We continue with lessons from Hizkiya HaMelech, as we quoted the pasuk that says there was nobody like him in the area of Bitachon.
In sefer Hoshea perek יד pasuk ב, there is the famous Haftara of
שׁוּבָה יִשְׂרָאֵל עַד ה׳ אֱלֹקיךָ כִּי כָשַׁלְתָּ בַּעֲוֺנֶךָ
Jewish people, return to your God, for you stumbled due to your sin
The Navi then goes through different requests or directives that the prophet gives for Teshuva: take words with you… etc
The next pasuk says
אַשּׁוּר לֹא יוֹשִׁיעֵנו
עַל־סוּס לֹא נִרְכָּב וְלֹא־נֹאמַר עוֹד אֱלֹהֵינוּ לְמַעֲשֵׂה יָדֵינוּ אֲשֶׁר־בְּךָ יְרֻחַם יָתוֹם
Assyria will not save us
We won’t ride on a horse anymore
And we won’t say that out handiwork is out God
What does this have to do with Teshuva, and, what does it mean that Assyria won’t save us, we won’t ride on a horse?
Chacham Yehuda Sadka says that this refers back to the story we discussed previously, of how Hizkiyah put all of his efforts into spirituality, and the development of the educational system of the Jewish people. He basically ignored the defense system and didn’t put any money into his army.
The army of Sanheriv, the King of Assyria, sent a whole propaganda campaign with scribes and books in Hebrew, in order to scare the people. He taunted them by saying that even if he gave them horses they would not know how to ride on them because of their ineptitude.
In the words of the pasuk (Yeshaya, chapter 36, pasuk ח),
וְעַתָּה הִתְעָרֶב נָא אֶת אֲדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ אַשּׁוּר וְאֶתְּנָה לְךָ אַלְפַּיִם סוּסִים אִם תּוּכַל לָתֶת לְךָ רֹכְבִים עֲלֵיהֶם
I will give you 2,000 horses, but can you even find riders.
Nonetheless, as the pasuk says,
אַשּׁוּר לֹא יוֹשִׁיעֵנו
עַל־סוּס לֹא נִרְכָּב וְלֹא־נֹאמַר עוֹד אֱלֹהֵינוּ לְמַעֲשֵׂה יָדֵינוּ אֲשֶׁר־בְּךָ יְרֻחַם יָתוֹם
Assyria won’t save us, we aren’t riding on horses.
That is not what will save us. It’s not our handiwork that will save us.
As David HaMelech said,
אֵלֶּה בָרֶכֶב וְאֵלֶּה בַסּוּסִים וַאֲנַחְנוּ ׀ בְּשֵׁם ה׳ אֱלֹקינוּ נַזְכִּיר
These go with their horses, these go with chariots, but we go with mentioning the name of God
That’s our power.
This is brought down in the haftara of Teshuva, says the Bet HaLevi, because the start of all our problems is a lack of Bitachon. Since that is the source of all our problems, when we do Teshuva, that’s what we have to fix.
We got into trouble because we started hanging out with the Assyrians. We thought that we needed their army and their help, and that is the way it is today. Certain politicians and governments think that they have to rub shoulders with other politicians or governments because they think that they need this person or these people, or this country, in order to help them. They bow to them.
But Hashem says that they have it all wrong. Hizkiyah HaMelech teaches us the lesson that we won’t get there with horses. Of course we have to do our hishtadlut, like it says, “the horse is ready for war but the victory is to God.“ Rabbenu Bachye says that this doesn’t mean that we don’t have horses, but rather, that we know the horses are not going to save us.
Hizkiyah HaMelech did not need any hishtadlut at all. We might not be on his level, but we must understand that what brings us to victory is only the right focus and spirituality. This is our role model Hizkiyah HaMelech, the greatest of Jewish kings that did hishtadlut. He put all of his effort and all of his strength into education, and not into the army. He went to sleep, and Hashem fought the war for him. 180,000 troops died without him even lifting a weapon.
Have a wonderful day.