We are winding down the advantages of Bitachon. We are up to the second to last, and haven’t yet started on the topic itself. We have merely been discussing the motivations for dedicating ourselves to Bitachon.
The next advantage the Hovot HaLevavot tells us is:
- מיעוט צער נפשו במסחרו,
A person won’t be upset in his business.
[What an unbelievable advantage! I have often spent the day collecting Sedaka in the city, and many times have overheard men screaming in their offices!]
ואם תתעכב אצלו פרקמטיא, או אם לא יוכל לגבות חובו, או אם יפגעהו חולי בגופו,
If his merchandise doesn’t sell, if he can’t collect his debts, or if he’s not feeling well,
מפני שהוא יודע, כי הבורא, יתברך, מתקן ענינו יותר ממנו
He knows that G-d fixes his situations better than he can himself.
The Baal Bitachon knows that his Father is watching over him. When we make mistakes, He fixes them. Hashem knows better than us.
When typing, we often think we׳re spelling a word correctly but then spellcheck fixes our errors without us even realizing we’ve made a mistake.
G-d is auto correcting us like spell check. When Hashem fixes things, we may sometimes wonder: Why is this better? We don’t always know the answer, but we have all heard the crazy stories of how things end up working out for the best. And as we have said in the past, we can connect the dots backwards to figure out why.
In fact, the Hatam Sofer says it’s incumbent on all of us to sit down at times, and reflect on all the things that have happened to us that we thought were the worst for our business, but then turned out to be the best. We should recall the things that we initially cried over but then ended up laughing about, and vs versa.
Yes, it’s much easier looking back. The challenge is knowing it in the present moment. The Baal Bitachon knows that.
Furthermore, he knows that:
ובוחר לו טוב יותר ממה שהוא בוחר לעצמו
He (Hashem) chooses what’s better for you, better than you do for yourself.
Imagine going into a jewelry store to pick out a prize, because you won a $10,000 package. Everything may look beautiful to you, but you don’t really know what’s best. Only the jeweler knows what the better goods are. What would he pick for his wife?
Hashem knows, and He chooses for us.
ובוחר לו טוב יותר ממה שהוא בוחר לעצמו
“He chooses for us better than we can choose for ourselves”
We should put that saying on a plaque.
One of the things from my youth that I just can’t get out of my head is a game show called Let’s Make A Deal. There were three curtains to choose from, and the contestants never knew which curtain held the true prize behind it and which held the gag.
I recall a man once choosing curtain two. His “prize” was 3 braying donkeys, instead of the yacht of his dreams, which was behind curtain number one.
The man was literally crying. He could’ve had the yacht, but he made the wrong choice, so he got the donkeys.
Hashem is choosing for us.
We think we want curtain number one but He’s choosing what’s best for us. He says curtain two.
כמו שנאמר
תהלים סב ו)) like the pasuk says,
אך לאלהים דומי נפשי
My soul is quiet to G-d. (The word means דמם means silent, like a rock,)
כי ממנו תקותי
because all my hope comes from Him.
David Hamelech is saying, I don’t know what’s right or wrong, I’m just going along for the ride.
If Monty Hall, the host of Let’s Make a Deal, whispered to you to choose curtain 3, you’d go with it even if it looked like the wrong curtain; even if the whole audience was shouting out to choose number 2.
Hashem tells us which curtain.