Do You Really TRUST GOD? Understanding Bitachon in Judaism

Back in 1999, David Rosmarin was a sophomore in university here in Toronto. Academic stress and social pressures eventually led to frayed nerves and growing anxiety. It got to the point where he had difficulty falling asleep at night. David considered going to a doctor to get some drugs to deal with his anxiety and his insomnia. He also spoke about his difficulties to a rabbi that he studied with each week. Without responding, the rabbi left the room and went to photocopy some pages from a book. David later recounted how these 61 pages changed his life. They were a chapter from a book written about a thousand years ago called Duties of the Heart, Chovot HaLevavot, and the chapter that was given to him was entitled the Shahr HaBitachon, the Gate of Trust. The rabbi advised David to study this text for about 10 to 15 minutes each night before he went to sleep and to carefully contemplate what he had read. And David later wrote about his experience. He said, to my surprise, within eight weeks, not only was I able to fall asleep without difficulty, but my anxiety had almost completely vanished. Even more remarkable was that the improvement in my psychological state had occurred despite the fact that none of the anxiety-producing factors in my life had disappeared. In actuality, at this later period of time, I was facing a grueling exam schedule, worse social challenges than before, and I remained completely uncertain about my future. What had changed, though, was my attitude toward my difficulties and toward life in general. I had increased my level of trust in God and had gained the spiritual abilities and tools necessary to navigate through the world of anxiety. In the same way that a medical patient faithfully places themselves in the hands of a highly skilled and competent physician, I had come to realize that the events of my life were ultimately controlled by God's highly capable hands, and that at the end of the day, I had little to worry about. This ancient piece of Jewish wisdom elucidated a method of eliminating human anxiety based upon spiritual wisdom. Trust in God, which is called in Hebrew, is an extension of the idea of faith. Faith, or emunah in Hebrew, is primarily intellectual. It is the belief and the knowing that God is the creator of all that exists. However, trust goes beyond this. Trust is relying on God in your life. This is more of an emotional experience, not so intellectual. Faith in God is somewhat intellectual. Based upon my mind and my reasoning, I know that there's a creator. I know the world is not here by accident, but that doesn't mean that a person will necessarily place their trust and rely on God. This is a more emotional, psychological step where a person feels that they are able to rely on God. There are people who believe in God. They believe God exists, but they don't live with trust in God. There's a popular party game where you stand with your back to someone and they're behind you with their hands outstretched, and the idea is that you're supposed to fall backward into their waiting arms and they're going to catch you. Now, you may know that there is someone standing behind you, but that fact doesn't mean necessarily that they will catch you if you fall backward. How much trust do you have that this person is going to catch you? Do you feel totally comfortable falling back and letting go? So, you will know because you just saw the person walk behind you. You know there's someone there. That's faith. That's emunah. But would you put your life into their hands? Will you rely on them? Will you trust them to catch you? That is called bitachon. The author of Duties of the Heart was Rabbi Bachia ibn Pakuda, and in his introduction to the gate of trust, he writes the following. He says, among the benefits of trusting in God are the following, a heart at rest, freedom from worldly cares, a tranquil spirit, a sense of calm, security, and peace. And he quotes Jeremiah chapter 17 verses 7 to 8. Blessed or fortunate is the person who trusts in God. God will be their refuge. They will be like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream. Rabbi Yitzhak Zev Salaveitchik, who was born in 1886, was known as the Brisker Rav, very great Torah sage. And when he got married, his wealthy father-in-law wanted to free him from financial worries so he'd be able to dedicate himself fully to study of Torah. And what was the generous gift that his father-in-law gave him? It was an entire block of real estate in Warsaw. Now the rabbi didn't want the headache of having to manage all of these properties, so he hired a property manager to take care of all the real estate. Then World War I broke out and the Brisker Rav had to flee. When the war was over, he returned to Warsaw, but he couldn't find the property manager anywhere. The rabbi went to the Department of Records and discovered that the property manager had forged his signature, had transferred the titles of all of the property into his own name, and left all of the buildings for his own children to manage. The Brisker Rav was swindled out of all his property and was now penniless. What did he do? He took out his copy of the Duties of the Heart and he opened the gate of trust and he studied it ten times until he knew it virtually by heart. And then he said the following, until now I thought that a wealthy person is someone who owns a block of real estate in Warsaw, but now I know that a truly wealthy person is someone who is fluent in the gate of trust. This chapter will bring him peace of mind, serenity, tranquility, and happiness. Now there is this general idea of trusting in God that we find throughout the Bible. For example, King David says in Psalm 55 verse 23, cast your burden upon the Lord and he will sustain you. Now exactly how is this understood? How is this understood that we trust in God? What is going to happen when you trust in God? And this is the subject of extensive discussion among our Torah sages over the centuries. Rabbi Abraham Yeshayahu Karoletz, who is better known as the Hazonish, he lived in Israel, he died in 1953. He wrote a book entitled, Emunah V'Bitachon, Faith and Trust. And he took issue with the way many people understood the topic of V'Bitachon, the topic of trust. And he writes the following, there is an old misconception rooted in the hearts of many when it comes to the concept of trusting in God. The term has mistakenly become a term to describe the obligation to believe that in any situation a person finds himself in where they face an uncertain future with two possibilities, one good and the other not so good, that surely the good outcome will be the one to occur. If one is doubtful and fears that the negative possibility may occur, he is considered to be lacking in trust. The rabbi says this understanding of trust is not correct. For as long as the future has not been revealed through prophecy, the future is not decided. Who knows God's judgments and rewards? No, trusting in God is not that, but rather it's the belief that nothing happens by chance and that everything that occurs under the sun is a result of a decree of the Almighty. So he's explaining that V'Bitachon is not some Pollyanna-ish view that whatever happens to me, it's going to work out, it's going to be great. He says not necessarily. What happens to you may not be what you're hoping for, but it's what God has determined. There was a disciple of the Chazanish who ran a small printing company in B'nai Brak in Israel, and one day someone else opened up another printing company down the street. This disciple of the Chazanish went to visit the new business and welcomed him warmly into the neighborhood. He offered him advice on how to get the business off the ground, he offered him help with any spare parts if the machinery would break down, and he generously said, I'd be happy to share my customer list with you. Now when this fellow's family found out about what he had done, they were shocked. How could you offer so much help to a competitor? He's going to end up taking away some of your business. And he turned to his family and he said, no, God determines every year on Rosh Hashanah, on the Jewish new year, exactly how much money each person is going to earn that year. This man is not able to diminish the amount that God has determined for me by even one cent. This person did not assume that his trust in God meant that his business would flourish. That's not necessarily what trust in God meant to him. It didn't mean that in the coming year he was necessarily going to do really well in business. His view was simply that God was in control and that his new competitor had no ability whatsoever to interfere with God's decree. And as a result, he did not stress. He lived with a wonderful inner peace in his life.