Today we will study chapter 78 of Tehilim, pasuk 22:
כִּי לֹא הֶאֱמִינוּ בֵּאלֹקים וְלֹא בָטְחוּ בִּישׁוּעָתוֹ
For they did not have trust in Hashem, and did not rely on His salvation.
This refers the generation of the desert.
How can we understand that this is about the great generation that saw Yetziat Mitzrayim, that witnessed Har Sinai, that were known as Dor De’ah? How can we say that they did not have faith in Hashem, that they did not rely on His salvation?
A very great Mekubal, the Leshem (whose grandson, Rav Elyashiv passed away a few years ago) writes in his sefer that their lack of Emunah was not because they didn’t believe in miracles. Of course they believed in miracles. Rather, their main issue was that they didn’t believe in themselves; they didn’t believe that they were on the level that they were deserving of constant miracles. That’s why they were constantly complaining and worrying about how they would survive in the desert.
They knew, of course, that Hashem could do it, but they worried that they were unfit to get through the dangers consistently and survive.
And although it sounds like a valid concern, he says that, “They did not strengthen themselves to rely on Hashem regardless. Because- this is a very powerful statement- there is nothing that stands in the way of Bitachon.”
That was their lacking, and that would have brought about their salvation.
This, of course, is a lesson that we need to learn as well.
He continues and says that the whole existence of Jewish people in this world is above nature. Our whole existence doesn’t make sense. It is not a coincidence, the sefarim say, that Abraham and Sarah were so old when they had a child. It was to show us that our whole existence, our whole foundation from the very beginning, was against nature. Abraham was told, “leave your stargazing,” because they weren’t going by the norms.
The next two pesukim say,
וַיְצַו שְׁחָקִים מִמָּעַל וְדַלְתֵי שָׁמַיִם פָּתָח
God commanded the clouds above. He opened the doors of the heavens,
וַיַּמְטֵר עֲלֵיהֶם מָן לֶאֱכֹל וּדְגַן־שָׁמַיִם נָתַן לָמוֹ
He brought upon them manna to eat, and gave them grain of the heavens.
The obvious question is that if, in the first pasuk, we are told that they didn’t believe,
why does it say in the next pasuk that God commanded the Heavens to give them blessing?
There is a beautiful explanation in the Sefer Hechal Beracha:
As we said have said, they didn’t do anything wrong; They just doubted that they were deserving of these miracles.
So God wasn’t going to punish them. He would still give them beracha, but the beracha would have to come down in a different way.
When a person has bitachon, it is almost as if it is on automatic pilot. The bitachon makes it happen. As we said before, nothing stands in the way of bitachon. Hashem put into creation that reliance brings the beracha.
But now that they didn’t rely on Hashem, וַיְצַו God had to command the blessing to come down. It did not happen automatically, although it should have, because bitachon makes it happen automatically. Since they did not rely on Hashem, of course they were not punished, but they did not get that level of blessing.
We find similar concept in the topic of Shemitah. If a person asks, ‘What are we going to
eat?’ Hashem will command His blessing.
Again, the question is, If you just asked what you’re going to eat, why is Hashem going to command the blessing?
The answer is, Had you not asked what you’re going to eat, you would not have needed a special command. It would have happened with the Bitachon itself. But because you lacked Emunah and Bitachon, that clogged the pipes, so to say.
God will give you anyway, because God is merciful. But He has to give a special, new command of blessing, because you didn’t have the bitachon to bring it down automatically.
In short, the lesson for us is that we have to bring ourselves to the level of belief that nothing stands in the way of Bitachon, and the lack of Bitachon clogs the pipes. Yes, Hashem might give it to us anyway, but it doesn’t come with that “magical” force of Bitachon.