Yesterday, the Chovot HaLevavot told us that the Baal Bitachon (person of trust) not only has good in this world, but the main thing is that he has good in the next world. A few people came over to me yesterday and said, “Well, that was a real chidush (new insight) to me. I never looked at it that way.” We all look at Bitachon (trust) as a means to an end. There’s a famous Arab proverb that says, “A head without a headache is a head in the grave.” That means everyone’s got a headache, everyone’s got a headache. So why do we have headaches? We think, “Okay, I have a headache, and I’ll take aspirin and get rid of it.” The aspirin is a means to get rid of the headache, but the end goal is to get rid of the headache. That’s what we think. But that’s not really the case. When we’re talking about headaches, we’re not talking about a literal headache; we mean a problem. So why do we have that problem? Everyone has a problem.
You get up in the morning—simple story. A lady wants to buy dresses for her children or grandchildren. Two months ago, she says, “Let me be smart. I’m going to get them on sale.” Now the holiday comes, she tries the dresses on, and they’re too small. Headache. “Hashem, please let me... This is going to still be back in the store. Can I exchange it? Will I exchange the whole headache?” Beautiful, it works out. Why did that happen? “Oh, great, I used my Bitachon.” The whole reason the story happened was so that you would exercise your Bitachon muscles. That was the end goal. We don’t realize that’s the end goal. And this is a rule in life; we call it the upside-down theory. We think things are happening for one reason, but they’re happening for a whole different reason.
Actually, it’s a Pasuk (verse) in the Torah. Hashem says, “I took you out of Egypt for this purpose.” What does “for this purpose” mean? You say, “For this reason. God took me out for this.” What does “for this” mean? For the Matzah (unleavened bread) and the Maror (bitter herbs). God took you out for the Matzah and the Maror? I thought I’d eat Matzah and Maror because He took me out. What do you mean, He took me out to eat Matzah and Maror? The rabbis explain that it’s exactly the point. God took us out of Egypt. We think, “I went through Egypt, and now—oh, you went through Egypt. By the way, let’s eat Matzah and Maror.” No. It was all a setup to create the stage for Matzah and Maror. The end goal was the Matzah and Maror. The end goal is the spirituality that you gain from it. That’s the end goal. And your whole life, we think, “Oh, wow, you know what? Great, I had my Bitachon; I got out of the problem.” That was the reason why you got the problem. The end goal is to get you to exercise your Bitachon muscles and get to Olam Haba (the next world).
We’ll use the following mashal (parable), one of my all-time favorites. There’s a man who’s going out with a girl, and he happens to be a cardiologist. He notices from the way she’s breathing that she has a heart murmur. He says, “I want to tell you something.” He says, “Shock her.” And really, it’s not anything dangerous. It’ll be taken care of. All she needs to do is take aspirin every single day for the rest of her life, and she’ll be fine.
So he comes up with a great idea. Today, it’s very popular for people to propose in all kinds of extreme ways. The guy says, “Okay. You know, I’m really interested in how they make aspirin. You want to come with me to the Bayer Aspirin Factory?” She begrudgingly says, “Okay. I’m marrying a doctor. He’ll support me. Okay, fine, I’ll go along with his quirks.” So she goes to the factory. They go to the factory. At the end, after a long day, they already have a headache, and they give out a free bottle of aspirin—a little complimentary two-pack. She opens the two-pack, and the aspirin is engraved with “Will you marry me?” instead of “Bayer.” Wow, how romantic. She takes the aspirin, and he proposes.
Then he says to her, “You know what? This really was a very special time in our lives, and I’d really like you to remember this for the rest of your life. Can you do me a favor? Every single day, just take a Bayer aspirin and remember how I proposed to you.” Okay, she’ll make her husband happy. And she’s doing this for her whole life. Now it’s her 80th birthday, and he says, “Look, I want to tell you a secret. You know all those aspirins you’ve been taking your whole life? You thought you were taking them because you wanted to commemorate the proposal. No. The whole reason I did that was to get you to take the aspirin. You needed aspirin because you had a heart murmur.” Upside down. You thought the purpose was to remember the event? No, the event happened because I wanted you to take the aspirin.
HaKadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One, blessed be He) put us through the whole Mitzrayim (Egypt). We’re in Mitzrayim, we’re going to a place, and we’re crying out, “Please, Hashem!” Hashem got us out of the problem. And it’s all there to create that connection. When we’re sitting at the Seder (Passover ritual meal), that was the purpose. It’s not an afterthought: “Oh, great, we got out of Egypt. Let’s make a Seder.” God says, “You got it all wrong. I did this to get you to the Seder.” I caused you to get the wrong dresses to get you to the better prayers. The end goal is the Bitachon. Bitachon is not a means to an end; it’s an end in itself. And that’s the chidush that the Chovot HaLevavot is telling us. Hashem gave us opportunities for Bitachon, for the Tzafun (hidden), for the hidden Olam Haba that’s waiting for us.