I’d like to talk a bit more about the bitachon of Yosef HaSadik. As we said, he is our role model of bitachon and therefore, to really to understand, we have to look into him.
He was pulled out of jail, became the Viceroy of Egypt, and God was always on his tongue.
But besides being known as the Baal bitachon, Yosef was known for something else. His main thing was that he was Yosef Hasadik.
What does Sadik mean?
Sadik means he controlled himself from his boss's wife. Is it a coincidence that the biggest Baal Bitachon is also the man of the greatest self-control? There is an important rule-Whenever someone is singled out for two great Middot, they're connected. Rav Wolbe said this about Avraham Avinu. He’s the Ish Hessed and he's also the biggest Baal Emunah. Is that a coincidence? No. His Emunah showed him how great of a Baal Hessed Hashem is, whereas the idol worshippers couldn’t believe that God could deal with little you. Avraham Aninu understood Hashem’s Hessed. So his Emunah and his Hessed were connected.
I would like to suggest, based on the Sefer Be’er Yitzhak, that the same is true for Yosef HaSadik. It's not a coincidence that he was a man of great self-control and also a man of great bitachon.
This is a little kabalistic but I saw it quoted by Rav Bloch, in his sefer on Bitachon, in order to bring out the source that En Od Milevado/there's nothing else but God is a power of bitachon.
He asks how it is that En Od Milevado /Nothing else but God takes away all negative forces. He says, “If someone annuls his will for God's will, then God will annul the wills of others for his will.”
What does that mean? Simply, let’s say I want to sleep another hour in the morning, but I annul my will for God's will, and I go to shul. Now there's someone who has a negative will against me. He wants to sue me. But God will annul that will of his, because I annulled my will to God.
How does that work? Because I got out of bed in the morning, this guy won't sue me? What's the connection? Rav Yitzhak Isaac Haver says, in his Sefer Be’er Yitzhak, that every person is an Olam Katan/ mini world, and the negative forces in me correspond to the negative forces in the world. The negative forces in me are that I want to sleep too much, I want to eat too much (or eat forbidden foods), I want speak too much, or use forbidden speech… Those are all the negative forces.
But when I control the negative forces in me, they correspond to negative forces outside of me, and I stop those forces outside of me. That means the negative force inside of me is I wanted to sleep for another hour and miss shul. The negative force in the world is this guy who wanted to sue me. I’m a microcosm, and by me annulling my negative desire, God annuls the negative desires outside of me. He says that is how En Od Milevado works.
En Od Milevado means that there are no other forces but God- and that starts with inside of me: There are no other forces but God inside me. I have to have self-control and realize that those desires are negative forces that are not real. The snake introduced them to man after the sin of Adam HaRishon. Those negative desires are not really me. They're not real. And when I control my inner will and I say there's nothing else but God and His will inside of me, and therefore I'm going to control my negative forces, that allows the negative forces outside of me to be controlled. This is a huge concept. As we said, it's a kabalistic concept. He mentions a lot of kabala that I don't understand, but he ends with the pasuk,
“Sod Sadik Moshel B’Yirat Elokim.”
This is the secret- the Sadik is in control because of his Yirat Shamayim. Moshel means to control the world. He doesn’t say this, but Yosef became a moshel of the world. How do you become in control of others on the outside? When you control yourself from the inside.
Therefore, it's not a coincidence that Yosef HaSadik, who is the great Baal bitachon,who is Mr. En Od Milevado/ There's nothing else but God, with God on his lips at all times, is also the great man of self-control, because these two things go hand in hand.
He saw the vision of his father outside the window. He tells his boss’s wife, “How can I sin to God?” If bitachon is all about Deveykut/being connected to God at all times, you can't pick and choose. If you’re really connected to God and you realize He’s here at all times, it's going to bring you to self-control as well.
I hope everyone understands this big chiddush and appreciates that En Od Milevado is not just a bumper sticker. It’s work. It's real En Od Milevado, to the point of self-control.
You can't just say, “There's nothing else but God,” and think “That prosecutor, that doctor, that lawyer, that force is non-existent. It won't do anything to me.”
As Rav Yisrael Salantar says, you could say “Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad,” and make God King over the seven heavens and the four corners of the world, but forget about making Him King over yourself. It all starts inside of you. You have to say, inside of you, ‘there's nothing else but God,’ and then we can start working on controlling the world outside of us.
Have a wonderful day.