619 - Transform Your Bitachon! (Part-56)

We've been looking at some fascinating passages from the Vilna Gaon with regards to Bitachon, that the whole motive for Hashem giving us the Torah was ultimately for the sake of our placing our reliance in Him. This gives us real direction as to what Hashem truly desires from us. One might ask, what exactly is Bitachon? If I'm doing my best in learning Torah as well as doing my best in fulfilling the mitzvos, is that not the ultimate expression of Bitachon? Now there is no question that Emunah and Bitachon need to absolutely lead to making our maximum effort to learn Torah as much as we can, as well as to fulfill the mitzvos with all their intricacies to the best of our capacity, whilst at the same time it is super important to highlight that the expression of Emunah and Bitachon is not limited only to the learning of Torah and performance of mitzvos. It is much more vast.

 

The Vilna Gaon gave us an example here based on the Gemara, that if somebody is out of to the point that he has his last meal and he has no idea where he's going to get his meal from for tomorrow. Now one might say, this person is continuing to learn Torah and do his mitzvahs as best as he can, all he's doing wrong is worrying about where his parnassah is going to come from for tomorrow. The Vilna Gaon is teaching us that not only is that considered a sin, but that is ultimately the whole point of the Torah to get to a place where we don't worry because we're trusting in Hashem. This is so important to digest. Again, I'm not going to get there today, but I need to understand where am I aiming at heading. The whole point of the Torah is Emunah and Bitachon and as we've learned from previous passages, fear and worry and anxiety is ultimately the opposite of Emunah and Bitachon. Hashem has always looked after me and He'll certainly always continue to look after me.

 

We move now to the next Torah source that we're going to be looking at. The Ramban (Shemos 13:16), writes, “the purpose of all the mitzvos is that we should have Emunah in Hashem”. And continues the Ramban, “And the purpose of all the mitzvahs is that we should thank Hashem that He created us.” And again, we're seeing here examples that in a sense are not limited to the practices we have of the limitations of the mitzvos and Torah learning itself. As we've highlighted, and it's important to highlight it again and again, there's no question that learning Torah and performance of the mitzvos are of paramount importance and anyone who's serious about Emunah and Bitachon will certainly be doing their best to excel in Torah and mitzvos, whilst at the same time, the world of Emunah and Bitachon is way larger than Torah learning and performance of mitzvos itself.

 

As we saw in the previous passage, to get to a level to not worry about tomorrow, even if I'm in trouble and have no idea where my provisions are going to come from. Although that's not fulfilling any particular mitzvah, but that is a very important expression of Emunah. We've learned previously from Rabbeinu Yonah and others that when one fears, that is ultimately the antithesis of Bitachon. And here we're learning in the Ramban that the point of all mitzvahs is that we should come to thank Hashem for creating us. So certainly we should do all the mitzvos and treat them with highest priority to fulfill all the intricacies, whilst at the same time to realize that the purpose of all the mitzvos is to thank Hashem, because that's one of the main expressions of Emunah in Hashem.

 

And continues the Ramban, “And this is the purpose of creation, because there's no other reason for Hashem creating the world in the first place.” The purpose of the world is Emunah and Bitachon. There is no shortage of potent and powerful Torah sources that explore the topics of Emunah and Bitachon. We are just exploring a few here to give us the right direction of where we're supposed to be aiming, of how powerful Emunah and Bitachon is, how much emphasis we're supposed to be placing in our journey of Emunah and Bitachon. B’ezrat Hashem, let's continue this incredible journey together about Emunah and Bitachon and transform our lives.