We now begin the second chapter of the Hovot HaLevavot Shaar HaBitachon:
He starts off with a list of seven important concepts that are prerequisites for Bitachon. You can only have Bitachon if you have these concepts clear.
As we go through the list, note that the Hovot HaLevavot outlines these qualities without referring explicitly to Hashem. He is initially talking about reliance in general. To rely on anybody, they’d need to have the following characteristics:
1- This person loves you, has compassion for you, and will do anything for you.
Without this primary quality, how could you rely on someone?
Using our airport pick-up mashal, if the person coming, for example, doesn’t care about you, how can you rely on him to pick you up?
2- He never forgets about you. You’re always on his mind. Nothing will cause him to forget about you.
Sometimes, although we do love people, we may be absent minded and thus less reliable. If you count on me to announce your dedication for a daily Bitachon class, I might forget, even though I’m fond of you. In that area, you may not count on me very much.
3- This person is strong and unstoppable. No one can stop him. Imagine if your brother, whom you asked to pick you up from the airport, worked for the sanitation department and could come in any weather; it’s as if he had a snowplow handy in case of snowstorms.
4- He knows what’s best for you.
That means if he knew that an earthquake was imminent, he wouldn’t pick you up. He’d know it was safer to stay in the airport.
He’ll always do what’s best for you.
5- He has a perfect track record. He has never missed an opportunity to come get you, be it in rain, snow, or sleet.
6-He is in control of all events. He can even thwart a kidnapping on the way. No one can interfere with his will.
7- Finally, this “brother” that loves you, that never forgets about you, that is unstoppable, that knows what’s best for you, has a perfect track record and is in total control of everything.... even if you got into a fight with him, you still rely on him.
The seventh quality is that his generosity and ability to go above and beyond the call of duty is endless.
The Hovot HaLevavot tells us that if we find someone with all seven of these qualities, then we can rely on them.
It’s clear and obvious, though, as he states, that there is no being that has all seven qualities except Hashem.
Therefore only G-d can pass the test of these seven prerequisites that someone needs to have, in order for us to truly rely on them.
This is just a brief outline these prerequisites.
We can’t go further in our Bitachon until we have internalized these points, so beH we will elaborate on them further in upcoming lessons.