There is a beautiful pasuk in Mishleh with an important Bitachon lesson.
( perek י״ז pasuk ג)
מַצְרֵף לַכֶּסֶף וְכוּר לַזָּהָב וּבֹחֵן לִבּוֹת ה'
If you want to know if silver is good, ask the silver smelter (to see how the silver can be purified, and likewise for other precious metals and gold. And the one that checks hearts is G-d.
So, if you want to test gold and silver, there are ways to check. But when it comes to the heart, וּבֹחֵן לִבּוֹת ה׳
Only Hashem knows how to check a persons’s heart.
Rabbenu Yonah says, in Mishleh, that a person’s level is measured by his heart. What are his middot, and what are his thoughts?
As the gemarah says, רחמנא ליבא בעי
G-d wants the heart.
Why the heart? Rabbenu Bachye says that the heart is what controls the body. The heart is like the king in the middle of the country. If the king is good, the country is good. Therefore, Shlomo HaMelech tells us to watch our heart. He teaches us an important rule, which is that G-d tests the heart. Rabbenu Bachye quotes a pasuk in tehilim, ה׳ צדיק יבחן
G-d tests the righteous. G-d is testing the righteous, and He is testing their hearts. This is an important principle. Mesilat Yesharim says that we are in this world for three things: To serve G-d, to do His mitzvot, and to be tested. This is important information.
We have to know that there are certain things in life that only happen for one reason: as a test.
The Torah tells us about a false prophet that will come, and bring signs (whether in heaven or down on earth) and warns us not to listen to him. The Yaavetz says that G-d, in His great love for the Jewish people, is giving us a ‘heads-up,’ telling us that there will be tests.
Because if you know about the concept of tests, then you are better able to deal with them- you have a warning and an understanding.
For example: Imagine a person sitting on a plane waiting to take off when the flight crew suddenly decides to throw everybody off, because one person was singled out for having his mask slightly off. So now everybody is thrown off the plane. A person might wonder why this is going on? What terrible sin did the person do to deserve this aggravation?
The answer might be that you didn’t do anything wrong.
So then why is it happening? It is happening in order to test you.
A woman recently told me that she went to buy her children shoes on the Sunday right after Purim. She thought that she would get there before the rush, but she was number 37 on line. It took her four hours! By the time she finished, she didn’t even care what shoes they had, she just wanted to get out of the store. Her kids were all crying and it was a mess. Why did that happen?
Because it was a test. That’s why. Things happen just to test us.
But what exactly is being tested?
Rabbenu Yonah gives us a beautiful bitachon takeaway, from this pasuk in Mishleh-
G-d is testing for a good heart.
When person goes for an echocardiogram, or a stress test, they are hooked up to electrodes, and they may have to run on a machine. Some people may even have dye injected into them, to get a clear picture of their heart. The cardiologist has to decide whether the heart is good or not. But that is not the ultimate stress test.
וּבֹחֵן לִבּוֹת ה׳
Who is the real tester of hearts? Hashem.
What’s a good heart?
What is it based on? The answer is an unbelievable line:
כי הלב אשר לא שם השם מבטחו
ויבטח באדם נמשל לכסף נמאס שסיגיו מרובים וימאסהו הצורף
A heart that doesn’t put G-d as his reliance, and instead relies on a human being, is a despicable kind of silver that has many impurities . The smelter looks at this silver and can’t deal with it.
That is why we have tests in life- To see what type of heart we have.
Is it a Bitachon heart that relies on Hashem, or is it the opposite?
This is an important piece of information that we need, in order to understand life.
We are constantly being tested. But Hashem knows every person’s limits. The midrash says that when someone is testing silver or gold, he has to make sure that the pot doesn’t crack while he is testing it.
I remember once having therapy on my leg. The therapist was stretching it and I asked him how he knew that he wouldn’t tear some thing, with all the stretching and pulling going on.He reassured me that he knew what he was doing.
Hashem is no different. He knows exactly what he is doing. He will test us, but never beyond our limits or our abilities.
Our take aways from this pasuk in Mishleh are that
1-Life is full of tests
2- and what are we testing for? We are testing for a heart that has Bitachon.
Is a powerful, powerful lesson.
I would like to finish off by thanking the people who responded so quickly in our appeal from yesterday.
The link did not work for everyone, so we will resend it today, with a reminder that if you would like to donate money to help families that are in need of clothing, this is your opportunity.
You can send a check made out to to Lev Chana, to
Rabbi David Sutton
1059 East 10th Street
Brooklyn NY 11230
Or email Rabbisutton@gmail.com and I’ll bill you,
Or click on this link-
https://www.rayze.it/levchana/
Thank you very much and Tizke lemitzvot.