We're going through the Bet Halevi, and this is one of my favorite pieces. Thr Bet Halevi tells us (page 18 of the Artscroll edition), that not only does our hishtadlut/effort not help, but at times it could actually have the opposite effect, which means that we put an effort and the effort backfires. That means you didn't gain anything from it, and what’s more, you set up your problem- because the effort is just a way for the Gezera to come through, based on your bitachon, but if you're not using your Bitachon and you're just using effort, then the effort will end up bringing about a negative outcome. He brings a pasuk from Yeshaya (49,5) that says,
בֵּיצֵ֤י צִפְעוֹנִי֙ בִּקֵּ֔עוּ וְקוּרֵ֥י עַכָּבִ֖ישׁ יֶאֱרֹ֑גוּ הָאֹכֵ֤ל מִבֵּֽיצֵיהֶם֙ יָמ֔וּת וְהַזּוּרֶ֖ה תִּבָּקַ֥ע אֶפְעֶֽה
They hatch eggs of poisonous snakes, and they weave spiderwebs, one who eats of their eggs will die, and the eggs are crushed and a viper is hatched.”
The person in this mashal is incubating eggs. He’s putting in effort, in order to raise chickens. So he puts in all the effort necessary, he has the incubating system, and he’s waiting for those eggs to hatch. Then he starts hearing the pecking noises, and he's all excited for his chick to come out. But instead of a chick coming out, a snake comes out and bites him.
That is the Navi’s mashal for the person who uses his effort alone. Rather than relying on Hashem, the very efforts he puts in will end up trapping him. He brings another pasuk, from Iyov,לכד חכמים בערמם God traps the wise man’s with their cunning.
That means they're using their wisdom, and their very wisdom ends up causing them to be trapped.
He says, look at the story of Shlomo Hamelech brought down in Masechet Succah נג
Shlomo Hamelech meets up with the angel of death and the angel of death seems sad.
Shlomo asked the angel of death, “What's wrong? What's bothering you?” And the answer is, I have two slaves that I have to kill, and I'm having difficulty killing them.
So, Shlomo Hamelech says, “Oh great. Now that I have the information, I know what to do. There was a town that was called Kushta, or Luz, where people were protected from death. So Shlomo Hamelech planned to send them there so they’d be protected. He’d outsmart the angel of death!
So, he sent these fellows off to that town. Sure enough, a little later on, he meets up with the Malach Hamavet and he was smiling. He asked, “Why are you smiling?”
The angel said, “Because these two fellows had a certain place to die,
and I didn't know how I was going get them there. Their place was right outside this city, and you ended up sending them there. Thank you very much.”
Not only is it decided when a person dies, but where they're going to die.
So here, Shlomo Hamelech thought that he was going to take matters into his own hands, but it didn't work. It backfired. What should he have done? The truth is, there is nothing to do. You can't change anything with your own hands. The only thing you can do is pray, do Mitzvot and connect to Hashem to change the Gezera.
There's another story with Shlomo Hamelech, that some say didn't happen (or that it didn’t happen to him), but there’s a lesson for us either way. Shlomo Hamelech was told by the fortune tellers or the like that his daughter would end up marrying a pauper.
Shlomo did not want that to happen, so he sent his daughter off to a palace with only ladies tending to her. That way, she would be raised far away from any man and far away from the shidduch that he did not want to come.
Then one day, an extremely poor man was walking in the street. He had no place to sleep and it was cold outside. He saw a dead carcass on the ground, wrapped himself in the carcass and went to sleep.
In the middle of the night, a group of vultures smelled the carcass. That's their job. They are nature's sanitation system. They lifted up the carcass to take it off to wherever they wanted to take it, and while they were flying, the man woke up and started to move, just as they were passing over the palace. They got nervous and let the carcass go. It landed on the porch of the palace, and the rest is history. So, although Shlomo tried to avoid it, not only did he not avoid it, but he himself brought it down.
That's our lesson for the day. Have a wonderful day.