Today’s class has been sponsored by Marilyn & Donny Farah for a Refuah Shelemah for Susie Bibi - Shefiah Shoshana Bat Sarah
We continue with lessons from the En Yaakov Yerushalmi on how close Hashem is, and how much He wants to hear for us. He quotes Rav Yehuda that says a human being that needs help from a friend can’t just suddenly pop into his friend’s house unannounced. If you’re friends with a Hatzalah member, and you need him, you can’t just walk right into his house; you must knock on the door and see if he’s home. If you need a favor from a friend, there’s always something of an intermediary. If you need something and go to your friend’s office for help, he might be in a meeting. Hashem is not like that. When a problem comes upon a person, Hashem says, the person doesn’t call out to Micha’el or Gavriel, “he calls out to Me directly. I answer him, immediately”
As it says, כל אשר יקרא בשם ה׳
If you call out in the name ofG-d,
ימלט
You’ll be saved.
That’s a heavy statement. Call out in the name of G-d, and you’ll be saved. That’s a lesson in bitachon.
The Hovot HaLevavot says that one of the reasons why people have bitachon but don’t get answered, is because they are relying on more than once force.
It’s human nature that when a person knows that he’s not only one being relied on, he doesn’t feel the need to come though. Someone else may take care of it, he thinks.
Here we’re saying,
כל אשר יקרא בשם ה׳ ימלט
Call out to Hashem and He will save you.
Deal with Him directly. There is no one else you need but Him. That’s one Hiddush.
The next Hiddush is that a human being may have a patron- (savior, protector, big brother) But if someone bothers their patron a lot, and keeps pestering him for help, like a new neighbor that you invite for Shabbat dinner if he ever needs a meal, and then he constantly takes you up on your offer every week, after a while you’d wish you’d never given him your number. In the words of the Yerushalmi, you’d say ״ אשכח פלן Forget him! He doesn’t stop bothering me״
But Hashem isn’t like that. You bother Him, and you trouble Him, and He accepts it.
Like the pasuk says,
השלך על ה׳ יהבך
והוא יכלכלך
Throw your worries on G-d,
and He will take care of you.
That’s the second advantage of today’s class.
To recap, our first lesson was that you don’t have to wait outside Hashem’s office to talk to Him.
As the famous story goes, a teacher wanted to illustrate this point to her class of girls, so one day, right before they prayed, she picked up the phone and dialed the White House, asking for President Trump. Of course, they declined her request. So, she asked if she could send him a letter. They said yes, but there would be no guarantees that he would read it, as he gets a lot of mail every day.
The girls were wondering what was going on? What was she trying to teach them?
The teacher pointed out that we can’t just call President Trump, because he doesn’t answer the phone, and if we write him a letter we don’t even know if he’ll get it. But Hashem isn’t like that. We can call out to Him, directly, at all times. We have a direct line.
Our second lesson is that there is no such thing as using up your favors with Hashem. As many times as you ask Him, it’s like the first time. He wants to hear from you. People sometimes make the mistake of thinking that they’re bothering, or nudging G-d. That’s a mistake. He likes when you ask Him.
These are two important Bitachon takeaways, from the En Yaakov Yerushalmi, who is sharing these important points on how close Hashem is, and how He wants to hear from us.
There is no such thing as bothering Him too much, and there is no such thing as not getting a direct line.
Even if you have people that you are close to, you can’t just call them any time of night. Even in a super-emergency, you hem and haw before you call.
But there is no time, day or night, that you can’t call out to Hashem, and there is no place that you can’t call out to Him from.
He is always there, and He is always waiting. He wants you to call out to Him, and it’s never too much.
These are two very important lessons that we should always take with us.
Have a wonderful day.