A Yid learned, invested time and effort, and made great progress in the middah of bitachon. He walked hand in hand with Rabbenu Bachyai’s instructions, and he is approaching the end of Shaar Habitachon. And then Rabbenu Bachyai tells him: You learned well! You’ve made progress! Make sure you don’t lose this holy acquisition. Make sure you safeguard it well and wrap the valuable packages well, to prevent large holes from forming and the expensive acquisitions for which you toiled from leaking away.
When you sit in front of the sefer or listen to the phone line, everything seems clear. It’s clear that Hashem does everything, that He rules all of creation at all times. It’s clear that He is the Reason behind all reasons, and that there is no other power in the world that could do anything on its own. Words of emunah are very nice, but what happens when you are tested? What happens in real time when the traffic jam seems to be endless and the chuppah is starting in another two minutes? What happens when a medical matter turns life upside down, or when the neighbor who has been fine until now did what he did and your whole option for extending our apartment is decreased significantly?
How do we react to an appointment that is delayed, a doctor who was late, the official who made a mistake, or the job that was taken from us? How do we deal with a sudden blackout and the loss of a day’s work, an employee’s mistake, or even damage that was done intentionally? What do we do when the rosh kollel informs us that there is no budget to pay the kollel for the next two months, that there are no donations and no loans?
Rabbenu Bachyai warns us in chapter 7 that there are factors that might influence one to lose his bitachon. One of these is being short-sighted, and attributing one’s successes and failures to the physical circumstances that are visible to one’s eyes. A child in kindergarten sees his friend sitting nearby tearing his artwork. He gets angry and kicks him. One cannot explain to him that the child who tore his artwork is only a messenger of the higher hashgachah. A small child does not understand how electrical appliances work. He cannot grasp that it is not the electric wire that gets his machine to work, but the electric power station located far away. He is not capable of understanding that a building stands on deep foundations hidden from the eye.
The child needs to grow before one can explain these basic truths to him. But with adults, it is expected that we understand this. In real time, we need to remember that there is a Higher Power. How painful it is to see people who have been in this world for decades and are filled with complaints and anger and are always casting blame on others: This one took my job; he stole my shidduch; my “friend” maligned us and that’s why my son didn’t get into yeshivah; the driver did it to him on purpose when he took a wrong turn and caused him to miss an important meeting.
It’s true that there are people who have the authority to decide and to act, and this gives a person the feeling that he is in their hands. When a bird flies into a home and dirties it, we are forgiving, understanding that the bird was heaven-sent, and we merely go about the task of cleaning up. On the other hand, when a child does the same, or an older person causes an unpleasant encounter, we blame, we get angry. The fact that the offender was a person who is supposed to control his actions makes the nisayon greater.
However, the fact that it was done by a person with bechirah does not change the reality: Only the Creator runs the world. No power in the world can harm or help us without His permission. We need to internalize and strengthen this truth all the time, throughout our life. We should work on this specifically during calm times, when the heart is free to understand things and to strengthen itself, so that in times of nisayon we don’t lose our bitachon to a mistaken way of relating to only the physical circumstances that are visible to our eyes.
How many times do you hear people complaining: Why did you do that? Why didn’t you think? Why did you ruin it? We could get angry at the immediate cause of the loss, when in truth, the person who seems responsible for it is no more than a messenger of hashgachah. Let us prepare for ourselves the proper thoughts of emunah, and this will melt away all the negative false claims that we have against the people around us. In this way we will gain the ability to judge favorably and to continue on in our life’s work, without investing excess energy in seeking blame.
May Hashem yisbarach, in His mercy, show us kindness that is visible to the eye and grant us opportunities to give thanks to His trustworthy messengers, when even at times like these we’ll remember that they are nothing other than messengers of Hashem.
