Lately, I encountered a Yid who respects his parents with an incredible bittul. That Yid related to me, “In the past, I was a fool. When people ask me what my secret is to respecting my parents and accepting everything they say, even when it seems misguided to me, I answer that it is simple. In the past, I would judge everything they told me to see if I agreed with it, and if it made sense to me. So, it was difficult to me to do something against my better understanding. Today, it’s very simple. Whatever they tell me, this is what I do. It doesn’t matter if they’re right or not, or whether or not it makes sense to me. It’s not difficult at all.”
This Yid learned the art of bittul. He learned the simple eitzah that the Torah taught us in how to behave: There are times that a Yid must shut off his brain!—and davka this will bring him wisdom, da’as, and understanding.
Sukkah: The Ultimate Bittul
Sukkah brings a person da’as. A person leaves his home. He doesn’t know what will happen and how it will be. He is mevatel his da’as. Someone who is mevatel his da’as merits da’as. The Ribbono shel Olam wants to give us da’as. He gave us mitzvos in order to teach us da’as. And, as mentioned, the way to acquire da’as is for a person to work on his bittul. After a person has been mevatel his da’as, and he davens for da’as, then he can open the sefarim and learn from them, from rebbeim, and from others. All his learning will now be an entryway to da’as, for he has fashioned the vessels therefore.
This is not distant from us. The sechel from HaKadosh Baruch Hu is within reach. If we will only ensure that our hearts are primed, and we give our hearts over to the Ribbono shel Olam, we will see that we can learn so much from everything that happens around us, and thus merit true da’as. Ehrliche Yidden were able to have flashes of inspiration in one moment, ideas that took hours to tell over to others. This is not something that we can pursue or just acquire from thin air... we must toil greatly for it.
When a Yid is mevatel his da’as and does what he is supposed to do, the Ribbono shel Olam will certainly shower him with da’as from Above.
