People relate that specifically after working on and advancing in their bitachon, they are beset by additional nisyonos in parnassah.
“You promise serenity and peace, and I have no complaints against you,” someone told me. “You’re not the final word in emunah and bitachon...but you do make an impression of knowing what you’re talking about. But since I’ve started working on emunah and learning Shaar Habitachon my nisyonos have only increased, and recently I was fired from my job. Tell me, how exactly does it work? It looks like the closer I come to emunah, the further I am distanced from it.”
The question is a painful one.
But when we know the answer, then there is chizuk to be found within the difficulty itself.
The holy Rav Pinchas, the Baal Hafla’ah, explains in his Panim Yafos in several places (Vayechi, Eikev) the passuk in Tehillim (27:14), “Hope to Hashem, strengthen and fortify your heart, and hope to Hashem.”
A person works and advances in bitachon and reaches a state of kavei el Hashem – “Hope to Hashem.” He knows that only Hakadosh Baruch Hu can help him, and he turns only to Him. Hakadosh Baruch Hu then says: If this Yid wants to be uplifted, I want him to come even closer to Me.
Then comes the stage of chazak v’yaametz libecha – “strengthen and fortify your heart.” Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends nisyonos, and the Yid has to strengthen and fortify his heart with bitachon. The yetzer hara – Hashem’s messenger, tells him: Give it all up. You’re just going backward all the time. You thought you’d start learning Shaar Habitachon, and see how many losses you have now. You took on more learning, and look what new nisyonos came your way. You decided to daven earlier, and suddenly foreign thoughts are interfering with your tefillah.
He tries to weaken us, but the truth is that the purpose of the nisyonos is to strengthen us even more, to train us and enable us to move up a class. Therefore, Dovid Hamelech repeats, v’kavei el Hashem – “and hope to Hashem.” Don’t listen to that talk. These are empty words. The truth is that this difficulty came to you specifically because you advanced, because your Father in Shamayim sees you and wants you to rise even higher. Don’t think He’s distancing Himself from you. It’s just the opposite – from Shamayim they see your desire to come closer, and they’re sending you challenges to prove your loyalty.
When a child doesn’t walk, no thinking person will stand the child on his feet and tell him to walk, because then he’ll fall and get hit on his head. When do we allow a child to fall? When he’s already started walking a few steps, then he falls and gets up, falls and gets up, until he succeeds in walking on his own.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu sees our desire to rise, and it is precisely then that He wants to bring us even closer to Him.
Gut Shabbat Pinchas Shefer
Parshs Balak - Pinchas 5784 ■ Issue 143
