Bitachon - Trust in God

Shabbat Shalom

Trust in Hashem, in the Good Times 

and in the Challenging Times

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

• Blessed is the man who trusts in God, then God will be his security.  (Yirmiyahu 7:7)

As the prophet teaches, God will not be someone’s security until the person already trusts in God, which does not mean turning to God only during times of trouble. And, certainly if one does turn to God at a difficult time, he has to be careful how he does it:

• Because Yosef placed his trust in him that he should remember him he was destined to remain in prison for two [extra] years. Thus it says, “Happy is the man who makes God his trust and does not turn to the arrogant” (Tehillim 40:5); he does not trust in the Egyptians who are called “arrogant.” (Rashi, Bereishit 40:23)
  

It is unlikely that Rashi faults Yosef for turning to the wrong kind of human savior. Rather, the reference to the arrogant is not only to the Egyptians, but to anyone who shares the same ideology as the Egyptians, expressed here, and succinctly, by their supreme ruler:

• Pharaoh said, “Who is Hashem, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know Hashem, nor will I let Israel go.” (Shemos 5:2)

Now, it was not that Pharaoh did not believe in God at all. Rashi already told us that the entire reason for drowning the children was to beat God at His own game. As Pharaoh knew, God works measure-for-measure (Sanhedrin 90a), and since God promised not to bring a flood again against mankind, Pharaoh used water to kill the male children.1

Then what was Pharaoh talking about? Pharaoh was making a distinction between Elokim and Hashem, between God Who works through nature to fulfill His will, and God Who, on occasion, even works above nature to bring about the historical results He desires. Moshe Rabbeinu came and threatened Pharaoh in the Name of the latter. Pharaoh balked in the Name of the former.

In other words, “Elokim” is the Name of God when He works in history b’Hashgochah Klallis, on the level of Divine Providence that allows people to even believe that Creation is on automatic pilot, or worse, that God doesn’t exist at all. It is the level of Providence referred to as “hester panim,” the hiding of God’s face:

• Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsakethem, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall come upon them; so that they will say in that day: “Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?” (Devarim 31:17)

“Hashem,” on the other hand, refers to when God when He works in history b’Hashgochah Pratis, through personalized Divine Providence. There is nothing hidden about God on this level, since it results in miracles that openly proclaim the involvement of God in the affairs of the Jewish people, even for individuals, even on a mundane level.

Belief in Elokim only is the way of the Mitzrim;2 belief in Hashem is supposed to be the way of the descendants of Avraham Avinu. This is why Yosef was taken to task for implying that he had ended up in jail for no good Divine reason:

• “I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and I did nothing for them to have put me into the pit.” (Bereishit 40:14-16)
  

Nothing? By mistake? Not as a function of Hashgochah Pratis, but only as a function of Hashgochah Klallis? For a Jew, is that even possible? If God isn’t involved in every single aspect of life, guiding it, directing it, facilitating it, the bad times and the good times, then what will trusting in Him accomplish in the end?

Hence, when the Midrash teaches:

• One who trusts in God will be surrounded by kindness (Tehillim 32:10): even an evil person who trusts in God will be surround by kindness. (Midrash Tehillim 32:10)

it means: one who believes in Hashem, that is, in the God of Hashgochah Pratis, is one in whom Hashgochah Pratis will believe, and therefore, perform miracles.

Trust in God means trust in Hashem, in direct, and personal Divine Providence, no matter where you live, no matter what the time.

No matter how successful. This means realizing that there is never anything natural about the way that a Jew survives in this world, no matter how natural we may appear to survive. The only difference between the good times, when we seem to succeed because the whole world is succeeding, and the bad times, when we seem to survive against the odds, is the way God, that is Hashem, camouflages His hand within the automatic world of Hashgochah Klallis.

Ironically, due to human nature, His hand may appear more hidden during the good times than during the bad times. Developing the intellectual understanding that allows one’s mind’s eye to see this is the secret to bitachon in the good times, which will save the person during the bad times.

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1 Rashi, Shemos 1:10. However, Pharaoh should have read the fine print, since God had said nothing about drowning a single nation by water, which He did in the Red Sea, measure-for-measure.
2 Mitzrayim is first, and foremost, a concept, an ideology that says, “True spirituality isn’t important, and even hampers one’s ability to enjoy the material world,” and belief in Elokim allowed them to live with the illusion that they could control their religious outlook. Any society that promulgates this approach to life is the Mitzrayim of its time, even if the people themselves do not live in the northern part of South Africa. For a period of time, Mitzrayim and Egypt were the same thing. However, though Egypt may have stayed where it has always been physically, Mitzrayim didn’t, moving on after the exodus of the Jewish people, from continent to continent.

© 5769/2009 by Rabbi Pinchas Winston & Thirtysix.org