Bitachon - You are never alone. A New Kabbalah class By Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz

Okay. Welcome to our class. Is everyone in? Okay, welcome to our class. Welcome to our special class on the topic of bitachon, you're never alone. So, I'm going to give you an outline of the class, and then we're going to get into the class. So, the class we're going to start with a story from the Torah, a Bible story, and the way the explains the story in depth in one of his holy sichot. Then we're going to talk about what actually is bitachon, and what we can do to activate it, and why at times do we find that bitachon is not necessarily working for us. And we're going to finish off the class with a very, very powerful statement on bitachon from the fourth Chabad Rebbe, the Rebbe Maharash. So, let's start with um our class our our our story in the in the Torah. So, the story we all know the famous story where Yaakov, who was living in his parents' home, and we all know Yaakov was a home boy. So, the Torah tells us that um Yaakov was an ish tam yoshev ohalim. He was home He was home with his parents. But unfortunately, his brother Esau wanted to kill him. So, his parents sent him away to the house of Laban, his uncle, in the city of Haran. What is interesting is that Haran almost sounds like Corona. Not exactly, but close to it. So, I'm sure there's a lot of uh spiritual metaphors between Haran and Corona, but we'll leave that for a another time. So, Yaakov goes to Haran. So, think about this for a moment. Yaakov's living in his parents' home. He has everything. He has his bed. He has his room. He has his parents. He has physically whatever he needs. He has spiritually whatever he needs. Life is great. You can't get better than living in Yaakov's parents' house. A patriarch and a matriarch, Yitzchak and his wife. But here he has to leave. The short of it we know, obviously parents gave him what he needed for the trip. But we also know that Esau wanted to kill him. And he sent Eliphaz what to run after him. And Eliphaz caught up with him and said, "Listen, I have to kill you." He says, "How can you kill me?" He says, "Instructions from my dad." He says, "I'll tell you what, the rule is that someone's poor, they're considered like they're dead. So, I'll give you all my money, everything. I'll be poor. And I'm poor, I'm spiritually dead. And you can go back and you say you killed me." So, sure enough, Eliphaz liked it. He can get some nice loot. And he took everything away from Yaakov. Yaakov goes to Haran empty-handed, empty-handed. And as we all recall the emotional interaction when Yaakov meets Rachel, so the Torah tells us that he met her and he cried. And Rashi says there's two reasons why he cried. One reason is because he saw that he would not be buried with her. That's a reason to cry. But then Rashi gives a second reason. That Yaakov says, "Look, I came for a shidduch and I have nothing, nothing." And he cried cuz he was empty-handed. So, here's Yaakov, he has nothing. Fine. So, Yaakov's away from his house, away from his parents, away from all the comforts, in a different country, out of the land of Israel, in Haran, and he has nothing. Not only does he have nothing, the Rebbe says, if you give a look in the Torah, the Torah tells us, besides the fact that he had nothing, usually, if you have nothing, you have family. His family wouldn't help him. And as the Torah tells us clearly, what happened with his family, his uncle Laban? What happened with Laban? Laban cheated him, tried to cheat him, cheated him. So, Yaakov has nothing. That is the image we have of Yaakov. Yaakov left tremendous success, all all the comforts, and he's out in a different country called Haran, and he has nothing, nothing, nothing. So, you would think someone like that, that's it. He'd put his head in the ground. He would give up, and life would be over. But what does the Torah tell us? No, Yaakov doesn't do that. The Torah tells us that Yaakov walked strong with Hashem. As um the Midrash actually says that um the based on the verse in in in Proverbs, az telech levetech darkecha, then you will go your way safely and surely levetech. Who is that referring to? Yaakov. That Yaakov, even though he had every reason to give up, and he had every reason to put his head in the ground, but nevertheless, Yaakov stood strong, and he went with bitachon. He went with bitachon in Hashem. He had trust in Hashem that Hashem will take care of him and give him everything he needs. And actually, the verse actually says like yisa Yaakov raglav, that