Today’s class has been dedicated for a Refuah Shelemah for Elchanan Meir ben Yehudit.
Many years ago, I saw a tefilah written by the Ben Ish Chai, in his sefer Lashon Chachamim. It has some Kabbalistic kavanot (intentions to have in mind while praying certain pesukim).
I have said this prayer in the past, and it can be found in the back of the Magen Abraham Tehillim, but because I never really understood it, it never really spoke to me.
Baruch HaShem, I now have a better understanding of this tefillah and I would like to share it:
There are two pesukim in this tefilah, which say the following-
(referring to the Jewish people when them left Mitzrayim):
וַיּוֹצִיאֵם בְּכֶסֶף וְזָהָב )יְכַוֵּן: כס"ה בפ"ז (וְאֵין בִּשְׁבָטָיו כּוֹשֵׁל:
They took them out with silver and gold
(Here, we are advised, in the midst of this pasuk, to have in mind the letters in above parenthesis- which are some names of Hashem) and no body stumbled.
The next pasuk says,
וַתַּעְדִּי זָהָב וָכֶסֶף (יְכַוֵּן: כס"ה בפ"ז), וּמַלְבּוּשֵׁךְ שֵׁשׁ וָמֶשִׁי וְרִקְמָה, סֹלֶת וּדְבַשׁ וָשֶׁמֶן אָכָלְתְּ, וַתִּיפִי בִּמְאֹד מְאֹד וַתִּצְלְחִי לִמְלוּכָה:
G-d adorned us in silver and gold (again, in the midst of the pasuk, we are to have in mind the same letters) and you were enclothed in silk, flax, embroidery, you were eating flour, honey and oil (all types of delicious foods) and you will be extremely beautiful, successful, and have kingdom
After these two beautiful pesukim, there a request:
יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ ה’ אֱלֹקֵינוּ וֵאלֹקֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ, שֶׁתַּעֲשֶׂה לְמַעַן שִׁמְךָ הַגָּדוֹל וּלְמַעַן קְדֻשַּׁת פְּסוּקִים אֵלּוּ שֶׁקָּרִיתִי לְפָנֶיךָ וְשֵׁמוֹת הַקֹּדֶשׁ הָרְמוּזִים בָּהֶם (כס"ה בפ"ז), וְתַשְׁפִּיעַ לִי שֶׁפַע הַצְלָחָה בְּכָל-מַעֲשַׂי וּבְכָל-עֲסָקַי וּמַשָּׂא וּמַתָּן שֶׁלִּי, וְיִהְיוּ כָל-נְכָסַי מֻצְלָחִים וּמְבֹרָכִים תָּמִיד, וְכָל-אֲשֶׁר אֶעֱשֶׂה — אַתָּה ה’תַּצְלִיחַ בְּיָדִי, וּתְקַיֶּם- בִּי מִקְרָא שֶׁכָּתוּב: כִּי-אָז תַּצְלִיחַ אֶת-דְּרָכֶךָ וְאָז תַּשְׂכִּיל:
Hashem, May it be Your will, in the name of Your great name, for the sake of these holy pesukim that I read in front of You, with holy names, bring upon me success in all of my handiwork, in all of my businesses, and in all my dealings. All of my assets should be successful and blessed constantly, and in everything I do, may G-d bring success, and fulfill for me the pasuk: All your ways will be successful.
(This is actually part of a larger prayer, but we will focus on this part for now)
It’s a very nice prayer, with two beautiful pesukim that we can trust the Ben Ish Chai about, but I have never fully appreciated this prayer until today. With Siyata Dishmaya, I stumbled upon the Ben Ish Chai, in another Sefer of his, Ben Yehoyeda on Beitzah, where he discusses the powerful bitachon of Hillel.
Hillel would wait until Friday to shop for Shabbat, because he had a “different middah” of wanting to bring about a “show of bitachon,” that he could rely on Hashem on Friday and get what he needed. Through that, says the Ben Ish Chai, there is a great Kavod that comes about. He says that the reason it’s called -״בטחון Bitachon” is because it has in it the words טוב חן – “good” and “grace”
What does this mean?
He explains that there is a pasuk that says,
ח"ן וכבוד יתן ה' לא ימנע טוב להולכים בתמים
G-d gives grace and honor and doesn’t hold back good, to people that go with G-d with simplicity. They rely on G-d and don’t ask questions; they don’t look into the future. This means, says the Ben Ish Chai, that they have the middah of Bitachon/ reliance on Hashem. And because of that reliance on Hashem, they get upon them a bounty of חן /grace and טוב/ good .
So, the reason בטחון bitachon is called טוב חן
(good grace) is because when someone has Bitachon, he gets all the goodness and all the grace.
The Ben Ish Chai also says that Yosef HaSaddik had a lot of Hatzlacha/ success. He became a king. All of that חן, grace, came because of his bitachon. He constantly had Hashem’s name on his lips. As we know, his boss watched him and saw that he was successful. He saw the bitachon.
The Ben Ish Chai quotes another pasuk:
o נבחר שם מעושר רב -מכסף וזהב חן טוב :
Having a good name is better than having great wealth; and greater than silver and gold is חן טוב- which if we rescramble as per the Ben Ish Chai, is bitachon!
So bitachon is greater than gold or silver. But he gives yet another secret, from the Mekubalim:
Take the words כסף וזהב ( gold and silver)
And re-scramble them, and you get the letters :
כס"ה בפ"ז
- the names of Hashem that bring wealth, which are silver and gold re-scrambled.
Therefore, מכסף וזהב חן טוב
From silver and gold comes good grace.
What is it that brings about, and opens up those holy names that bring down all the gold and all the silver and all the success? It all comes from חן טוב- good grace, which if re-scrambled, is bitachon
What a powerful lesson! Bitachon gives us good grace!
This brings to mind, Rabbi Malka, a’h, who observed that some products go flying off the shelves while others don’t. Some products, he explained, have חן, grace.
He explained that G-d has a special “spray” , a חן spray, and when He sprays it on a product, that product goes flying off the shelves.
What is the bottle, and where is the factory that produces this special חן spray?
Bitachon בטחון- חן טוב
And this חן טוב in turn, arouses the כסף וזהב- the gold and silver.
And now I have a better understanding of those pesukim the Ben Ish Chai tells us: וַיּוֹצִיאֵם בְּכֶסֶף וְזָהָב
G-d took us out of Egypt with the two names of Hashem are hinted in silver and gold,
o וַתַּעְדִּי זָהָב וָכֶסֶף
and He adorned us in gold and silver – Again, the Ben Ish Chai tells us that this hints at the two Names of Hashem that are the source of all success, and that are all linked to the חן טוב, the good graces, of bitachon.
This might be a little too heavy on the Kabbalistic end for some, but I liked when I saw that the energy of what unleashes the Kabbalistic powers is nothing more than our plain, but never simple, Bitachon.