We continue with the advantages of the Baal Bitachon: The Hovot HaLevavot tells us:
ואם יאבד הממון ממנו לא ידאג ולא יאבל לחסרונו,
If the Baal Bitachon loses his money, he doesn’t worry or mourn his loss
אך הוא מודה לאלהיו בקחתו פקדונו מאתו, כאשר הודה בנתינתו לו,
Rather, he thanks G-d when He takes it just like he thanks Hashem when he gets it.
The Baal Bitachon knows it’s not his money. G-d gives him something to watch and then He takes it back.
Imagine a man with a really nice car that leaves to Florida for the winter, and tells his neighbor he can drive the car for the season. When the man returns, the borrower is appreciative. He doesn’t curse or begrudge that the man took the car back. He says thank you so much, here are the keys. That’s the Baal Bitachon’s attitude.
It’s hard to hear these things. We don’t like to hear about people has v’shalom losing money. And furthermore, we can’t understand how someone can be happy about it.
We look to the Pele Yoetz on the topic of-פדות Redemption to explain this.
(This is one of my favorite sefarim. I used to learn the Pele Yoetz with my father when I was a child, and he learned it with his father as a child as well)
The Pele Yoetz tells us that G-d is always trying to redeem or save us. He quotes a pasuk:
הרבה עמנו פדות
He tries to saves us in many different ways
And:
הודו לה’ כי טוב
We thank Hashem for His everlasting kindness.
What’s the ever-lasting kindness?
טוב שגובה חובתו של אדם בטובתו
That G-d “collects” in the best possible way:
For example, he says,
עשיר בשור if the person is wealthy, Hashem takes his ox.
עני בשיו,
From the poor, Hashem takes the sheep
If someone is even poorer, He takes a chicken from them.
If someone loses a cow, breaks a glass, or stubs his toe a little bit, Hashem says,
מקצת הנפש ככל הנפש.
A little bit of soul is like a lot of soul.
All these things that Hashem does is only to help us out.
The Pele Yoetz then tells the following story:
Rav Yehoshua Ben Levy went along one day with Eliyahu Hanavi but was told that he couldn’t ask questions.
First they went to a poor man’s house where they were treated very respectfully. But then, in the middle of the night, Eliyahu Hanavi got up and slaughtered the man’s cow. Eliyahu Hanavi explained that, lo alenu, he saw that the man’s wife was supposed to die, so he killed the cow that was most dear to the man instead, as a kaparah.
The Pele Yoetz quotes a Midrash that relates the following story. A man who had spent a lot of money to send his son to star-gazing school.
When the son completed his training, the man took his son out to look at the stars. The son saw that his father’s horse was going to die. So the father happily sold his horse and saved himself the loss. The horse died the next day in the hands of the new owner.
The next time they went out, the son saw that his father’s houses were going to burn down. The man quickly sold all his houses and sure enough, they all burnt down the next day.
This went on and on until the son looked up to the stars one day and said, “Today you’re going to die.”
Then the father started to scream and realized how silly he had been to try and avoid G-d’s decrees. The horse, the houses, they were all supposed to be kaparot to save the man, but he was too busy trying to outsmart G-d. It backfired.
With the right outlook, we accept the losses with love.
Imagine someone who was Hayav Mita (sentenced to death) but got off with a fine of a few dollars. He’d be thrilled!!
Or someone who was sentenced to years in jail but got only 60 days instead.
That’s the Baal Bitachon’s outlook on life. It’s easier said than done- for all of us, myself included. But beH
האמנתי כי אדבר
The more we speak about it, the more it makes an impression.