We continue with our Upside-Down theory. The Hovot HaLevavot teaches that when you get into a situation that causes you to exercise your Bitachon, don’t think the Bitachon is a just a means to an end, in order to get a parking spot, for example.
That’s incorrect. Bitachon is not a means to end. We live in Brooklyn, without parking, in order to exercise our Bitachon. The Bitachon is the end goal, and in the end, there will be tzafun - the protected, hidden reward waiting for us in Olam Haba.
Secondly, the reward for having Bitachon is greater than whatever it was we are praying for.
Furthermore, we learn that Hashem will do things at times just to bring us the Bitachon. Yetziat Mitzraim is an example of this. We don’t commemorate it because we were freed. On the contrary, we were freed in order to commemorate it!
The goal was to produce the situation of Yetziat Mitzrayim remembrance.
Rav Yerucham Levovitz takes it a step further. This is an eye opener for how to look at everything in life. I think of it as the Extreme Upside-Down theory.
Why do we have parents, he asks? One might think that we have parents solely in order to produce people, and that without parents we wouldn’t be here. We’d reason that since we have them, it is just logical to respect them.
All wrong, says Rav Yerucham.
G-d wanted us to do the Mitzvah of Kibud Av V’Em, so he gave us parents. We could’ve been hatched from eggs like chickens, or even picked from trees. Why is it that most mammals are able to run off immediately after birth, and we can’t? It’s because Hashem wanted a system in place in order for us to perform Kibud Av V’Em (honoring parents). The entire world exists because Hashem has a Torah and He wants us to practice it.
First came the Torah. There was no world before it. It’s not like the evolutionist think, nor the “humanists” who think that since we are here, we might as well be moral, ethical people. That’s backward.
First came the Torah, which is a blueprint. The world was only necessary in order to fulfill the Torah.
How far does this go? The Gemara tells us : Rabbi Akiva was asked by one of the kings: “Why are you giving poor people money? It’s like bringing food to someone a king put in jail. If he was supposed to get fed, the king would feed him. If G-d liked poor people he’d give them money.”
Rabbi Akiva answered that Hashem made some people poor:
כדי לזכות את העשירים
In order to give merit to the wealthy,
so that they could earn zechut by giving tzedaka. People are poor so that others can earn a zechut.
Furthermore, the Mesilat Yesharim says that the whole world is here for our nis’yonot (tests). If someone has a financial challenge, it’s there so that he can work on his Emunah, Simcha, Bitachon etc. How can he work on these things if everything is perfect? His situation was created for him to grow.
It brings to mind the hard-luck cases that we sometimes have to raise money for. People come from Israel with all sorts of Yisurim/troubles. Why? Why do they have to come here and go around collecting for all of their troubles? Why go through that? Why can’t G-d just help them directly?
We have to flip it around.
The answer is that they are here just for you to give tzedaka. Thus, when an opportunity comes to you, you are supposed to think it’s there just so you get the chance to help. They are there to give you a zechut.
Upside Down!