Hacham BenSion Abba Shaul, who I consider my Rabbi, wrote a famous sefer on halachot called Or L’Sion. He also wrote the Musar sefer Or L’Sion Hochma U’Musar, in which he has a section on Bitachon. I would like to share some beautiful thoughts from this section. He opens with a quote from Rabbenu Bachye’s Shaar Bitachon, from sefer Hovot HaLevavot/Duties of the Heart, that describes the essence of bitachon, which is a person having Menuchat Hanefesh/Peace of Mind, reliant and serene.
Hacham BenSion says that in another section of the sefer (there are ten chapters, or gates) entitled Shaar Avodat Elohim/The Gate of Service to God (chapter 4) Rabbenu Bachye lists “Heart Mitzvot.”
His main message is that sometimes we focus too much on the mitzvot of our bodies and not enough on mitzvot of the heart.
When he lists mitzvot of the heart, one of them is Bitachon/relying on God. Hacham Ben Sion says that we see from here that the main point of the mitzvah of bitachon is in the heart. If you just say with your mouth that you rely on God, but you don’t really feel it in your heart, you are really not fulfilling the mitzvah, whereas if you just have it in your heart but never speak about it, you are fulfilling the mitzvah. Even so, he says, it is still a good idea to enunciate bitachon with your mouth.
As the pasuk in tehilim says, האמנתי כי אדבר
I believe because I speak (although this is not the simple explanation of the pasuk, it’s a cute hint).
But, we can’t just focus on speaking. It’s a nice addition to talk about bitachon, but you can’t just talk the talk. You have to walk the walk, as they say. And the walk of Bitachon is in the heart. Hovot HaLevavot/Duties of the heart.
Rav Wolbe, in his sefer Alei Shor, on the topic of Teshuva, says that during the Aseret Yeme Teshuva, human nature is that when we want to strengthen ourselves, we always go for actions. During the Aseret Yeme Teshuva, we look for an etrog, build our Succot, and we might give Sedaka, but those are all things that we do, not things that we feel in our hearts. People are more comfortable with action-Mitzvot. He says that Teshuva is in our hearts, but we don’t necessarily lean towards heart Mitzvot. They are intangible and uncertain for us. Etrogim have exact rules and regulations. Matzot have rules and regulations. Counting the Omer has rules and regulations. But Teshuva, although it also has its rules and regulations. isn’t something tangible. We like tangible Mitzvot. We tend to shy away from emotional/heart Mitzvot that we can’t really take the pulse of. When you drink the 4 cups, you know exactly how many ounces you’re supposed to have and what kind of wine to use, etc. We like those kinds of Mitzvot, because they are clear and defined. It is much harder to involve ourselves in the hovot halevavot / the duties of the heart, and that is why the Rabbi wrote the book.
When we talk about bitachon, it’s important to understand the words Hovot Halevavot.. These are heart Mitzvot.
As we have discussed in the past, Prayer is called Avodah She’B’Lev a service of the heart. It’s like a physical heart work out. People like to go for a nice stroll with their wives, but if you aren’t getting your heart rate up, you aren’t getting a real heart work out. There are formulas for figuring that out*, and if you aren’t doing that, it’s nice, but it is not a heart work out.
The same thing applies with prayer. You can pray without getting your prayer heart rate up, so to say, if you aren’t feeling it, and you aren’t emotional about it. I know a man who wears beautiful exercise suits on Sundays. But looks are deceiving, as he explains, because he doesn’t exercise and he’s not in good shape. It’s like a man wearing his tallet and tefilin while he’s praying, but is not emotionally involved in his prayer. He doesn’t feel it.
You have to break out into a sweat, so to speak. People wear special Garmin watches to monitor their heart rates while they’re running… it would be nice to have such a device to measure our hearts during our prayers. But the problem is that we can’t measure it. This is the difficulty with Hovot HaLevavot. We can’t measure it. That is why it says that only Hashem goes into the heart. Only Hashem knows what is going on in the heart.
But it is our job to work on our heart. Have a wonderful day.
* to figure out your optimal heart rate for exercise, subtract your age ( for example, age 70) from the number 220, and
80% of that figure is your ideal heart rate during exercise ( 120 for a 70 year old male)