We continue with Bet Halevi where he tells us that bitachon must be in our hearts, and not just lip service. He says it's actually embarrassing that three times a day, we say in our prayers, Mechalkel Haim B’Hessed/God sustains the living with kindness…Somech Noflim/He lifts up those that are falling,
Rofeh Cholim/ heals the sick.”
But as many times we say it, it doesn't penetrate.
How do we see that? When a person has a challenge, suddenly he forgets everything and goes running after hishtadlut/effort. He adds that, heaven forbid, this is included in the pasuk in Yeshaya, “They respected Me and uttered Me with their lips and with their mouths, but their heart is far away from Me.”
This is a really scary point, that a person can do Bitachon lip service. Rav Wolbe points out in Alei Shor (vol 2, page 602), that there's no area in which people are more prone to self-deception than Bitachon.
People sometimes convince themselves of their Bitachon, but that's not really what's going on. I once heard from Rav Wolbe that sometimes it's really just laziness, and not Bitachon. If someone doesn’t want to fly to China, they'll say, “Okay I’ll have bitachon that the business will come to me.” But it's really not the case. It's not coming from the right source. Of course, the Bet Halevi is not saying we shouldn't do hishtadlut. But the point is that when the problem comes, are we only relying on hishtadlut or do we realize that hishtadlut really doesn't mean anything?
Rav Wolbe tells the story of a parush, a very pious man who went to a distant town to earn his livelihood, where he met a certain idol worshiper. The idol worshiper explained his beliefs, and this pious man criticized him, telling him that his beliefs were wrong. He proceeded to present to him the Jewish faith, belief in one Creator Who controls the entire universe, Who is all powerful and sustains all life on earth. The idol worshiper responded, “Your actions contradict your words. If you truly believed that your God sustains the entire universe, you would trust in His ability to provide your sustenance in your hometown, and you would not have come all the way here for your livelihood.” The parush took those words to heart and went back home. Of course, this is for the pious man who is on a high level. And of course, we have to do our hishtadlut. But we have to understand that, at the end of the day, it's just a coverup.
People fool themselves into thinking they have bitachon. The story is told of a wealthy man in the Bet Halevi’s city of Brisk, whose secretary received a telegram reporting that his ship, which was loaded with merchandise, sunk at sea (it was uninsured).
The secretary did not know how to break this bad news to his boss, so he consulted with the Rabbi of the town, the Bet Halevi.
The Bet Halevi asked for the telegram and told the secretary to tell the man that the Rabbi wanted to speak with him. When the man walked in, he found the Bet Halevi sitting in front of an open Gemara with a very troubled look on his face. “What's the matter,” the businessman asked.
“I'm learning a very difficult part of the Gemara.” He showed the man he was studying the discussion in Masechet Berachot about how one must bless Hashem upon hearing bad tidings, just as one must bless Him upon hearing happy things, because everything that Hashem does is for the best. “This is such a difficult concept,” the Bet Halevi said.
“What's so difficult,” the man asked, “We've all been taught this, that everything Hashem does is for the best, even if it seems otherwise. So we need to be grateful for everything and always trust in Hashem.”
At that point, the Bet Halevi pulled out the telegram and showed it to the man.
The man read the note and fainted. Bitachon, in the abstract, sounds easy, but the real test is when the story involves us.
A similar story is told by Rav Sholom Schwadron,
He was once walking in Shaare Hessed, when a child fell down and opened, cut open his forehead, and was bleeding. The Rabbi picked up the boy, wrapped him up and started running with him towards the local urgent care of the times. As he was running, everyone was calling, “Refuah Shelemah, Refuah Shelemah it's going to be good.” Everyone was sending their good wishes. The one of the ladies standing there noticed that it was her child and screamed “My Yankel!!” and became frantic. What happened? A minute ago, she thought everything was fine.
Yes, everything was fine, bitachon is great until it actually applies to real life, to me.
Have a wonderful day.