We continue with our list of prerequisites for reliability:
Number six is:
ושתועלתו והזקו אינם ברשות אדם כי אם ביד הבורא יתעלה לבדו.
All your benefits and all your damages are not in the hands of man but rather, are only in the hands of G-d alone.
People are sometimes confused by this. They think free will can impact us. We won’t get into the philosophy of it now. We must understand, though, that it is proper to have one rabbi and stick with him, and not just flip a coin or follow different rabbis for different leniencies. We stick to one rabbi. Hashkafa is no different. Our rabbi for this class is the Hovot HaLevavot, so we have to follow him through and through.
While some may have heard otherwise and might say that freedom of choice can affect you, the Hovot HaLevavot says differently. He says a person does have freedom of choice, but the outcome is up to Hashem. For example, a person can choose to shoot a gun, but Hashem decides if he misses, or if it jams, or if a silver dollar in your shirt pocket will protect you from the bullet.
I don’t know why we this learned in school, but I remember learning that before Andrew Jackson was president, dueling was a legal way to settle disputes. The two men would walk a certain number of paces away from each other, turn and shoot. Each person got one shot. In this duel I learned about, Jackson’s opponent got the first shot and it was an exact hit, but as it turned out, Jackson was poor at the time and his jacket was too large on him. The man had aimed for what he thought was Jackson’s heart, but because the jacket was so large, he ended up hitting Jackson’s shoulder. Jackson then took his shot and killed his opponent. I don’t know why we learned this, but the point is that if Hashem doesn’t want the person to die, the man can be an expert marksman and still miss his target.
This is a fundamental of Bitachon, because if you don’t believe that G-d is in charge, and you think that someone can interfere, what will be? We can’t think have Bitachon and think that someone else can affect us.
You might think you’re about to get a house and someone outbids you, or that you were supposed to get a job and someone else sneaks in and takes it - how can we rely on Hashem if we think other people can interfere?
The answer is: They can’t.
That’s why this is a prerequisite. We can’t have bitachon unless we clarify and know these points, and it’s so important that the Hovot HaLevavot will review them as well.
The pasuk he brings us is:
מִי זֶה אָמַר וַתֶּהִי אֲדֹנָי לֹא צִוָּה: מִפִּי עֶלְיוֹן לֹא תֵצֵא הָרָעוֹת וְהַטּוֹב:
Who can say something will happen if G-d didn’t command it? Do you think the good things come from Above and not the bad?
If G-d doesn’t say it’s going to happen, it doesn’t happen.
That’s the way of the Baal Bitachon. Of course, we don’t put ourselves in harm’s way or choose to antagonize people, but if we are in a situation where people are threatening us, we know that they can’t do anything without Hashem.
The Bet HaLevi says that someone who thinks their own talking will stop someone from hitting them is like someone talking to a stick rather than talking to the person holding the stick. He’s just a messenger. Again, we have to do our hishtadlut and not antagonize the terrorist, but we have to realize, in our brains, that no one can can affect us but Hashem.
There was once a rabbi who was being interrogated by the Russians. The Russian interrogator took a gun and pointed it at the rabbi. The rabbi laughed and said, “You think your gun scares me? That toy only scares people who have one world and many gods. I believe in two worlds and there’s one G-d. If something happens here, I have another world after this. And My G-d is in control. Your toy doesn’t bother me.”
That’s the attitude of the Baal Bitachon.
Again, we don’t antagonize people, and we have to do our hishtadlut, but we understand that at the end of the day, only Hashem can affect our lives.