614 - Transform Your Bitachon! (Part-51)

Guys, today we're moving forward, B’ezrat Hashem, to the next section that we're going to be discussing about Bitachon. We discussed in part one a bit of an introduction to what Bitachon is all about, going through numerous specifically chosen Torah sources that give us a nice introduction. Then we discussed in part two, numerous Torah sources that discuss what exactly the source for the mitzvah of Bitachon is. Before we move forward, B’ezrat Hashem, into the nitty-gritty details of how exactly we can apply Bitachon in our lives. We're going to be exploring in this section, part three, how important is Bitachon. And we begin today, B’ezrat Hashem, with the Beis HaLevi in his Kuntres Habitachon, right at the beginning.

 

Now before we even mention the words of the Beis HaLevi, I'd just like to highlight that this sefer, known as the classic essay of the Beis HaLevi on Bitachon, is something that's available in today's day and age in English and really easy to get our hands on. If it's not possible to get the sefer itself, then certainly online one can find very valuable resources that go through the sefer.

 

The Beis HaLevi writes right at the beginning - The obligation to have Bitachon is enumerated in so many pesukim that it is too many to count. And this is really a nice summary to what we discussed in the previous section, that although numerous commentaries outlined to us that Bitachon might be based on certain psukim in the Torah as the ultimate Torah source and obligation to have Bitachon in HaShem, but ultimately there are so many verses in the Torah that command us to have Bittachin. And as the Beis HaLevi opens his classic essay on Bitachon, he therefore does not even give a source for the mitzvah of Bitachon. He just says there are too many verses to count, I cannot even give you a source because it's too many.

 

And that is the bottom line about Bitachon. Bitachon is the foundation of all of Yiddishkeit, of all of Torah, of all of mitzvahs, something to internalize. Bitachon is the point of everything. So much so that there are verses left, right and center, commanding us to have Bitachon. The Beis HaLevi then goes on to say - And somebody who is lacking in Bitachon is committing a grave sin. It is important to read these words carefully and slowly and digest and internalize what we are being taught.

 

Bitachon is not an added benefit to bring in inner peace and calm and serenity into our lives. Of course it also does that and that it's an amazing fringe benefit. But rather the Beis HaLevi is teaching us, if somebody performs all the mitzvos beautifully and learns Torah and is trying his best to be a good Jew but does not have Bitachon, this is classified as a great sin. It's not something that is just an extra nice thing for the extra pious people to excel in. It is the foundation of Yiddishkeit to have Bitachon. In one line the Beis HaLevi has given us, the bottom line about Bitachon:

 

A. It is so foundational to the Torah that Hashem commands us about this mitzvah of Bitachon in so many verses that I'm not even going to begin to enumerate them to you because it's literally all over the place. And B. One who is lacking in Bitachon is committing a great sin. Bitachon is not an added part of our Yiddishkeit, it is the point and foundation of Yiddishkeit. So B’ezrat Hashem let's move forward in this journey about Bitachon and each one of us in our own way make our maximum effort to bring more and more Bitachon into our lives.