Yesterday's Daily Bitachon Message
We continue with the theme that when one accepts upon himself to toil in Torah and religion, that eliminates other toil. The source for this is the Zohar, which explains a pasuk in Shemot (א,יד)
וַיְמָרְר֨וּ אֶת־חַיֵּיהֶ֜ם בַּעֲבֹדָ֣ה קָשָׁ֗ה בְּחֹ֙מֶר֙ וּבִלְבֵנִ֔ים וּבְכׇל־עֲבֹדָ֖ה בַּשָּׂדֶ֑ה אֵ֚ת כׇּל־עֲבֹ֣דָתָ֔ם אֲשֶׁר־עָבְד֥וּ בָהֶ֖ם בְּפָֽרֶךְ
They made their lives difficult with Avodah Kasha/hard work, with mud and bricks, and all the work of the field, and all the work that they gave them, backbreaking work.
The Zohar explains that the word kasha/hard can also be related to kushya/ question. So when it says, “They made their lives difficult with Avodah Kasha/Hard work, it can also mean, they made their lives difficult with questions in the Gemara.
When it says חמרHomer, which means mud or clay, it can also refer to a Kal V’Homer, a term used in the Gemara for learning something easy from something hard. לבנים Lebanim, which are bricks, can also be understood as Libun Halacha, Clarifying the Halacha.
Avodah B’Sadeh/ work on the outside refers to a Baryata, which is outside (the regular text )of the mishnayot…
Rabbi Gedalia Schorr explains that, as we said yesterday, a person must toil. Either they can toil in the field, with backbreaking work, or they can toil in the Bet Midrash, working through a difficulty in their learning. This principal applies to both learning and Mitzvot. There’s a famous story about the Chafetz Chaim. There was a God-fearing Jew from Germany who decided that from now on he would like to focus half of his day on business and the other half of his day on acts of Hessed. He did so, but his business was not going as well as it should, and his family was concerned. They asked him to go see the Chafetz Chaim. When he got there, hundreds of people surrounding the Chafetz Chaim. As the man got closer, he was able to hear that the Chafetz Chaim was giving an explanation on Mizmor L’David Lo Echsar, where it says,
אַ֤ךְ ט֤וֹב וָחֶ֣סֶד יִ֭רְדְּפוּנִי כׇּל־יְמֵ֣י חַיָּ֑י
Goodness and kindness should chase me my whole life
What does this mean?
The Chafetz Chaim explained that sometimes when a person begins doing acts of Hessed, people start chasing after and bothering him. He might think, “ Why am I doing this? Do I need this hassle?” But the Chafetz Chaim says that if, in Shamayim, it is decreed that a person is going to be chased, isn’t it better that the chasing should take place because of the goodness that he is doing, and not from other things? If you’re going to get knocks on your door, would you rather get knocks on the door because people are collecting Sedaka from you, or because the IRS, has v’shalom, is coming after you?
A person has to work and a person has to toil. It is up to him to choose where it is going to happen.
Similarly, Rabbenu Yona, in Shaare Teshuva, quotes the midrash that says that if a person commits terrible sins, and he is supposed to get all kinds of horrible punishments, he should add to his learning regimen. Put your toil in Torah, and put your difficulty into it. How does this work?
Sometimes when you learn, your eyes hurt, and it counts for suffering. Some people that stay up all night on Shavuot say a prayer afterwards, that says, “May the pain that I had in my eyes count for any suffering that I might have deserved which would cause my eyes to hurt.”
A person can have all kinds of difficulties (eg cataracts) but staying up on Shavuot night can replace that. That is the power of putting your toil into the right things.
We can never avoid toil. Man was born to toil. But we choose where we are going to toil.
As we said yesterday, we should not think that having Bitachon means being lazy. We must toil in this world. כי אדם לעמל יולד Man was born to toil.
Have a wonderful day.