Today we will discuss perek לז, pasuk לד ( chapter 37, verse 34)
קַוֵּ֤ה אֶל־ה׳ וּשְׁמֹ֬ר דַּרְכּ֗וֹ וִֽ֭ירוֹמִמְךָ לָרֶ֣שֶׁת אָ֑רֶץ בְּהִכָּרֵ֖ת רְשָׁעִ֣ים תִּרְאֶֽה
Hope to Hashem, and watch His path,He will lift you up to inherit the land,When the wicked are cut down, today you will see it.
Simply speaking, this means that when you hope to Hashem and you keep His Torah, He lifts you up to inherit the land (the land down here) And you will merit to see the wicked cut down.
But there is a deeper explanation, that the ארץ / land you will inherit is Olam Habah. So why does it say, “Watch His path,” in singular. Shouldn’t it say, “Watch his paths?”
The Sefer Mahari Hazan says that the Rambam tells us that if a person does one mitzvah properly, with all of its conditions, and does it totally Leshem Shamayim/for God’s name, that will give him Olam Habah/ the World to Come. He proves it from the wicked man. It says that when a person does a sin, such as eating Hametz on Pesach, or eating on Yom Kippur, that one sin results in Karet/ he is cut off from that world to come.
And the rule is that God’s measure of reward is much greater than his measure of punishment. So if one sin is enough to cut him off, then surely one mitzvah is enough to connect a person to Olam Habah.
And so, this is how the Rabbi reads this pasuk:
קַוֵּ֤ה אֶל־ה׳ וּשְׁמֹ֬ר דַּרְכּ֗וֹ וִֽ֭ירוֹמִמְךָ לָרֶ֣שֶׁת אָ֑רֶץ בְּהִכָּרֵ֖ת רְשָׁעִ֣ים תִּרְאֶֽה
Hope to Hashem and guard His way.
He will lift you up, you will inherit Olam Habah
(And from the fact that) the wicked get cut off, (from one sin) today, you will see my point.
From the fact that God cuts the wicked man off based on one sin, you will My point that one Mitzvah is enough to connect you- if the Mitzvah is done properly.
That is very nice. One Mitzvah done properly connects you to Olam Habah. But what does this have to do with bitachon?
The first words of this pasuk are, “Hope to Hashem.”
Rav Bloch (from Monsey), in his sefer Iggeret Al HaBitachon (page 7) brings down a fascinating concept:
There is a pasuk said about David HaMelech, “The soul of my Master will be bound in the everlasting knot of life,” which refers to Olam Habah - When a person goes to Olam Habah, he is referred to as the soul that is tied to an ever lasting knot of life.
The Rambam quotes this same pasuk when a person goes to war and relies on God. When he goes, this man will merit Olam Habah, and he quotes the same pasuk,
“The soul of my Master will be bound in the everlasting knot of my life,”
So we see from here that when a person has Bitachon, that is the source that can connect him to God forever - that is a source for Olam Habah. It’s the opposite of Karet. Rambam says that either the soul is cut off, or the soul is bound. This is an unbelievable thought. This pasuk is telling us how to get Olam Habah.
The opposite of Karet/ one’s soul being cut off, is when a person connects himself, whether with Bitachon, other Mitzvot, or both of course.
Now we have a beautiful way of reading the pasuk-
קַוֵּ֤ה אֶל־ה׳
Hope to Hashem
וּשְׁמֹ֬ר דַּרְכּ֗וֹ
And with even one mitzvah done perfectly,
וִֽ֭ירוֹמִמְךָ
That will lift you up
לָרֶ֣שֶׁת אָ֑רֶץ
To inherit the world- (Olam Habah forever)
And it will be proven from the Rasha
בְּהִכָּרֵ֖ת רְשָׁעִ֣ים תִּרְאֶֽה
The Rasha is cut off
This person is the opposite of the Baal Bitachon.
Bitachon has the power to connect us to Olam Habah.
It says, “You that are cleaving to Hashem your God, You are all alive forever.”
That is what Olam Habah is- Diveykut- you are connected to God-forever and ever and ever. How do we get there?
Mitzvot are connectors; even one mitzvah can connect you.
But Bitachon is also a connector.
As the Meshech Chochma tell us, the source for the Mitzvah of bitachon in the Torah is
וּבוֹ תִדְבָּק
“Cleave to Him.”
If a person’s whole life is cleaving to God by hoping to him in every situation, at all times, and he is constantly hoping to Hashem, that constant hoping to Hashem will connect him, in this world and in the next world.
Diveykut is Olam Habah, and bitachon is Olam Habah in this world. You are connected to Hashem, right here, right now.
קַוֵּ֤ה אֶל־ה׳
Hope to Hashem-
לָרֶ֣שֶׁת אָ֑רֶץ
that will give you the land.
There is a beautiful Midrash Tanchuma in Zot Haberacha (chapter 6) where it says,
David says, “Hashem, hope gives you everything. A poor man hopes to become wealthy, a weak man hopes become strong, a sick man hopes to get better. A man in jail hopes to get out. Hope works for everything. There is one area where Hope can’t save you, and that is death. Eventually, a person is going to die.
David HaMelech says, “Our days are like a shadow, And there is no hope to stay here forever.” (Divrei Hayamim א chapter 29, verse 15)
You can’t be here forever. So does that mean that hope doesn’t work? Hope does work. Because even after the person dies, he is still hoping. As we have quoted in the past from the Ramchal, when a person hopes in this world, his hope helps him in the next world. His hope will protect him from Gehinom.
קַוֵּ֤ה אֶל־ה׳
Hope is forever
Keep hoping in this world. It will get you to Olam Habah and keep you connected, forever and ever.
Have a wonderful day.