We are now quoting an interesting pasuk from Divrei Hayamim ב (13,18), from a time of civil war between the people of Yisrael and of Yehuda. The Bene Yisrael followed Yeravam ben Nevat from Yosef, and the people of Yehuda had a king called Aviyah.
וַיִּכָּנְע֥וּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בָּעֵ֣ת הַהִ֑יא
At that point, the Bene Yisrael were humbled (because they lost the war)
וַיֶּֽאֶמְצוּ֙ בְּנֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֔ה כִּ֣י נִשְׁעֲנ֔וּ עַל־יְהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵ֥י אֲבוֹתֵיהֶֽם
And those of Bene Yehuda became strong and courageous for the source of their success was that they relied on Hashem.
The Abudarham cites this pasuk as the source for Mishan U’Mivtach, the concept that God is a Mishan, like a staff to lean on.
This was in the 18th year of the kingdom of Yeravam, who broke off from Rechavam, Shlomo Hamelech’s son. Avaya was the new king of Yehuda.
For the first few years, everything was fine. Then Aviya went to war against Yeravam. Aviya took 400,000 men with him while Yerayam had 800,000. Aviya’s people were described as 400,000 bachur/ young men, whereas Yerevam had 800,000 ish bachur gibor chayil/ young men, strong at war.
So Yeravam had double the amount of men and they were better trained warriors.
Nonetheless, Aviya went to a spot, and gave a speech to Yerevam and everybody there, saying “Hashem gave the Kingdom to David and Yeravam rebelled, and the people joined around that were improper.
You think you're going to win against the Bene David? You have Egel Zahav with you. Yeravam gave you golden calves. You pushed away the Kohanim. We are with Hashem. We didn't leave Him. We are still serving Him. We are still bringing everything to the Bet Hamikdash, and we are doing what're supposed to be doing. We have with us the Kohanim, we have the trumpets. We're going to blow the trumpets and we're going to be successful. Don't fight with Hashem your God, you won't be successful.”
Aviyar gave this fiery Bitachon speech but Yeravam did not listen. And at this point, Yeravam seemed to be successful. He set a trap, an ambush, and surrounded them. When the Bene Yehuda saw that they were surrounded from both sides, what do they do?
They cried out to God, the Kohanim blew the trumpets and suddenly the war turned around. The 800,000 went running from the 400,000.
God put them in their hands. A horrible thing happened, a tremendous blow. 500,000, half a million Jews, were killed in this war.
וַיִּכָּנְע֥וּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בָּעֵ֣ת הַהִ֑יא
And the people of Israel, the losing team of Yeravam, became humbled.
וַיֶּֽאֶמְצוּ֙ בְּנֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֔ה
And Bene Yehuda became successful.
And here's the key-
כִּ֣י נִשְׁעֲנ֔וּ עַל־יְהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵ֥י אֲבוֹתֵיהֶֽם
Because they relied on Hashem, the God of their fathers.
You have to know the story to appreciate it, but this is a pasuk that shows us another classic example of Rabim B’Yad Ma’atim/ the many fall to the few.
One of the Ramchal’s students, Rav Moshe David Vale, wrote a sefer on Tanach, called Ner Yisrael, and he quotes this pasuk and says, “We see from here that the Shomreh Torah/those that kept the Torah won over those that forsake the Torah.”
And when they saw that they had no natural way to win the war, they relied on Hashem, and Hashem saved them. The other team had to run away and that's what caused them to fall. Because whenever you run, you fall. And the many became few, because 800,000 lost 500,000 and became 300,000 so the 400,000 were now more than that.
Everybody realized, Look at the difference between those that are supervised by God and those that disconnect themselves from the Kedusha. The supervised ones were victorious, and the ones that forsook God fell, and they couldn't get up.
That, says Rabbi Vale, is the meaning of our pasuk, which is a powerful pasuk of bitachon.
Learning about the context of the pesukim helps us understand them better:
וַיִּכָּנְע֥וּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בָּעֵ֣ת הַהִ֑יא
וַיֶּֽאֶמְצוּ֙ בְּנֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֔ה כִּ֣י נִשְׁעֲנ֔וּ עַל־יְהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵ֥י אֲבוֹתֵיהֶֽם
The Jewish people of Yerevam became humbled, and the Bene Yehuda became courageous, because they relied and leaned on Hashem, their God.
