Welcome to our new series on Hovot Levavot-Shaare Bitachon
Before we start we need an introduction.
The Hovot Levavot was a Dayan in Spain roughly 800 years ago.
The Arizal told his students to learn this Sefer, as did Rishonim.
Furthermore , we learn that Maran Bet Yosef, who wrote the Shulhan Aruch , was known to have an angel, a maggid, who came to him at night, to teach him special secrets, to rebuke him and give mussar. The Bet Yosef recorded all of this, by date, in a diary. After his death his children found the diary and had it printed ( It is called the magid mesharim) It’s fascinating to see that as great as he was, he was always working on himself and growing, as the angel would often suggest different areas to work on. In one place, it was recorded that the angel told him to learn the קצור חובות לבובת, which was an abridged version of the entire Sefer that the Rishonim put out, that could be completed every 30 days.
In another place the angel told him
תקרא קריאה אחת מספר חובות לבבות להכניע היצר הרע
“Read one piece of the Sefer Hovot Levavot, it will subjugate your Yetzer Hara...”
We see from this that even the Bet Yosef, as great as he was, worked on himself constantly in the areas of mussar.
For, as we will see, when it comes to mussar, and more specifically Bitachon, if you don’t continually work at it and talk about it, it wears off.
As David HaMelech says, האמנתי כי אדבר “If you talk about it, you believe. “
It is not enough just to think it or know it. You have to talk about it or you lose it. To illustrate this point, Rav Wolbe told a story told about Rav Chaim Volozhin, one of the greatest בעלי בטחון. Rav Chaim attended a Bitachon class given by none other than the Gaon of Vilna- one of the giants of the world. At the time, Rav Chaim happened to be wearing leeches on his neck, which were believed to be medicinal. Mid-class, he unwrapped the scarves that held the leeches, and threw them off, exclaiming excitedly that he didn’t need the leeches anymore- that G-d would make him better!
Two hours later, he was seen with the scarves back on. He was asked what happened, why he had put the scarves back on.
He replied that he didn’t feel it anymore. Bitachon is not a yes or no. It’s something you have to keep reminding yourself of.
Interestingly, the maggid/angel spoke with the Bet Yosef on three separate occasions about the Hovot Levavot. Two of the times, he told him learn the Hovot Levavot and one of the times he told of the benefits of learning the Sefer.
He taught him that many things happen in life that don’t appear to be good, but if you reframe them, you will understand that they are good. This is a powerful eye-opener.
The Hovot Levavot provides examples: Sleeping may not look like such a good thing on the outside, but we know it’s really a great gift, one that Rabbi Miller describes as a massage from Hashem. Forgetting is another example that on the surface, doesn’t seem good, but is actually a great thing. We learn another example, about spiders, from David HaMelech.
David HaMelech said once, who needs spiders? Their webs interfered with his palace. But when he was on the run from Shaul and hid out in a cave, G-d brought a team of spiders that spun webs at the entrance to the cave to save him. Shaul saw the webs and didn’t think David could be in the cave, since there were so many webs blocking the entrance.
Hovot Levavot teaches us how to reframe, which is a very important concept in the sefer, possibly what the whole sefer is about:
Hovot Levavot uses one of the most loving and caring activities one can witness to teach us this concept. Think of a mother, giving a new baby a bath for the very first time. The first-time mother is nervous; her mother or even grandmother might be there to help her. They lovingly prepare the bathtub and wash the baby but the baby is screaming. The people who love this baby most in the world are standing there, caring for the baby, while the baby kicks and screams.
Hovot Levavot says we can reframe our own lives and see G-d as the parent who loves us most in the world.
Anything that happens to us, we can reframe using our Bitachon, whether we understand it or not.
This is something the angel taught the Bet Yosef - a way that he, as great as he was, would benefit from this Sefer.
We can also learn this lesson from a modern day example. A great woman from our community recently passed away. Mrs.Natalie Cohen Ah, excelled in Bitachon, to the extent that Rabbi Shlomo Zafrani, a rabbi in Lakewood, described her as his rebbi in Emunah and Bitachon- a pretty big statement.
Mrs. Cohen a’h told over following story:
While she was undergoing treatments in the hospital, a woman there asked if she was Jewish. Natalie answered that she was, and asked if the woman was Jewish. The woman replied that she was Jewish but non-observant. When Natalie inquired as to why, the woman stated that when she saw the way G-d acted, such as what he was doing to Natalie, she couldn’t serve such a G-d. Natalie then steered the conversation to the recent outbreak of measles and asked the woman if she had vaccinated her children. The woman replied vehemently that of course, she did.
Natalie asked, Isn’t it painful? Why do you vaccinate- doesn’t it hurt them?
The woman said it’s important, even if it’s painful.
Mrs Cohen pointed out that G-d also believed in vaccinations. Whatever Hashem, her father, put her through might be painful but like a vaccine, it was for her benefit.
That is reframing in the classic Hovot Levavot sense- and our purpose in learning this Sefer.
B’H We should be able to put on new lenses and look at things through the eyes of the Hovot Levavot.