Bitachon 268 - Basics of Bitachon

You're listening to the 268th edition of the podcast and we're at the end of the introduction of the satak. We're going to launch into today the section first section of the book where he discusses the different approaches to be now different levels of and it's important to understand that there are lower levels of course where a person is going to do more involved in more efforts and we need to understand how to do that in a way which is still of course depending on Hashem despite the fact that we're taking that we're taking action that we're involved in efforts. And then of course there are higher levels which require less and less ishad less and less efforts until we get to the point where Hashem does everything for us. There is such a thing and we've studied that before but we're going to talk about the levels. But let's start start off just finishing off the introduction here. this book that we're studying from. So it encompasses all areas of the mitzvah and the mid of it's important to remember that this is a positive obligation. Having is not just a nice thing, it is an obligation on us. It's also a character trait. It's something that we need to develop. We're going to start off in a safer with the very first uh mirus sources for this which are the we have verses in and we also have the explain the idea is then we'll have the early sources of the Talmud midrashim and the zor are and we're going to go all the way till the present time till the thoughts of the great minds of the Jewish people down till today is all the words of the great ones of Israel. We're going to bring them completely without any um we're not going to shorten their words. So we should have a very clear study without making our split into pieces and everything is brought with with so that a person can run through this meaning like you run through a beautiful wooded area whatever. Torah of is complete. It's something that uh brings back a person's soul. It's something that is enlightening to the eyes. once we saw that even though you have all of these different sources available, but it's not necessarily clear. After all, we still need to have a summation of all that's learned. So basically we addressed any points any issues that come up with any questions that a person has and we have merited with Hashem's help to complete this work. Of course we're humans. We're imperfect. We may have made mistakes. If you find any mistakes here, he requests, send him a message, send him a an email, call him up. And by the way, I got the book from him, from David Rosen. And uh it is possible to get in touch with him. So all of these clarifications were written according to my understanding. Obviously you can't have one person who's a who's a judge. I showed this to others as well in the front. He's got some really nice gamas from uh the badatus from Ravadi y from Shshinberg from this saver obviously came out in the '90s and uh yeah she's got some pretty hefty uh big weights. Okay, but of course it's not impossible for there to be a mistake. If you find it and you let me know about it, may you be blessed. I'm raising up a prayer to Hashem to the creator that we reach that moment where we leave our smallalness or our childhood. And we understand with our minds and we receive with our hearts that we can only be redeemed from gullis only when when do we get out of our exiles? When we join as one and therefore how do we join as one? How do we get rid of all of the divisions between us is through everybody, the leaders, the elders, the those who make sure that we're doing what's right. Every single Israelite person, let us all get together and work on this. And in so doing, we will merit what it says in the continuation of the verse. God is our helper. God is our protector. We want to see it explicitly. We want to see it in a way that's very clear with our full redemption. What What is in our power to do to bring redemption? All we can do is want it. If we're which means to want, which means to hope, right? Which also has to do with it says there in the it was in the merit of that is redeemed from Egypt and so to through we will merit to have the final redemption maybe soon. Okay, so that's the end of his introduction. Now, we're going to get into the meat of clarifying the different positions and possibilities of ways of having and as we saw in the previous weeks, there are levels. There's a certain for the for the regular individuals. And there's a higher level for the khan, the priests, the luim, the Levites. There's a higher level for the Hashem. Those who fear Hashem, those who live in a constant search for Hashem, but there's room for everyone. There's a place for all of us. Let's see. First, we're going to clarify and give some some clear instructions as to what what is, what it looks like. He said before we try with Hashem's help to clarify and to get clarity over around a number of topics in the mitzvah we need to know what is the idea of what does it mean there are many answers to this question we're going to bring one of the thousand years ago writes what is the essence of what does it mean to be confident and have faith in Hashem there's a calming of the soul of the one who trusts and a leaning upon with My heart my emotions feel like I have upon whom to rely on the one that he's relying on. The person knows the one who I'm relying on is going to do the best for me. He going to do what's best for me. He trusts in him according to his ability and his knowledge. I'm sorry. I he trusts in the person that this person is going to do the best according to his ability is going to do whatever is befitting for me, whatever is appropriate for me. So that's so you have your three different details. The first is the calmness that a person feels. Feel calm. Feel like you can breathe. You're taken care of. Number two. The second is I can I'm leaning on I'm depending upon my heart is depending upon