Today’s class has been sponsored for a Refuah Shelemah for Susie Bibi - Shefiah Shoshana Bat Sarah
I’d like to share an interesting thought from the Bet HaLevi that can help us during these times. People are beginning to get a bit frustrated. This is really dragging on just a little too long. They’re asking,
“When is this going to end? It’s almost Shavuot! I can’t believe it!”
People are already talking about cheesecakes and wondering if we are really going to have to stay home all night on Shavuot. There are so many questions.
What’s going to be with camps? What’s going to be with business?
What are we going to do?
In a way, there really is nothing to do. Most people really have very little to do. We can’t get the schools opened; we can’t get businesses opened. We can’t help everyone who hasn’t yet been exposed be safe. We can’t create vaccines or cures. So what are we supposed to be doing right now?
We really like to do things, and when we can’t do anything, we get frustrated.
The Bet HaLevi gives us the following important principle, which is a major reframe that can really turn around the way we look at things.
We all know that G-d decrees what we’re supposed to be getting on Rosh Hashanah. We also know that Bitachon changes things. Those are two important principles. G-d decides, but He gives us the power of Bitachon.
On a regular day, we don’t have the right to say, “I’m not going to work, I’m just going to stay home and have Bitachon.” You aren’t allowed to do that. The Bet Halevi, who wrote a book on Bitachon, clearly tells us not to make that mistake. We must go to work. The Torah praises work. The Torah praises efforts. Yitzhak Avinu planted, and people work. But we know G-d’s in charge, and G-d says He’ll put the blessing into what we do.
The missing ingredient is Birkat Hashem, we need the blessing of Hashem to see the beracha.
We must do hishtadlut, and everyone’s level of hishtadlut is different, but we know and understand that really it’s coming from G-d. All the causes and effects are controlled by G-d. The reason we have to do hishtadlut is either because G-d wants to test us or because it’s a punishment to go to work.... Whatever the reason, however, we know that we have to go to work, but that it doesn’t make a difference, because G-d decides what we are going to get every single day.
The following three lines are very powerful:
“When a person has no sibah” (means, or effort) when there’s nothing for him to do, no effort to put forth to get what he needs...
“Don’t let your heart fall, (don’t get down) if the gates of effort have been closed.”
Normally, putting forth effort is a responsibility. It’s actually a stringency. It’s usually incumbent upon us to put in our hishtadlut. We aren’t allowed to take shortcuts or do less than we have do- that would be irresponsible.
But now that we can’t...
Now that there’s nothing to do, we are absolved of our responsibility,
G-d gave us a pink slip, but along with that pink slip He gave us a free pass. We don’t have to go to work.
So now we have full rights to totally rely on G-d.
We don’t have to worry about what to do.
G-d has made it very clear that He’s not asking anything from us. Usually we have to travel, get on the train, and go to work and makes deals to make parnassa. But now we’ve been exempted by G-d. And it’s not just with parnasa. It’s with anything.
If a person had been trying to get to a certain doctor, or move a patient to a certain place, and nothing is working, and it’s just not happening, he is then absolved. In a way, this may sound crazy, but you can almost sigh in relief.
The following story will help illustrate what I mean:
During World War II, The Brisker Rav was in the Warsaw ghetto. He couldn’t decide on the safest place to be- his house, or the bomb shelter... (maybe if so maybe people were there it would be a greater risk...)
For an hour, he was very agitated, going back and forth nervously, trying to make this life and death decision. After that, he sat down, opened his Gemarah, and calmly sipped his tea. His students wondered at his change in mood. He explained that as long as he had the responsibility of Pikuach Nefesh, a Mitzvah from the Torah to guard his life, he had to put all his efforts into making the decision. Once he realized that he didn’t know what to do, and G-d says if it’s an equal doubt either way, you don’t have to make the decision, there was no decision to make! He had done everything he could do. Since there was nothing else left to do, he was able to sit back and rely Hashem.
This is a tremendous concept. We must think like this. As the rabbi of Brisk said “As long as I had responsibilities,
I was suspicious and worried- maybe I hadn’t done my responsibility, but now that there is no hiyuv/obligation, that’s it! I’m off the hook!”
Hopefully, this is a calming thought. That’s my goal- to calm people. So, if you have nothing to do, now is your chance.
Someone told me that he’s home now with nothing to do.. so, what can he do? Order the full set of Living Emunah. It’s four volumes and Artscroll is still in business Bh.
Get the teenage edition, the children’s 1st and 2nd editions, and inculcate your house with Emunah and Bitachon. Now is your chance to become a Rav Shimon Bar Yochai. He was in a cave for 13 years. G-d brought him a stream of water and a carob tree, and he lived off of that with Emunah and Bitachon... Lag B’Omer is coming soon. G-d is now declaring us all Rav Shimon Bar Yochais. The Gemarah says that most people aren’t on that level, but G-d has now decided that we are all on that level! We can just stay home and somehow, it’ll happen. Somehow things will get better, and somehow things will change.
For me, this was a powerful reframe. G-d is telling us, Now is the time to work on Emunah and Bitachon! Share all your Emunah and Bitachon classes. Share your books...
Strengthen your Emunah and Bitachon because that is what G-d is asking us to do.