We left off last week with the Elder of Novardok, who said that Bitachon has two advantages:
1-the byproducts of Bitachon (which is getting what you want), and
2-what he calls the Derech Bitachon - the Bitachon approach, which is above everything, because it’s a cash cow.
There is a famous pasuk in Yirmiyah
ברוך הגבר אשר יבטח בה׳
Blessed is the man that relies on G-d
והיה ה׳ מבטחו
And G-d is reliance.
The commentaries are bothered by the seemingly superfluous wording- why say “blessed is the man that relies on G-d, and G-d is his reliance?” It seems obvious that if one relies on G-d, then G-d is his reliance.
The Elder of Novardok explains, based on his understanding, that the first blessing of the man who relies on G-d is that he gets what he wants. He has his needs- his food, his shelter, his health, and his family... so he relies on Hashem, and that gets him what he wants.
But the main thing is, והיה ה׳ מבטחו -and G-d is reliance-Hashem is eternal, and therefore his bitachon is eternal. It will never waiver or shake. He will never veer, even if everything in the world is falling apart. His approach is stronger than any other approach, and it will never change. That’s the bitachon approach.
He says that the person who doesn’t rely on Hashem, and instead relies on the intermediary causes, incurs a double lacking. Firstly, he is constantly scattered everywhere, jockeying to find his position, and he is afraid of all the various situations that might come up. Because of this, he has to flatter people, and try to appease them. He is dependent on others, according to his understanding, and those others are in turn dependent on others, so he never knows what is going to fall apart.
We can see today, due to this pandemic, how one country is dependent on another country, which is dependent on another country, every thing is intertwined.
Even if this person does get something, it’s only a momentary acquisition, because who knows if it will last?
And with that, the Elder of Novardok explains the second half of this pasuk:
אָר֤וּר הַגֶּ֙בֶר֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִבְטַ֣ח בָּֽאָדָ֔ם וְשָׂ֥ם בָּשָׂ֖ר זְרֹע֑וֹ וּמִן־ה׳ יָס֥וּר לִבּֽוֹ׃
Cursed is the man who puts his emphasis on his own strength, and takes Hashem off his heart.
This means he doesn’t have the Bitachon approach. He’s living on hot air. He’s never guaranteed, because he’s always dependent on others, and those others are constantly faltering (We see this in the pandemic- there is nothing to rely on). Anything can go wrong. A plane can be delayed, a ship can get lost, someone might report on this person, or he won’t find favor in someone’s eyes.. who knows what can happen? And therefore, this person is always lacking, because he doesn’t have the Derech Bitachon. That is the Elder of Novardok’s main advantage of Bitachon, the understanding that G-d is the Source, and G-d is forever. As we say in our Keriyat Shema,
ה׳ אלוקכם אמת
G-d is True
Rambam says that this doesn’t simply mean that G-d doesn’t tell lies. True means everlasting. True means that something is there inherently. Nothing is really true; nothing has its own inherent existence. Everything is dependent on something else. Everything is reliant on something else.
We can look at any business to see this- the fellow selling electronics is dependent on the hotel, the hotel depends on the people... etc, everything is intertwined and interrelated. Nothing is solid- except Hashem.
With the Bitachon approach, you’re on solid footing.
There’s a story in the Gemarah with an important lesson. A group of rabbis were on a boat and got off on a small island to have lunch. They gathered some wood and began to make a barbecue. Suddenly the whole island started to shake, and they realize that they weren’t on an island, they were on a whale! When they started heating up the fire, the whale felt it and threw them over. Luckily, they had something to jump into.
The rabbis explain that that is this world. We think that we are on a solid island. “My building, my business, my house, my infrastructure, my community my political system….” We think it’s all solid. We live in a world of democracy. We think it’s a solid world. We don’t live in some Third World country where everything is in an upheaval. We don’t live in Venezuela, or Cuba. We live in the United States of America!
But hold on. Here, in the United States of America we have anarchy. They’re predicting that it might take a month until we find out who’s elected president. And we don’t even know if that will be properly tallied. All of these things that we rely on are not reliable.
The main advantage of the Baal Bitachon is that he has one solid thing that he relies on:
G-d.
והיה ה׳ מבטחו
And G-d is his reliance
That is more important than all the details. Yes, ברוך הגבר אשר יבטח בה׳ Blessed is the man that relies on Hashem, but that’s only secondary.
The main thing is that
והיה ה׳ מבטחו
he has G-d as his reliance.
B’ezrat Hashem, we will hold on tight to that solid Rock that never falters. David HaMelech calls Hashem צורי, my Rock,
It’s not a whale, it’s a rock.
Have a wonderful day.