Hodesh Tov. As we start Rosh Hodesh Kislev, I would like to share some pesukim from Mishleh that will give us a little background in understanding the connection between the month of Kislev and Bitachon.
Shlomo HaMelech says, in chapter 3 of Mishleh, that if a person has the proper outlook on life,
אָז תֵּלֵךְ לָבֶטַח דַּרְכֶּךָ וְרַגְלְךָ לֹא תִגּוֹף
You’ll walk with confidence on your path and your feet won’t get hurt
אִם תִּשְׁכַּב לֹא תִפְחָד וְשָׁכַבְתָּ וְעָרְבָה שְׁנָתֶךָ
Your Bitachon will be on such a level,
That when you sleep at night, you won’t be afraid, and you’ll have a nice, sweet sleep.
אַל תִּירָא מִפַּחַד פִּתְאֹם וּמִשֹּׁאַת רְשָׁעִים כִּי תָבֹא
You won’t be afraid of a sudden fear,
(sometimes things creep up suddenly and scare us) or when the destruction comes to the wicked.
This pasuk was said about the miracle of Purim. When Mordechai met up with Haman, he asked three young students of the Yeshiva what they were learning that day. Each one quoted a pasuk. The first pasuk to be quoted was this one: You won’t be afraid of of sudden fears.
This was miracle of Purim, which took place at the beginning of the second Bet HaMikdash.
The next pasuk deals with the miracle of Chanukah, which chronologically follows Purim.
כִּי ה׳ יִהְיֶה בְכִסְלֶךָ וְשָׁמַר רַגְלְךָ מִלָּכֶד
G-d will be there for your Bitachon,
and will protect your feet from stumbling
Rashi says the word בכסלך B’Kislecha means. “Your Bitachon”
But why this choice of words? K’sil means “fool” so it seems to say , “G-d will be there in your foolishness.”
This doesn’t sound like bitachon.
Rashi explains that these words refer to
בדברים שאתה כסיל בהן
areas that you are a fool in.
This is a very high level of bitachon.
People think that they’ll rely on Hashem, because G-d can interfere with what they’re doing. They think they know what they’re doing, and they just don’t want G-d to interfere.
But the higher level of Bitachon is when we realize that we really don’t understand what we’re doing, when we feel like a k’sil, a fool in those areas. When we know it’s out of our control? Like in a pandemic. Has the world realized yet that they are fools in this pandemic?
Once you finally realize you’re a fool, then you can really rely on Hashem.
There’s a pasuk that says,
אדם ובהמה תושיע ה׳
G-d saves people and animals,
The Gemara in Chulin says that this pasuk refers to people that are very cunning, and yet even with all their knowledge, they are like an animal that has no understanding.
The Gaon of Vilna explains that this Gemara refers to someone who is not worried about his parnassa. A person can use his brain to start worrying about how he’ll survive until tomorrow, and where his food will come from. But someone who really relies on Hashem doesn’t worry. He blanks his head out like an animal, and he says, “I’m not using my brain. G-d is all powerful, and He has ways to figure things out, even supernaturally.”
That person then merits miracles.
Based on this, Rav Sadok HaKohen says, as we mentioned last year, that the month of Kislev is based on this type of Bitachon. “Kesel” It’s a high level of Bitachon, where person realizes he has no control.
Rav Sadok makes an interesting connection. Each of the twelve months has a corresponding tribe, which is based on the arrangement of Degalim/banners in the desert. As such, the month of Kislev corresponds with the tribe of Binyamin. Why? Because regarding Binyamin it says, “The dear one of Hashem that dwells with Bitachon on it”
Hashem singles out the tribe of Binyamin as the tribe that has Bitachon. And the month of Kislev corresponds to Binyamin, who symbolizes that middah.
This is the month in which the miracle of Hanukah occurred, in a totally supernatural way.
The main miracle of Hanukah, as we will discuss further in the future, was not the miracle of the menorah. That was a side miracle. In Al HaNissim, which we will say Bezrat Hashem, in another 25 days, there is no mention of the menorah. The main miracle was the war. It was a miracle in that a few Hashmonaim beat off the powerful Greek army, who were world rulers at that time.
The Hashmonaim weren’t even trained warriors. They were a bunch of young kohanim; they were religious men who didn’t have any understanding of war, and yet they won this battle against a mighty, powerful army.
The miracle of the Menorah was just there, since we would have to make a beracha.
The war wasn’t quite an open miracle- they weren’t flying in the air (but they were spearing elephants). It was a crazy war, and they won in a supernatural way, but we have the Menorah just to make the beracha on a real open miracle.
This happened in the month of Kislev, and it all happened because of the Bitachon of the Jewish people at the time.
Therefore, Kislev is a time to dedicate ourselves to strengthening our Bitachon, especially in this area which we call K’sil- the foolish Bitachon, which occurs when we realize that we have no idea what we’re doing.
When we have that, we can rely on Hashem, look forward, and see salvations like they saw in the times of Hanukah.
Have a wonderful day.