Is it possible that Rabbenu Bachyai exhorts us to choose tzaros?! Shaar Habitachon focuses on the goal of giving every Jew the serenity of a boteiach, so that he has a life suffused with simchah, emunah and bitachon!
And yet, at the end of the fourth perek Rabbenu Bachyai tells us that a person who is worthy of Hashem’s chessed in the World to Come is “one who would rather have pain than serenity.”
We need to understand this. Regarding everything connected to matters of this world, Rabbenu Bachyai directs us minimize our difficulties and not to search for difficult or extraneous work; his instructions are to try to earn our parnassah in the easiest way possible, and to trust that the Creator will provide for our needs.
However, regarding matters of the Next World, the view is completely different: When doing mitzvos, the advice is to invest in them and beautify them more and more. In this regard one should choose “pain over serenity.” The point is not to choose tragedy, chas v’chalilah, but rather to choose difficulty and exertion. It is easier to buy kosher mehudar matzos, but one who wants to glorify the mitzvah will personally participate in baking the matzah. It may be more convenient to wear tzitzis that someone else tied, but there are many people who exert themselves to tie tzitzis on their own, and to fulfill the gemara that teaches that it is a greater mitzvah for him to do it on his own than to have someone else do it.
How many beads of sweat are collected when Yidden schlep boards in order to build a sukkah, how many kochos are invested in the effort to give and to help another, to share his burden, to help others ourselves, physically?! Sometimes a Jew lies down to sleep but when he hears that his parents need him or need his help, he overcomes his tiredness and travels to them. These exertions add up in a special account, and a person receives special reward for every bit of effort.
People who do this are people who are choosing “pain over serenity”; they are choosing effort and exertion in order to do mitzvos.
You could buy ready-made challah in the grocery or bakery, but many bnos Yisrael prefer baking at home: They choose the best flour, and there are those who even buy regular flour and sift it, then take a large bowl and fill it with water, sugar, yeast, flour and oil. At every stage of the process they murmur, “L’kavod Shabbos kodesh.”
The Chafetz Chaim wrote in the Mishnah Berurah that there is a hint to this in the Parshas Hamann. “Whatever you choose to bake – bake”: one should bake challah in honor of Shabbos. In the times of the Gemara there was an established custom to do so. The Chafetz Chaim wrote (Biur Halachah, siman 242) that due to our many sins, today many women have neglected this minhag and they buy challah from a bakery, and in doing so they detract from the kavod of Shabbos.
Nowadays, nashim tzidkaniyos know how to make the mitzvah of baking challah precious, and they ask the Creator to bring brachah into their dough, enable it to rise properly, and rest His blessing upon it.
Then comes the mitzvah of hafrashas challah. Rabbenu Bachyai wrote that this is the only mitzvah one does with dough! Women know that this is an eis ratzon, and when separating challah they beseech Hashem for all their needs.
While kneading her dough, a mother asks that her Chaim’ke grow in Torah and that her Yehoshua’le learn well, that her Meir’ke learn how to read and get along with his friends, that her Tzira’le find a proper zivug, and that her Mira’le should feel good about herself and be happy with her lot. She braids the challah and asks for a refuah sheleimah for all the cholim, sprinkles sesame seeds and asks for acheinu Beis Yisrael who are in tzarah and in captivity. If the little ones are around, she gives them each a small piece of dough to make a small roll, and thus she is mechaneich them to invest in mitzvos as well.
Nowadays there are many options for getting things easily and conveniently and for pampering ourselves. The choice to invest in and work hard on a mitzvah is an inestimably wonderful thing. It’s not just that at the end you’ll have challah for Shabbos, but rather that the whole process of being busy with the mitzvah uplifts a person and brings him to a much higher place.
Regarding one who chooses to invest time and kochos in hiddur mitzvah, Rabbenu Bachyai says that he is worthy of Hashem’s chessed in the World to Come
Thus, when a person strengthens himself in emunah and bitachon, Hashem gives him the opportunity to do more mitzvos b’hiddur, and for all this we thank Him and sing His praises.
Please daven and beseech Hashem for mercy for the avreich who was seriously injured in an accident in Beitar Illit, Harav Yitzchak ben Basha, ו"הי, son of Rav Dovid Kletzkin shlit”a למצוות תזכו
