Today we will study Tehilim 78,7
וְיָשִׂימוּ בֵאלֹקים כִּסְלָם וְלֹא יִשְׁכְּחוּ מַעַלְלֵי־אֵל וּמִצְוֺתָיו יִנְצֹרוּ
So that they may place their trust in Hashem,
And not forget the works of God, and they will safeguard His commandments
The word used for “trust” in this pasuk כסלם/Kislam, is not typically used.
What does it mean, exactly?
We see that in the Hovot Halevavot’s Shaar Bitachon , at the end of chapter 7, ten levels of Bitachon are listed.
מבטח, ומשען, ותקוה, ומחסה, ותוחלת, וחיכוי, וסמיכה, ושבר, ומסעד,
וכסל
The last one is called Kesel. It’s a type of bitachon, and the Midrash tells us that there are three possible roots for this word. Most common is ksil, which means fool.
In that sense, the pasuk is saying- Put your foolishness in God, which needs explanation.
Ksil can also mean thoughts.
And lastly, ksil also means bitachon.
How can the same root mean multiple things?
The commentaries explain that there’s a very high level of Bitachon called ksil/ fool. When you do something that doesn’t make any sense, it is foolish. Sometimes a person acts with bitachon which seems foolish to other people, leaving them to wonder what the person is relying on, and if this person really thinks that Hashem will pull them out of it, because it doesn’t make any sense.
But the person’s Bitachon is so solid that he ignores all their claims and questions.
There is a story like this, from the time of the Alshich. A man sold his wagon, which was his parnasa. The people thought that he was crazy, because he gave up his livelihood and sat home saying Tehilim all day. But right after he sold the wagon to an Arab, the Arab found treasure. As the Arab made his way back home with his treasure affixed to his wagon, a branch fell on his head and he died.
The donkey pulling the wagon went back to the only place it knew, the original owner. So the man’s foolishness paid off. He relied totally on Hashem. Of course, it has to be real and sincere. But the point is that there is a level of Bitachon where people might think that you are a fool, because it doesn’t make any sense.
That is what this pasuk means when it says
וְיָשִׂימוּ בֵאלֹקים כִּסְלָם
Put your Bitachon in God… to the point that people might call you a fool.
There is another explanation for this pasuk, “וְיָשִׂימוּ בֵאלֹקים כִּסְלָם
I put my foolishness in God,”
Of course, we can’t be foolish on purpose. We have to think things out, make our decisions and plot them out-that is our Hishtadlut/effort. But sometimes, even when you have done your due diligence, it backfires. You get taken advantage of, you get fooled. Then you think about how foolish you were, and wonder how you did that.
But that is a mistake. You did everything that you could, and you made a decision. Were you fooled? No.
וְיָשִׂימוּ בֵאלֹקים כִּסְלָם
You put your foolishness in God, and realized that ultimately, it was God that made it happen. Don’t blame yourself, and don’t blame anybody else. As long as you took the proper precautions before hand, there is no thinking backward. You have to look forward. Don’t start getting pulled down by how foolish you felt, because your foolishness is also controlled by God.