Yaakov picked up his feet. Meaning to say is that and Rashi tells us that because Hashem promised him, he walked. He was dancing. He was happy, and life was great. And the Rebbe says, here you see something very, very powerful about the story. Yaakov had nothing. And the proof is we know later on when he met his brother Esau, he says ki im makli avarti. Only thing I had when I came there was what was one thing. I had a staff. Can you imagine being in another country, the only thing you have is a stick? But nevertheless, even though he had nothing, what did Yaakov say? He was extremely happy. And the Rebbe says, because he was so happy, so he became extremely successful. And we all know when Yaakov finally left Laban, he was a very, very wealthy man. So, he was wealthy uh materially. He had a tremendous possessions. What in modern American you call it, he had huge assets. He had huge wealth. But besides the material wealth, it says mitosai shleima, his whole family was complete. He brought up a beautiful, whole balanced family. And the Rebbe explains, he says, "Look, Avraham Avinu, his grandfather, Yitzchak, his father, that lived in Eretz Yisrael, that lived in Israel, we all know Abraham had two children. Um Yitzchak and Yishmael. Yitzchak we know followed Abraham, and Yishmael didn't. Yitzchak we know had two children, Yaakov and Esau. Yaakov lived the life of his father, and Esau was a rebel. The only one, Yaakov, who was out of the Israel, in a different country, he was able to bring up a balanced family. What is the reason why he was able to bring up such a balanced family? And the Rebbe explains very clearly, because he had bitachon in Hashem. He went with trust in Hashem. So, therefore, he was at peace. He was happy. He was a pleasure to be around. And therefore, he had all the blessings from Hashem. And therefore, he was extremely successful. So, that is a Bible story, a Chumash story, a Torah story, where you see clearly that when someone is going through the worst possible experience, think for a moment. Yaakov, he had to leave his family. He was All his money was taken away from him. He had nothing. His family in Haran was not there for him. His uncle tried to cheat him. Nevertheless, yes, he did work hard, and he worked very, very hard. But he was extremely successful both financially and both emotionally and both with his whole beautiful family. He had the the biggest possible success. But again, the key reason is because he had something which we call bitachon. Bitachon means he trusted 100% in Hashem. So, now the question is, what is this idea of bitachon that causes you to be able to stay strong in Hashem with in Hashem and with Hashem despite all different challenges that you're going through. So, I'm going to share with you a chassidic discourse, the classic discourse of the Rebbe, where the Rebbe explains what is bitachon. And the Rebbe says as follows. Bitachon is based on a verse in the prophet Malachi. And I'll quote the verse. And the verse says as follows. Hashem says to the Jewish people through the prophet Malachi, ahafti eschem amar Hashem. Hashem says, "I love you." It's coming from a prophet. It's a prophecy. Hashem says, "Ahafti eschem amar Hashem." Hashem, the infinite name of Hashem is saying what? "I love you." Think for a moment. Hashem is saying to each and every one of us, wherever we are, e- e- at any stage in our life, Hashem is saying, "I love you." So, when a person realizes that Hashem really loves you, what happens then? Hashem is infinite. Hashem created the world. Hashem maintains the world. Hashem is the one that runs the world. So, this Hashem that loves us could and will give us everything. So, if there's anything that you need, and as we know it says in the Midrash about Yakov, what did he say? My when when my grandfather sent Eliezer for a shidduch, he sent him with all the wealth. What do I have? I have one thing. Ezri me'im Hashem, I don't have any possessions. I have help from Hashem. So, in other words, when a person realizes Hashem loves you, so where you going to get everything you need? Ezri me'im Hashem. Everything that we need, we will get from Hashem. You need a smile, you need a good day, material things, physical things, a good mood, whatever it may be, Hashem will give it to you. Why? Cuz Hashem loves you. And if Hashem loves you, he's going to give you everything. That is the basis for bitachon. But now we're going to go into a kabbalistic journey. So, and we're going to try to understand on a deep level, what does it mean when we say that because Hashem loves us