In Honor of the Bar Mitzvah of Morris Dana
son of Mr and Mrs. Hymie Dana
There is a pasuk we say in tehilim that we say in Hallel,
ט֗וֹב לַחֲס֥וֹת בַּה׳ מִ֝בְּטֹ֗חַ בָּאָדָֽם
It’s better to seek refuge in G-d than rely on people.
The Sefer Tiferet Shlomo has two very strong questions on the simple reading of this pasuk.
Firstly, on a grammatical level, it should say
טובIt’s better, לחסות to seek refuge
in Hashem than
מִ֝לבְּטֹ֗חַ to rely on a person
The second question is that when we say “it’s better” it’s like saying “Vanilla ice cream is better than chocolate.” We wouldn’t say “vanilla ice cream is better than cyanide.” Those these would never be compared. We know that it says about somebody that relies on a human being,
ארור הגבר אשר יבטח בה׳
“cursed is the one that relies on a human being.”
Whereas if says, “ברוך הגבר אשר יבטח בה׳
blessed is the one that relies on Hashem.”
So how can we say that “it’s better” to seek refuge in G-d, than rely on a human being? These are whole different worlds.
He gives a very innovative explanation: Sometimes you rely on somebody else, you put your faith in a human being, and then you realize that you were all wrong. You were counting on this person to come through for you, but he couldn’t help you.
You begin to wonder why you wasted your time and energy relying on this person, when he couldn’t really do anything for you.
At that point, you have a change of mind, and a change of heart and rely on Hashem.
Thus, he reads he pasuk as follows:
טוב לחסות בה׳
Do you know where you will get the message that it’s better to seek refuge in Hashem?
מבטח באדם-
From relying on people ( the prefix מ means from)
Seeking refuge in Hashem comes from reliance on people. When you rely on someone, and then that person collapses, you think, “What was I doing? How could I have relied on that person?”
We can apply this to current events.
A man that I respect told me the following: How can it be that we are now seeing what President Trump’s make up is all about? We are seeing a lot of things that are very disturbing. But at the same time, he has done a lot of great things for our nation, and our people.
What is going on?
This man says that Hashem wants to show us that He can take someone who doesn’t seem very stable or well-thought-out in his actions, and use him and direct him to do whatever Hashem wants, in order to bring beautiful accomplishments to the American nation, the state of Israel and to the Jewish people. Trump did a lot of wonderful things, and we have to thank him for that. But we might have been relying on President Donald J. Trump a little bit too much. Hashem showed us that. When the person we were relying on collapses, we see what he’s really made of.
And then we wonder, where it was all really coming from?
And we decide to go back to relying on faithful, reliable Hashem.
He’s the One to rely on, regardless of who’s in office. It doesn’t make a difference. We have to rely on Hashem, Who is making everything happen.
There is another beautiful, innovative explanation on a pasuk from the Sefer Kli Hemda:
אל תבטחו בנדבים בבן אדם שאין לא תשועה
Don’t rely on generous people, human beings, who don’t have the salvation
Simply, this means don’t rely on someone who doesn’t have the ability to save you.
But the deeper explanation is,
אל תבטחו בנדבים
Don’t rely on generous people and a human being, שאין לא תשועה who can’t even save himself.
He can’t even pull himself out of the mud and you’re relying on him? He can’t save himself, and you think he’s going to save you?
This is an important point to remember, when we get too caught up in relying on people, or being disturbed by what people can or can’t do. We have to pull ourselves above that. In the words of Rabbenu Yonah in Mishleh,
One of the aspects of Bitachon is that we don’t rely on people. In truth, “no human being can do good for you, or save you. Unless G-d makes a decree.”
Again, we can apply this to current events.
We have to constantly reiterate this. Nobody can do anything to help or harm me unless it’s decreed by Hashem.
Therefore, we have to stop focusing on human beings, and stop getting caught up in politics. We have to realize, as we started off, טוב לחסות בה׳
It’s better to seek refuge in G-d
And when do we realize this?
When there’s a little bit too much מבטח באדם- too much relying on people.
Reliance on people teaches us to come back to rely on Hashem.
Have a wonderful day.