194 - Emunah For YOU

We mentioned the Gemara in Sota, which states that a person who has sufficient provisions just for today, yet feels anxious about tomorrow's supplies, is considered a person of little faith. We also mentioned the Chofetz Chaim in Machanei Yisrael, Chapter 3, who writes that the foremost consideration of how much reward we will receive in the time of redemption is based on how much emunah we lived with. 

We furthermore spoke about the Vilna Gaon in Even Shleima, Chapter 3, who writes that emunah and bitachon are the core of the entire Torah, and one who commits severe transgressions but nevertheless excels in bitachon is better than one who does not transgress, but does not have bitachon. And we also spoke about the Ramban at the end of Parashat Bo, that states that the purpose of all the mitzvos, and in fact the only reason for Hashem creating us, is that we come to have emunah in Hashem. 

We spoke about how when we read Torah passages such as these that we've just quoted, it's important to realize that the Torah is teaching us Hashem's perspective, where we are supposed to aim at, but we should never feel disheartened by the fact that we are not holding by these levels, because Hashem does not expect us to be who we are not, but He does expect us to make our maximum effort. Nobody can know the true level of emunah and bitachon about the individual next to them, because we all have different makeups, different backgrounds, and many other factors that contribute to our personality that makes it impossible to see our true emunah and bitachon, and the only one that truly knows is Hashem Himself.

Our only job in this world that Hashem will truly judge us for, is are we making our maximum effort within our capabilities and potential to grow to our highest degree in emunah and bitachon. The Torah authorities make it very clear that emunah and bitachon is available to every single one of us, and when a person has thoughts such as, these ideas are very nice, but I guess relevant to very holy people, or people completely immersed in a life of Torah learning, and the like, those thoughts and ideas are really being planted by the yetzer hara, the evil inclination, because we are taught very clearly that to fulfill our mission in this world, to succeed in our emunah and bitachon, is available to every single one of us, regardless of our capabilities, regardless of our background, and regardless of all the other factors that might contribute to our lives. 

Sometimes when trying to succeed in our emunah endeavor, it can be disheartening, because I might feel like I'm continuing to fail, and feel anxious, even though I would like not to. I ideally would like to rely on Hashem more, but I'm just not able to. And again, let us remind ourselves of what many Torah commentaries teach, that the only reason Hashem decided to create the world in the first place, is just to give us pleasure. Hashem did not create this world to make it an impossible task to succeed. 

The opposite. He did make it a challenge, because as we've explained previously, if there is no challenge, we are not earning anything for ourselves. And Hashem desired that we earn our place for ourselves in the next world, by giving us a challenge with potential for both failure and success, we now have an opportunity to truly succeed, but Hashem is not going to make that task impossible. And the levels that we might be required to climb in order to achieve success will vary from individual to individual. Hashem knows our full makeups, and will certainly give us a fair challenge, only what is within our capabilities.

Every single one of us has the constant opportunity to make an effort to grow more and more in our emunah and bitachon each day. One way we can do so, as we've been discussing, is by constant exposure to the Torah ideas of emunah and bitachon via the many platforms available to us in today's day and age. And by doing so, that will also give us the opportunity to be able to be mindful and aware of these Torah ideas about emunah, to be able to apply them in a practical way throughout our day. When a difficult situation does arise, although my instinctive response might be to feel anxiety, and perhaps even at times to get angry, but the more we constantly expose ourselves to emunah and bitachon, the easier it will be to constantly live by their values.