and we have trust in that, therefore everything's going to be great. Great. So, we all know in the Sefirot, there's the the way it's broken up, we'll start from the top. There's something which is called Kesser, the highest Sefirah is Kesser, the crown. Now, the crown the is broken down to two parts, rotzeh and ta'anug. So, ta'anug means a deep sensation of of real pleasure. And then there's rotzeh. Rotzeh means I want something. It's not intellect, it's not emotions, rotzeh I want it. It's very very deep within the soul of every single person's human being as one of the Sefirot of Kesser, which means rotzeh. And we know there's there's expression says, "Ein loch davar sho'im bifnei ha'rotzim." If somebody really wants something, they'll get it. Why? Because rotzeh is very powerful. That's Kesser. Then you have the Chabad, chochmah, binah, da'as, which is the intellectual world of the Sefirot. And then that's more ready connected to I to logic. Logic, intellect, a holy holy logic. Then you have the emotions. Starting with chesed, ending with malchus. Now, we know even though there's 10 Sefirot, but each one is intertwined with all of them. That means in rotzeh, you have all the intellect and you have all the emotions. In intellect, you have rotzeh and you have all the emotions. And in the emotions, you have all the intellect and all and also rotzeh as well. So, now, so the Rebbe takes on a beautiful journey. Says like this, Hashem loves us. Therefore, we have bitachon in Hashem that Hashem is going to give us everything. So, what does that mean we have bitachon? We have trust in Hashem. Because Hashem loves us, so think about it. What is love? Love is the attribute of ahava, which comes from chesed. It means Hashem is going to be chesed to us. But we all know in the world of the Sefirot, there's the right, left, and there's the middle. Chesed is the right Sefirah. Chesed means to give. Why? Cuz chesed is all about giving. It's all about doing. It's all about just giving. But the other side of chesed is gevurah. So, just like chesed wants to give, gevurah has reasons, emotional reasons why not to give. So, think about it on a simple level. Let's say you like somebody. So, you like someone, you're going to give to them. What's flowing? Chesed. But it's flowing because you like them. What happens all of a sudden a person that you like, you don't like them all of a sudden. They upset you. And the whole relationship was because you liked them, cuz they made you feel good, the flow is going to stop. So, the Rebbe says what happens is if you have trust in Hashem cuz you believe Hashem loves you, coming from a place of chesed, of one of the emotions, you can think for a second, you can feel, "Oh, maybe I don't deserve it right now. Maybe I did something wrong. Maybe I thought something wrong. Maybe I did something Who knows what I did that Hashem is not necessarily wanting to give me right now." So, you're going to think for a minute he's not going to give you. So, what happens to your trust in Hashem? Your trust in Hashem is now weakened because the only reason why you're trusting Hashem cuz you believe Hashem is going to be good to you and he's going to give you, but if you feel like Hashem some reason gevurah kicked in and there's a reason not to give, what's going to happen to bitachon? You're not going to HAVE THAT STRONG BITACHON IN HASHEM. You're not going to have the strong trust in Hashem. So, then it's going to go away. But let's pick up bitachon, the emotion of chesed, the way it's rooted in mochin, in intellect. So, in intellect, chesed that's seated intellect takes on the seat of called rachamim. Rachamim is compassion. Rachamim is not in the emotions. Rachamim is actually in intellect. And the Rebbe explains why. Very simple. Cuz we all know it says in Ethics of our Fathers, "Al taddein es chaveircha ad she'tagi'a l'mekomo." Don't judge your friend until you come into his place. What does that mean? Someone your friend, he's nice to you. And all of a sudden they're not nice to you. So, now you're going to be upset. So, emotions will say, "Ah, I'm not his friend anymore. I'm going to be upset right now." Intellect says, "Relax. Why are you judging him? Maybe he's going through a tough time." Or or to more specific, in Ethics of our Fathers, what does it say? "Havei dan es kol adam l'chaf zechus." If you already want to know if you're already judging, you should judge them l'chaf zechus. Find a positive reason why they're doing what they're doing or they're going through what they're going through. Once you're down