The mitzvah of bitachon. Yirmeyahu expounded on this concept and cursed anyone who places his trust in flesh and blood, and Dovid Hamelech discussed it so many times in Tehillim: “In Hashem I trusted”; “Beis Yisrael trust in Hashem”; etc. And Yeshayahu said (Yeshayahu 26:4), “Trust in Hashem forever and ever.”
There is a logical type of trust, like the bitachon a nation has in its king that he will take care of all their needs; and there is a natural trust, such as a wife’s trusting in her husband that he will take care of what she is lacking. And there is also the stronger bitachon of the king’s son, trusting that his father the king will take care of him and provide for all his needs just as he takes care of things for himself. All these relationships merge when it comes to trusting in Hashem yisbarach. He is our King and He is our Father, and so we can be certain that He will take care of us.
The basis of bitachon is that Hashem cleaves to His creations, preparing all their food and other needs and protecting them from illness and difficulty and from lacking things they need. He feels for each person more than the person feels for himself. He is pained by the pain of His creations, and he is the One and only One Who is forever able to help, and thus He wants our good more than we ourselves want it. Therefore, a person should feel secure and relaxed and should not feel compelled to do anything more than that which the decree of the Creator demands of him, as is discussed at length in Shaar Habitachon.
This is what is called “and to Him you shall cleave” – since when a person pictures in his mind that he is cleaving to the hashgachah of Hashem yisbarach, and he feels Hashem involved in everything that happens to him, and that Hashem feels his pain even more than he feels it himself...then a person is secure and relaxed and does not worry even a little...for what will his abilities help at all in comparison to the abilities of the Creator, to Whom he is attached and Who is fully aware of his needs?! This is called deveikus, and this is the specific mitzvah that applies to every member of Am Yisrael, everyone on his level.
(Meshech Chochmah, Parshas Va’eschanan)
