Strategizing in Advance
How indeed can we attain such a lofty level of emunah? How can we, simple Yidden, live with such instinctive emunah always—to be prepared with bitachon before we encounter a tough situation?
This brings us to the eitzah that the tzaddikim always reiterated and espoused—and we will explain it with a mashal. Every time something goes wrong in a country, when an administration mishandles an unexpected crisis, we immediately hear condemnations from the opposition that the government is at fault... they should have had a plan in place for such a scenario. They can’t wait until the situation comes suddenly, and then spring into action and extinguish fires. Wise people must be able to plan for the future.
Preparing a Path
Indeed, this is how civilized governments operate. There are contingency plans in place for emergencies and all sorts of scenarios that may unfold. Experts constantly prepare plans for cases of earthquakes and tornados, however unlikely they may be.
These experts don’t know that there’s a Ribbono shel Olam Who orchestrates these events. To them, it’s all a game of statistics, rationalizing that these events take place every fifty or so years, and for this reason, they sit and prepare. Later, when the issue does arise, the plans are ready to be accessed and executed.
The miliary works the same way. Before taking on missions, a clear vision is crafted for various scenarios and avenues of attack. The plan is clear and ready so that when the enemy does attack, the officers know exactly what to do. So too, the equipment is ready for all these missions.
Challenges Come Every Day
And it is the same way regarding emunah. The Ribbono shel Olam designed the world so that the yetzer hara presents us with new nisyonos every day. When a person wakes up in the morning, he should know with certainty that he will encounter nisyonos in emunah—whether it is the necessary emunah in interpersonal matters and interactions, or in financial matters, or in matters where he may think about blaming himself for things that went wrong. This will certainly happen today, tomorrow, and the next day! And this person will need to remember that עשה ועושה ויעשה לכל המעשים, it is all Him!
If so, it is clear that we must prepare ourselves in advance with proper thoughts and attitudes of emunah so that when we inevitably find ourselves in a nisayon, we will have the proper attitude and approach, and we will not need to scramble for eitzos and ways to put out fires every time.
An Emunah Vaccine
For this reason, Chazal have designed that we recite Krias Shema immediately when we wake up—so that we proclaim that everything is orchestrated by Hashem. Similarly, tzaddikim have urged us to recite the Thirteen Ani Ma’amins and truly understand and internalize what they say, so their message will permeate to our very bones.
The holy Sanzer Rav would recite the Ani Ma’amins three times every day while translating them to Yiddish. The holy Kobriner Rebbe once recited Ani Ma’amin one thousand times in Yiddish, explaining that he wished that they penetrate his heart! Rav Mordechai of Lechovitz exhorted his chassidim to be extra careful with reciting Ani Ma’amin every single day... all so they will permeate their hearts. The legendary chassid Reb Nissen Pilchick would recite Ani Ma’amin after bentching, and he explained that he felt it important to recite it twice a day, so he would keep these principles before his eyes.
A “Commentary” on Shema
Tzaddikim stressed the inyan of Ani Ma’amin—because reciting them is necessary and essential to being an ehrlicher Yid.
Just as we must recite Krias Shema every day, morning and night, and without it we will certainly stumble in matters of emunah, so too must we recite these Thirteen Principles of Faith, which are essentially a commentary on Krias Shema. These Ani Ma’amins are simply the paraphrase of what Shema is telling us: Hashem created the world, and everything that happens within it is from Him! And just as with Krias Shema, if we don’t constantly reiterate it, we won’t remember what it is teaching us, and we won’t attain the pinnacle of emunah that every Yid must reach.
