happened to his Bitachon? The answer is, it wasn’t real.
Rav Wolbe writes in the sefer Alei Shur:
אין לך מעלה שכל רבות הן הטעויות בה ואין לך מעלה שכל מרמים עצמם לחשוב שכבר הגיעו אליה כהבטחון
There is no quality with more mistakes in it, or that people fool themselves more in, than Bitachon.
People think they have it but how do they really know?
You have to look in the mirror and catch yourself. It’s a life’s work.
The Maharal writes that Bitachon and anger don’t go together, so if you find yourself getting angry, you have ask yourself- hold on, where’s my Bitachon? There are layers and layers and levels and levels. We must look honestly at ourselves and realize it’s a life’s work.
We say every single day in our prayers:
הבוטחים בשמך באמת
We want to have Bitachon in Your name, in truth.
In other words, we don’t just want our Bitachon to be lip service. We want it in our hearts.
And as I’ve said before, it’s good to write these thoughts into your siddur. When you say something every day and pay attention, it can strengthen you.
There’s a famous story of man who went to Rav Yisrael Salanter and heard him talking about Bitachon. The man asked the rabbi, “If I have real Bitachon that means I can totally rely on Hashem and everything will be taken care of?” The Rabbi said yes. So the man asked, “That means if I I buy a lottery ticket, I’ll win? The rabbi said “Yes, if you believe, absolutely...”
So the man went and bought a split the pot, worth about $10,000 and declared to the rabbi, “That’s it! I’m counting on what you told me- I’m winning that lottery!”
The rabbi then asked the man if he would be willing to sell his winning ticket to the rabbi for $5,000.
The man said “Of course.” As the saying goes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush...
Rav Salanter then told the man that his Bitachon was not real. If he really had Bitachon in his hands, like a winning ticket he would never have been willing to sell it to someone else. That’s what real Bitachon is.
Real Bitachon is solid. It’s in our pocket.
We have to constantly remind ourselves that Bitachon is not just a subject. A mashal is given to bring this out: A certain professor of ethics who was not abiding by his own teachings was asked what had happened? He answered that it was just a subject. Bitachon can’t be a subject.
Rav Wolbe used to say you can take a test on Hovot HaLevavot Shaar Bitachon and get 100%, but that’s not Bitachon. It’s just intellect. Our job is to make it real. Real Bitachon is when you have a trying situation and you pass; and if you don’t pass, you catch yourself and say you have more work to do, and recognize you got angry or that you got upset, or that you didn’t accept properly with simcha. That’s our job.
We can connect this to the three weeks, when Hashem wants our Avodat Hashem to be real. Hashem said that the Bet HaMikdash was destroyed before it actually came down, because the spirit had left. It was empty on the inside before it was physically destroyed. Rav Wolbe says it matched the people. They had religion on the outside but not on the inside. It’s our job during the three weeks to work on this- to be internally religious. It’s not just about the externals.
And to ensure that our Bitachon and our belief in G-d is real.