Parashat Beshalach is replete with bitachon lessons as it talks about Kiriat Yam Suf. The Gemara in Pesachim tells us, as is well known, “ Man’s parnasa is as difficult as the splitting of the sea.” And the Gemara in Sotah tells us, “Man’s shidduchim is as difficult as the splitting of the sea.”
Everyone is bothered by the question of how anything can be hard for God. God is all powerful. I thank Rabbi Ebstein from Lakewood for sharing the following Zohar, which asks this same question. And the Zohar answers that when the Jewish people crossed the sea, the ministering Angel of Egypt went to God and complained saying, “You are God of justice. This is not fair. The Jews are idol worshipers and the Egyptians are idol worshipers. The Jews are adulterers and the Egyptians are adulterous. The Jews are murderers and the Egyptians are murderers. Why are you splitting the sea for the Jews?
This explains the difficulty of Hashem. Rabbi Ebstein explains that the same is true of a person’s parnasa and a person’s zivugim. When it says that these things are hard for God, what it means is that these things require zechuyot/merit. Sometimes a person doesn’t have the merit, so how are we going to give him his parnasa? How are we going to give him his shidduch?
To answer this, we go back to Keriat Yam Suf. What made it happen?
Believe it or not, it wasn’t even prayer, because God said, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Jewish people to travel.“
The Or HaHayim HoKadosh asks, Since when do we tell someone not to pray? Isn’t prayer always the way to go?
He explains, based on this Zohar, that we needed to do some thing to arouse merit. God wanted to make a miracle but we were not fit, in the current situation. Mercy was not enough. Therefore, the advice was, in order to make the kindness and mercy overtake justice and judgment, they had to strengthen themselves in Emuna, and travel into the sea before it split, and that Bitachon would cause the miracle.
When some thing is, “too hard for God,” so to say, it means that God does not have the power because of our sins “weaken” God. As the pasuk says, “You made the Rock that bore you weak.” So when our sins cause God to not be able to do it, our bitachon overcomes that and then the Middat HaDin/the judgment is quieted down. In the words of the holy Leshem, the grandfather of Rabbi Leshem and a great Mekubal, “ The truth is, nothing stands in the way of bitachon.“ He quotes the famous Midrash, “One that relies on God is surrounded by kindness, even a wicked man that relies on God, surrounded by kindness..”
He is wicked, and he doesn’t deserve it, but the bitachon arouses a kindness that can overcome the judgemental side, and that brings about the salvation.
This is a very practical lesson for us. When a person has a challenge in parnasa or shidduchim, what he needs to do is arouse great zechuyot. And the way to do that is with bitachon, by relying on Hashem with full strength, like Nachshon ben Aminadav and jumping in. That reliance has tremendous power.
This is echoed by the Nefesh HaChaim, that says, “If they are very strong and powerful in Emuna and bitachon and travel without fear, if they go in with certainty that it will happen, this will arouse from above to perform the miracle.“ This is powerful, confident, no questions asked reliance on Hashem. It’s literally jumping into the sea. That has the power to bring about miracles.
B’ezrat Hashem, we will all reach our maximum potential of Bitachon and see great miracles. Have a wonderful day and a Shabbat Shalom.