The Midrash Raba, on this week’s Parasha, tells the story of a Kohen who, as part of his job, has to check for Tzara’at. He once had to go on a business trip, so he gave his wife some instructions on what to tell anyone who came by with questions. As part of those instructions, he told her that G-d created every single hair with its own follicle.
“If that is the case,” she asked, “Why are you going on a business trip? Stay here and your Creator will take care of you.”
He listened to his wife and he stayed home.
The Ben Ish Chai brings out an interesting point about this: This example about the hairs is being given because when it comes to Tzara’at/ Leprosy, there is a similar concept. After the person is a Metzorah, he has to shave his entire head, with all the bumps on his scalp exposed- and these bumps are the hair follicles with no hair. He says that this is because one of the reasons that a person speaks loshon hara is because he thinks that he will be able to get what he wants by putting down another person, and taking things into his own hands. But he doesn’t realize the rule that no hair follicle touches the other. Nobody can affect you, or influence you, other than the decree of Hashem.
But while the Kohen was telling his wife about these individual follicles, he might be living a life of contradiction.
Today is ד אייר the fourth of Iyaar, which is the yarzheit of the Bet HaLevi.
Therefore, I would like to quote something from his sefer on Bitachon, that brings out this point. How embarrassing it is, he says, that three times a day we say in our prayers,
מכלכל חיים בחסד
how God sustains life with His kindness
סומך נפלים
He lifts up those that fall
רופא חולים
And He heals the sick
Yet as many times as we say this, it is still not steadfast in our hearts. It might be on our lips but it is not in our hearts.
And therefore, when a challenging situation comes up, whether in health or life, we forget it all. We forget all of the speeches and we chase after our hishtadlut/efforts. This is an important lesson. It is human nature.
The Hovot HaLevavot tells a story similar to the of the Kohen mentioned above.
One of the Perushim (a person on a high religious level) once traveled to a far away land, before he had reached his high level of piousness. While traveling in a certain city, he met an idol worshipper. The Jewish man told the idol worshipper that by worshipping idols, he was being blind, and pointed out how limited his understanding was. The idol worshipper responded by asking the Jewish man whom he served. The Jewish man told the idol worshiper, “I serve the Creator, the All-Powerful, the One that gives everyone his sustenance. There is no one like Him.”
To which idol worshipper replied,
“Your activity contradicts your words. If what you have said is true, then why did you have to come here for business?“
Obviously, we believe in hishtadlut. But this man was talking on a very high and lofty level, and the idol worshipper responded in kind.
This is an important principle. We can live our lives, as they say, “talking the talk,” but not necessarily, “walking the walk.”
Rav Haskel Levenstein says that people can live their entire lives like this- talking about Bitachon, but only as an intellectual pursuit. It hasn’t yet reached their heart or their insides, as the following story shows:
There was a wealthy man in the town of Brisk, where the Bet Halevi was the rabbi.
The man’s secretary received a telegram one day that his ship was sunk at sea. The man did not have insurance, and the secretary did not know how to break the news to his boss. So the secretary went to the Bet HaLevi to ask him what to do. The Bet HaLevi told the secretary to give him the telegram, and sent his gabbai to bring the wealthy man to come speak to him. When the man came in, the Bet HaLevi had a Gemarah Masechet Berachot open, and sat there trying very hard to understand the Gemarah. He kept the wealthy men waiting for a while, until he finally let him in. The man asked the Bet Halevi what he was delving into, that took so long. The Bet HaLevi explained that he had been learning a very difficult topic. When the man asked which one, the Bet HaLevi told him that it was the sugya “You have to bless God on the evil, the same way that you bless Him on the good.”
The man commented that that wasn’t such a difficult concept, and went on to say that everything that Hashem does is great, and that everything is Min HaShamayim etc etc. The Bet HaLevi then gave the telegram to the man. The man read it, and fainted.
The Bet HaLevi said that it was not as simple as it sounds.
Which is our point. We can speak a lot about Bitachon, but we have to get it into our gut, and make it our reality. This is an important lesson from the Bet HaLevi, on his yarzheit.
Rav Wolbe says,, “There is no level that a person fools himself in more, than in Bitachon.” People think they are Baalei Bitachon, but they are far from it.
B’ezrat Hashem, we will work on our Bitachon, and reach the true levels.
Have a Shabbat Shalom.