We are continuing in the text of the Bet Halevi (Artscroll book page 3), where the Bet Halevi tells us a very important principle. After he told us that not having bitachon is a sin, he says that this sin itself can cause a person to fall, and he cites a pasuk from Mishleh,
חרדת אדם יתן מוקש ובוטח בה׳ ישגב
Man’s fear creates a trap, and the one that relies on Hashem will be fortified.
When a person is afraid of something and doesn't rely on Hashem, that creates a trap that wasn't there beforehand. On the other hand, the one that relies on Hashem will be fortified. This means that there is a problem here, and bitachon will save him from the problem. This is almost like a one-two punch. A lack of bitachon will create a problem and bitachon will solve the existing problem.
The word yesugav/ fortified is very important. This term used in the famous chapter Tehilim 20:
יַֽעַנְךָ֣ ה׳ בְּי֣וֹם צָרָ֑ה יְ֝שַׂגֶּבְךָ֗
You’ll be fortified, you'll be in a fortress. Bitachon creates a fortress. In the old days, there were those fortified towers, and you can still see some of them in Europe. Bitachon is a tower.
That's the good news. The problem is there, and Bitachon will create a fortress to protect you.
What we have to work on is the first half of the pasuk. חרדת אדם יתן
מוקש
The fear itself can create a challenge.
The problem with that is, what are we supposed to do? We're anxious people. We're full of anxiety and worry and concern. Is that going to make things worse?
We have to be thankful to the Steipler Gaon, who writes in the sefer Birkat Peretz (Parashat Shoftim) that one is not held accountable for the natural fear or anxiety that he experiences. That's practically uncontrollable. That's natural.
What a person has to do is when the fear starts, he has to start controlling himself and work to ignore those worrisome thoughts and start relying on Hashem.
So according to this, you're held
responsible for the additional fear that you brought upon yourself by not working on yourself. The Pele Yoetz writes about this, it's human nature but logically, what does worry accomplish? What are you worrying for? You're not accomplishing anything with your worry.
You might answer, “Fine. I'm not accomplishing anything with my
worry. I just like worrying. I'm a worry-wort.”
But the Bet HaLevi is adding something, which is that the worry and the fear itself cause bad things to happen. That gives us an added incentive to work on bitachon. Hashem does not want us to walk around in a worrisome state. It’s like if there’s a fortified palace, and a guy is standing outside the palace and sees the enemy coming. He starts saying, “Oh no! I'm worried. The enemy is coming! What should I do?!?”
Go ahead and get into the palace! Get into the fortress!
Hashem doesn't want us to be worried and fearful. He wants us to rely on Him. That's why the worrying causes a problem.
The Bet Halevi explains why the worrying create the problem- Because the worrying is a lack of bitachon, which is a sin, like we said. This is a bit of a deep concept, and the Mesilat Yesharim discusses a similar concept.
It says you have to take care of your health. If a guy doesn't take care of his health, he gets a heart attack, has v’shalom. Why does he get the heart attack? Because his arteries were clogged? No. You know why he had the heart attack? The Mesilat Yesharim says it’s because God told him to guard his health and he didn't listen. You didn't guard your health.
The sin of not guarding your health caused the heart attack,- the clogged arteries are maybe the natural way it happened.
And so too, here, with the person that didn't have bitachon. It’s not just, “Think good, it'll be good,” kind of stuff. The lack of bitachon is a sin, and that sin causes the problem.
We have to work on this, just like with any other sin or mitzvah. You have to try. You have to work on yourself.
When a worry comes in, your responsibility is to knock that worry out, because that worry is the petri dish, or the grounds to bring about problems, has v’shalom. So, when we start feeling worried, our immediate reaction has to be, ‘There's a fortress here, and I'm going into that fortress.’
Have a wonderful day.