We continue in the advantages of the Baal Bitachon.
Today’s advantage is that the Baal Bitachon is not stressed out when it comes to monetary issues.
Therefore:
ומיעוט טרדת לבו
He doesn’t have the preoccupation of worry.
The Hovot HaLevavot quotes a hasid who says,
המקום יצילני מפיזור הנפש
G-d saved me from having a scattered soul.
What does that mean? This refers to a person that has money in various places, and worries about it, wherever it may be. That’s the difficulty that Mishnah is referring to when it says,
מרבה נכסים מרבה דאגה
The more assets, the more worries.
We want everyone have money, but we want it to be worry free.
How can we achieve that?
The Mesilat Yesharim discusses this. He says that one of the greatest interferences of life is:
תרדות ודאגות
Preoccupation and worry.
When you’re preoccupied and worried, you can’t focus. And whatever success you may have already achieved gets damaged through worry as well.
He says the only way to protect yourself from this is with Bitachon.
הדרך להצילו מן המפסדים האלה הוא הבטחון
The way to protect you from these areas of loss is Bitachon.
What Bitachon? Throw all your needs on
G-d because you know for sure that:
1- It’s impossible for you to be lacking what Hashem decided for you on Rosh Hashanah
2-No one can touch what’s yours, not even a hairsbreadth, without Hashem.
3-You can do nothing and Hashem can still give you what you wants- our effort is only the fine we pay due to the sin of Adam.
But you have to understand the rule:
Doing our work and Hishtadlut is just paying the fine.
G-d ultimately decides that if that’s your attitude, your worries go away.
The secret of Bitachon is that it alleviates worries.
The Elder of Kelm was famous for working on Menuchat Nefesh/peace of mind through Bitachon and Emunah..
Once his daughter suffered from a medical issue (for example, back pain), so she travelled to Vienna to see a professor there. After examining her the doctor told her there was nothing medically wrong, it was all stress related. She was elated to hear that the very thing her father had been preaching all those years, Menuchat Nefesh /tranquility and calmness through the service of Hashem, was in accordance with the diagnosis of the big professor in Vienna. She was thrilled that her father, a rabbi, was on the same track as the big Doctor in Vienna.
When she wrote to her father about it, the Elder wrote back, telling her that was a beautiful diagnosis but could any pharmacy provide the prescription to alleviate this stress ? (Those were the days before pharmacological treatments for anxiety existed) The only remedy, he said, is Emunah and Bitachon.
And this is still true, of course. Even today with all the mental-health medications available, the best medication for stress and worries is still Emunah and Bitachon.
In fact, at the most recent Torah Mesorah convention, I attended a lecture about this topic, given by Dr. David Rosmarin, a highly rated psychiatrist and professor at Harvard. He has found, through his own life experience and much research, that the best way to deal with anxiety is religion. He is the head of Harvard’s McLean Center for Spiritually and Mental Health. He teaches clinicians how to use faith and belief in treating patients.
We know the secret for handling anxiety and stress: Emunah and Bitachon.