it's an emotional thing. depending on the person on whom I depend. The third thing is when it comes to trusting is going to do what he knows is good for me. So now let's look at each of these details and try to understand them to the best of our our ability. Okay. Okay. So the first point is the shva the serenity of somebody who trusts ine it's something clear and everyone agrees about this if I'm really trusting in hashem I'm going to feel calm I'm going to feel serene says talking the the alter speaks about this very clearly at the very beginning. I was thinking about it but he mentions it here. You can't move out of that space of of calmness. You can't move into fear and worry like the story the famous story in the morning about a particular student. He was walking in a marking place behind saw him who saw he was fearful. He said, "You're a sinner." Says in Zion, chapter 33 of Isaiah says, "The people in Zion were afraid. Who were they? The sinners sorry looks like a dollar says on this the one who who is afraid is the opposite of one who is confident if you have real if I have real ine so I'm not afraid like King Solomon says the fear of a person will create a stumbling block and the one who trusts in Hashem will be prosperous. Rab the same says says a person is not afraid. The person who has is not afraid of bad news. His heart is established. His heart trusts in Hashem. You can read it either way. Why does a person not not have a fear of bad news? Because he he trusts in Hashem. His heart is his heart is confident. Say, you can also read it the other way. A person's heart is trusting in Hashem. He's not afraid of of bad news. The intent here of however you read the whichever direction it has the same intents. We want you to be strengthened in every direction. reinforce. If you trust in Hashem, you don't have to be afraid at all. This is what it looks like when you're in a state of you don't feel afraid. a person who trusts in Hashem says the says Abraham he says a person doesn't need to be afraid of those things that usually make people afraid the only thing that you need to be afraid of is that perhaps perhaps Hashem wants this person to be punished and and is using those means to punish the person or to to bring about a kapar I would prefer to say for the person but I don't need to be afraid of the the thing I don't need to be afraid of the stick I need to be afraid of the one who wields the stick says on the day of fear I will not I will trust in you Hashem so it means that when something fearful occurs it's an opportunity to turn to Hashem and say Hashem I fear you. I'm trying to do your will. Hashem, help me. I want to trust in you. Explains a day when I have a lot of fear. I'm going to trust in you. You have the ability to save me from all of them. restless again writes writ has no fear this is so important to understand what be talking looks like we're talking about be talking about what does it look like I need to have a a picture of it in order to inculcate it into myself to have a vision of what it looks like to what is my goal what am I looking for because writes that the source for this is the behold behold he means here right here is the god of my salvation I will trust in him and and I will not be afraid and I think it's important to to see the puzz behold behold means visualize look at at it. I have to think about and and have a vision of Hashem as it were. God is here. Hashem is present with me right now, taking care of me, holding me up, making the ground solid beneath my feet. But additionally, being afraid is a sin. Like we said, I'm sorry. Besides the fact that it's a sin to to to be a afraid as we've seen previously the the fear itself can create the very thing that the person fears the fear the says in proverbs 29:2 the fear of a person causes the stumbling block is prosperous with moral explains that the idea is when a person is shaking it shows his lack of it shows that he doesn't fully trust in Hashem and this causes a stumbling block. It's the opposite of what it says that a person trusts in Hashem he'll be prosperous because it it means to say that a person is strengthened strongly. Person is strengthened very much when a person has that he places in when a person is shaking it shows that he doesn't have at all. There was a and that's that's a stumbling block that's the gar that we quoted earlier. It also talks about a story with he was walking behind and he and he sighed turned around and said to the guy you just sighed. It sounds like you want to have you want to have some trouble. I had fear and it came. The thing that I was afraid of came to me. Therefore, he said, do you want to have difficulties? Okay, it this is the very thing that can cause the to come. I wrote on the side negative, right? There is such a thing as creating attracting to oneself. I hate that word, but drawing to oneself a negative situation because I believe that that's going to happen and it happens. I can create negative there's such a thing as negative writes person who believes in a particular causal circumstance. He's afraid of it. So writes that being afraid even of war, being afraid of a of of getting stuck in a spot where that's dangerous can create the problem. Like we bring he brings out that we saw before. The root and the pathway to salvation is complete. The root of the fall and its beginning is fear. Yeshua. He says you can never have a salvation if the heart is is fearful and you can't have a full if the heart is serene. So basically bottom line foundational concept means calmness and and we can gauge our level of we can gauge our level of based on how calm we feel. So these are all signs. Of course we have to know how to deal with it. We're going to talk about it. But when we engage our we feel calm. If we're lacking we feel fearful. We got to be aware of what's going on and then we can start to deal with it. Thank you so much for listening. See you again next time.