In our last lesson, we left off with the Hovot HaLevavot reassuring us that the Baal Bitachon is guaranteed his food in all situations, at all times, until the end of his life; and he quotes Tehillim:
ה' רועי לא אחסר
Hashem is my Shepherd; I shall not lack.
We previously mentioned stories about those who lack Bitachon, and now we will discuss stories of the true Baal Bitachon.
Prior to the first World War the great rabbi known as the Elder of Novardok ran a system of yeshivot in Europe. When the War broke out, he was forced to take his students and hide out in the forests. They had no provisions and lived day to day. One day they had no food whatsoever. They were starving, so they prayed, learned, and went through the day like it was Yom Kippur, without any food. The next morning, they woke up and still had no food. They prayed Shaharit, with kavana like it was day two of Yom Kippur! Later on, still without food, they prayed a mincha that could break the heavens. There was still no food in sight.
Then, as the sun set on their second day without food, they saw a truck loaded with potatoes driving by. When the truck hit a bump in the road, two sacks of potatoes fell off the truck. They waited until nightfall then scampered onto the road to collect the potatoes. They cooked potato soup for the whole yeshiva and Baruch Hashem everyone was fed.
The main lesson here is exactly what we are learning: As we quoted above, we see that
ה' רועי לא אחסר
the Baal Bitachon could be stuck in a forest without food and yet, he’ll get fed- he knows that Hashem is my Shepard I will not lack.
There is also a deeper lesson in this, that we will just touch upon but not delve into: Once they were fed, they prayed Arbit. This wasn’t as fiery a tefila as it had been when they were hungry and the Elder of Novardok chided them for that. He told them they had given up their Arbit for a bunch of potatoes.
(Their prayers had been so, so great when they were hungry, but then when they finally got the potatoes, they couldn’t maintain it)
These stories aren’t just in the past. We see things like this happen all the time.
A few weeks ago, in class, we mentioned a story about a man who had been contemplating working on Shabbat. It was in the 1930s. He was walking home from work on a Friday, with no food to eat. He then walked past a garbage can and noticed a perfectly clean, intact loaf of bread just sitting on top. He took the loaf as a sign from Hashem and never went to work on Shabbat.
One Motzei Shabbat, a woman told me that when she first heard that story, she was a little squeamish about the food coming from a garbage can and she had wondered - do these things really happen?
Then that Friday she had wanted to bake challah but couldn’t. Later on in the day, during a bikur holim visit, the woman she was visiting mentioned that a certain hessed organization had sent her Hallot for Shabbat and she had received too many. They were wrapped in cellophane and ribbon. The lady offered them to her visitor. The woman thought of the story, and realized it was Hashem actually sending her bread, wrapped up with a ribbon. She had wanted fresh challah for Shabbat and Hashem sent them to her.
These things happen all the time, we just have to recognize them- myself included.
Very often on weekdays at shul after shahrit, I miss breakfast because I give this class in my office. When I miss breakfast, I have to leave for school hungry. But what usually happens is that a very thoughtful person kindly brings a plate of food to my office for me. I thank him (silently because I am giving a class) but really, I should recognize that it’s Hashem sending a raven with a plate of food straight to my office. While giving a class on Bitachon, without time to take breakfast, Hashem sends food directly to me. Hashem is constantly feeding us
That’s why some people say,
פותח את ידיך ומשביע את כל חי רצון
before they eat bread. Some question whether this is permitted, because they’re speaking before, they eat. But the Zohar says we can say it because it shows that we know where the food is coming from. It’s coming from Hashem.