l'chaf zechus, from Kabbalah it's called mochin degadlus, big intellect. That means if it's just emotions, okay, right now I'm upset. So, you're not going to talk to the person, you're not going to get along with the person. But in mochin, you could handle the fact that you're upset at that on them at at them, but you could nevertheless be nice to them. That's called mochin degadlus. And that's where rachamim kicks in. So, in other words, so if our bitachon we have trust in Hashem, we say, "You know what the truth is? There's reasons Hashem should should be there for me. And there's reasons he shouldn't be there for me. But I have bitachon in what? Not in the emotions of Hashem, but in the intellect. So, guess what? HASHEM WILL FIND L'CHAF ZECHUS. Hashem will judge me favorably. Hashem knows I'm going through a tough time. Hashem knows that I'm frustrated. And therefore he'll give me the benefit of the doubt. So, that will allow the bitachon to still be strong on my part. But the Rebbe says in the ma'amar, but even in the intellect, there could be you can say to yourself, "Oh my gosh. Maybe he's not going to find a chaf zechus. Maybe Hashem won't find a reason to to justify my negative behavior, my negative thoughts." Guess what happens now? So, therefore he's not going to be be there for me. Even in the world of intellect where it's already more it's the relationship is much stronger, but there is room to to create a friction in the relationship and destroy possibly the relationship because there's no chaf zechus. Can't find one justification why I should do something for the person. You're right, I'm going to overlook this, overlook that, but so far, so then you have to climb up bitachon to a higher level. What's the higher level? The higher level where you go into rotzeh. What does that mean? So, on the lowest level we said Hashem loves us because we're good to him. Hashem is good to us. And if you're not good, it doesn't work. On the next level up, we said, "Okay, it's intellect. I'll be down l'chaf zechus. We'll judge favorably." So, Hashem judges us favorably. In rotzeh, Hashem loves us just because. No logic, no reason. Hashem loves us for one reason one reason only, just because. Now, if that's the case and we have bitachon Hashem is going to be good to us, what what could break that? On the level of rotzeh, nothing can break that. And based on this, the Rebbe explains the verse that says, "Bitach b'Hashem." Which is trust in Hashem, "A'dei ad." What is a'dei ad? So, the Rebbe says there's three definitions. Some say I trust in Hashem, okay, Hashem loves me. But guess what? You're going to have a problem on that level. And that's why if you just believe Hashem loves you because he's nice to you, gevurah can kick in. Or if you go to the next level, Hashem loves me again, he's willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. Fine, Rebbe says we can find benefit of the doubt. But what happens when you have bitach b'Hashem a'dei ad? You go to a level Hashem loves me, you know why? Just because. Then, it's just because. So, if it's just because, Hashem will always love me. So, back to the point. So, the Rebbe says what because it says "A'dei ad" Hashem loves you, and he loves us on the highest level, just because. So, therefore our bitachon in Hashem is without any reason, without any logic. We have trust in Hashem because we know Hashem loves us just because. And because Hashem loves us just because, Hashem will always be there be there for us. So, in other words, Yakov, like in the story in the Bible, he left and he had nothing. But he had Yakov had trust in Hashem that Hashem loves him just because. And therefore maybe there's no reason to give him or maybe he felt like, you know, he used up all his credits, but he knows Hashem loves him just because. And I think the lesson is a very very powerful and practical lesson. If and when we work on our bitachon in Hashem, it's we have to work on it. It means our bitachon in Hashem means I have trust in Hashem, Hashem loves me, and Hashem will be there for me. But not because some giving emotional reasons, cuz that could be for that could be canceled out. Not to give intellectual reasons, cuz that could also be canceled out. But you know why Hashem loves me? Just because. So, guess what? If it's just because, Hashem will love me and take care of me and give me everything I need. And I want to finish off we all know in the world of Chassidus, there's different levels of teachings of the Rebbeim. There's something which is called a uh a sicha where the Rebbe would