When we hear of an earthquake in some corner of the world, it is so easy to say that “everything is for the best,” but when our own plans are disrupted, then we have a lot of work to do in order to agree to the hanhagos of the Creator. To think this way in our hearts and minds, to bend our thoughts and submit our desires — this is our life’s work!
The ninth and highest level of bitachon is described in the seventh and final chapter of Shaar Habitachon. It is the pinnacle of a Yid’s accomplishment through hisbonenus, practice and repetition again and again of the principles we learned throughout this incredible chapter. Describing the ninth level, Rabbenu Bachyai gives an example of someone whom he defines as “one of those who trust,” who said, “I have never faced one set of circumstances and desired something else,” meaning: It never happened that I found myself in a certain situation and wanted to be in another situation. I was so sure that everything is for my good, from my merciful Father in Shamayim. And if He determined that it would be so, then I too want it to be exactly so, and not anything else!
This paragraph obligates us to think deeply. If total bitachon means to agree to the Heavenly ordained situations in which a person finds himself, what place is there at all to ask Hashem to change them?
Anshei Knesses Hagedolah established the words of tefillah. The whole content of the Shemoneh Esrei involves asking for our needs and for our situation to change: for us to have more wisdom, for the ill to recover, for redemption from our exile, for bountiful parnassah. How could the ma’amin, for whom everything is good – even if he lives with pain and sorrow, illness and difficulty – daven to Hashem to change his situation? Likewise, we would think that based on this level of bitachon there would be no need to do any hishtadlus?
The father of the Shelah Hakadosh zy”a, Rav Avraham Halevi Horowitz, wrote in his sefer Yeish Nochalin, that anyone who objects to the yissurim that come upon him suffers double pain. As if it is not enough that he suffers from the difficulty itself and from the pain that is meant as an atonement for his sins; he adds to himself a heavy burden for which he has no need. That burden is thinking that if only he had done this or that he could have avoided this situation, and it is his worries about the future in light of what is happening now.
The first of the Thirteen Principles of Faith is that the Creator yisbarach makes everything happen according to His Will at all times. Whatever has already happened — Hashem caused. What is happening in the present — Hashem is controlling. And let us notice the exact words of the boteiach who said: When I found myself in certain circumstances — I accepted that it had to be this way, that it is exactly what Hashem wanted to happen to me. It is possible that he found himself in jail or with some sort of illness, or perhaps he heard the bad news that he had lost his possessions, or that he experienced any other type of pain. At that second, he knew to accept those circumstances, not to fight it, not to ask, “Why did it happen to me?” He did not regret the physical suffering he endured, but rather he accepted Hashem’s decree as it was. And through this strong emunah he understood that this is how it was meant to be. He knows how to say to himself: “Hashem did this — and this is the best thing!”
Regarding the future, we have the obligation of hishtadlus — to daven! This does not contradict bitachon at all. In the Gemara (Beitzah 32b) it says that there are three whose lives are not life, and one of them is the person whose yissurim rule over his body. It does not say “the person who has yissurim,” but rather, one whose yissurim rule over him and fill his mind and eat away at all his strength. “Why did this happen to me?” “Why wasn’t I more careful?” “Why did he do that to me?” “I would have wanted it to be different.” The moment a person lives at peace with his situation and accepts the dealings of Hashem with submission — he is alive! He is able to be happy, and he opens for himself the pipeline of blessing and good hashpa’os, brachos and hatzlachos.
This is also the key to understanding the need for hishtadlus: A Yid gets up one morning and sees that his bank account is in bad shape, and he knows that Yom Tov is coming. The Creator created him to be the head of the family, and he needs to buy clothing, food and snacks in honor of Yom Tov. He is concerned about his financial situation and he realizes that a change is necessary; perhaps he will even need to borrow money to settle his older debts. Now comes the test: If he does this happily, because he understands that this task has been assigned to him — that is sign that he is acting on the basis of emunah. Emunah always goes hand in hand with simchah.
However, we must point out that this discussion is only about how a person should feel about himself; the actions he needs to take in order to obtain the needs of the members of his household are discussed thoroughly by Rabbenu Bachyai in Chapter 4.
May we be zocheh to good, peaceful lives, with simchah, satisfaction and peace of mind; amen.
