Today is the yarzheit of the Bet HaLevi, who is one of the fathers of Bitachon and one of the great writers on the topic.
I want to thank Hymie Dana, who works tirelessly putting out classes for ITorah, for reminding me of the yarzheit.
I would like to share a thought that the Bet HaLevi brings down in a manuscript that was only printed very recently. In it, he explains a pasuk related to bitachon from Kohelet (10/10):
אִם־קֵהָ֣ה הַבַּרְזֶ֗ל וְהוּא֙ לֹא־פָנִ֣ים קִלְקַ֔ל וַחֲיָלִ֖ים יְגַבֵּ֑ר
וְיִתְר֥וֹן הַכְשֵׁ֖יר חׇכְמָֽה
If an ax is blunt and one has not honed the edge, and nevertheless he adds strength,
Wisdom is a more powerful skill.
What exactly is Shlomo saying in this Mashal?
The Bet Halevi explains that when a person is chopping wood with an ax, sometimes the ax blade gets blunt and even though there’s no chip in it, it can’t really cut. The fool looks at the ax, doesn’t see any chips, and doesn’t understand why it isn’t chopping. He thinks that the problem is that he’s not chopping hard enough. As a result, he puts more effort into his chopping, and he starts losing his strength through the extra effort put forth. But he’s really just wasting his time because the ax has no edge. The wise man understands that the reason the ax isn’t chopping is because there’s something wrong with the blade, and he has to sharpen the blade. If the ax blade is dulled, and he doesn’t sharpen it, and instead adds strength, it will not cut anything. The only way to solve the problem is by using your wisdom to understand that you have to pause to look and see what is going on.
The nimshal is that when people in this world see that their parnassa starts becoming limited, they don’t look at it properly. They think that it’s limited because they aren’t trying hard enough, so they try even harder. But they don’t realize that what is wrong is they don’t have the proper ax, which is bitachon. Work on the ax. If you just add strength without fixing the ax it’s an exercise in futility. That is what Shlomo HaMelech is saying.
This is very similar to the mashal brought down by the famous, best-selling, secular book ( leHavdil) The Seven Habits of High Successful People, by Stephen Covey.
The seventh of the seven habits is called Sharpen the Saw.
He gives the mashal of a wise man walking in the forest, who sees a man trying to saw down a tree. The man keeps going, back-and-forth, back-and-forth. It seems to be taking forever but the tree is still not sawed down. The wise man tells him, "Your saw is blunt. It has no sharpness. Why don’t you sharpen your saw ? Then you will be able to chop down the tree."
And the man answers that he’s too busy sawing the tree. He has no time to sharpen his saw. Covey’s final habit is that a person has to take care of himself. He has to have mental, physical and spiritual health. And if you don’t rejuvenate yourself and tend your own needs, you will have what is called burn out, and you will not become successful, because your saw has been blunted.
That is basically what is being said here. Sometimes people are so busy sawing down the tree that they don’t have time to sharpen the saw.
Sharpen the saw means sharpen your bitachon, because that is what will cut down the tree. This is an important lesson. We have to step back and see what is really going on.
This is a beautiful message from the Bet HaLevi, in honor of his yahrzeit. We owe him much for the great lessons of bitachon that he has taught us. B’ezrat Hashem, we will continue to sharpen our Bitachon saw.
Have a wonderful day.