talk in public and they share different Torah thoughts. And then there's something which is called a maimer, which a maimer we know is a chassidic discourse which we all know that when the Rebbe would say a chassidic discourse, in the Hebrew it's called sicha midaber mitzvot Literally, Hashem is talking through his through him. And it's like a passuk. Literally, it's like divine prophecy. So, the teaching the Rebbe teaches from a chassidic discourse obviously is a very very powerful stuff. So, in one of the chassidic discourses of the Rebbe Maharash, the fourth Chabad Rebbe, so in the discourse, the Rebbe Maharash asked a question and answered himself. And he said like this. He says, "Hashem will not let a tzaddik fall." "Hashem will never let a tzaddik fall." And he brings from the Zohar that the the Zohar says that any Jew that was circumcised is considered a tzaddik. That means "Va'amech kulam tzaddikim." Every Jew is a tzaddik. So, since every Jew is a tzaddik and Hashem will not let a Jew fall, so therefore, Hashem has to give everybody everything. He's not going to let you fall as in spiritual everything he has to give you. So, in the discourse, the Rebbe Maharash asked, "If that's the case, how come so many people are falling? How come so many people are struggling?" And in the discourse, the Rebbe Maharash answered very very simple. And he said, "The reason why is not because chash v'shalom God forbid Hashem is not giving us cuz Hashem will not let us fall. Hashem gave and gives us every single thing we need. If there's something we need, it's there, right there ready for you." "Nu, so how come I don't see it?" And the Rebbe Maharash And this is a chassidic discourse, so it's divine prophecy. The Rebbe Maharash said, "The reason why we don't see it, not because it's not there. It's there. The problem is because we're lacking in bitachon." And when you're lacking in bitachon, the example he gives, it's like you have We all have We actually We live in the countries where we have water in our house. How do you get the water? All you have to do is you open the faucet, providing you paid your water bill. But if you have We all have water in our house. And you all you have to do is open the faucet. So, if I ask you, "Is there water in your house?" For sure there's water in it. And the Rebbe Maharash said the same thing also. Everything we need is there, right there. Everything we have. The problem is that when we're lacking in bitachon, when we're lacking in trusting Hashem, we're keeping the faucet closed. And by opening the faucet, which means practically by having bitachon, we'll open up the faucet and we'll see all the blessings and the and all the miracles and everything that we need, from the smallest to the biggest things. So, in other words, the Rebbe Maharash is saying in a very simple level, a Jew and every single person, Hashem gives you everything you need. There's nothing that you need that's not there for you. Why you don't see it? You need a key. What's the key? Bitachon. If we have bitachon, if we have trust in Hashem, we're sure that Hashem loves us and not for a reason because we did this and we prayed and we studied and that's all external stuff. We Hashem loves us because Hashem said "Ahavti es chem amo Hashem." Hashem loves us just because. And if we believe that Hashem loves us just because, that is bitachon. And if and when we have the bitachon, we we will merit for the greatest blessings that each and every one of us need in a real revealed way. So, I just want to finish off saying, we all know that we're going through tough times. Everyone has their own challenges, whether it's personally, whether it's a family member. No one's belittling it. It's real challenges. However, we do have the key to create a flow of positive energy for ourselves, for our family, for our community. And as the Rebbe Maharash said, just work on opening up your bitachon. Just like just like walking over to the faucet and pulling the opening up the faucet and the water's going to start running. There's everything available for us. Bitachon is key. And when we activate bitachon, we will merit to see all the greatest blessings. And let's hope and and pray that we all merit to see this whole pandemic behind us and we're all able to be reunited again, not have to have classes behind a video and behind the screen, but be able to be connected once together. And more importantly, we connected together with Mashiach Tzidkeinu. We will all be in Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh. And may it happen speedily. Amen.