Chovos Halevavos: Shaar haBitachon #1

Okay, so we'll begin B'ezrat Hashem the Sha'ar HaBitachon, at least the Psichat Sha'ar HaBitachon. B'li neder, we will come back to some of the inyanim in the previous shearim as well. Rabbenu Bahya begins by listing the various to'aliyos of bitachon. He begins by saying

מהם מנוחת נפשו בטחונו על אלקיו יתברך כמו שהעבד חייב לבטוח על אדוניו לפני שאם איננו בוטח באלקים בוטח בזולתו. ומי שבוטח בזולת השם מסיר אלקים השגחתו מעליו ומניח אותו ביד מי שבטח עליו.

He begins, it seems almost circular, almost like a tautology. He says that the to'alas of bitachon is having bitachon. But he immediately clarifies what he means by that is that if a person doesn't have bitachon in the Ribbono Shel Olam, he has bitachon in something or someone else. And then he goes on to list, maybe he has bitachon in his own chochma, in his own koach, in his wealth, etc. So that's what he means that the to'alas of bitachon is that if a person has the first one he lists is that if a person has bitachon in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so it saves him from having bitachon in divrei shav v'hevel. Dehainu, in this area, and l'mayse the Chovos HaLevavos has this elsewhere as well. Maybe it's a shtikle yesod of his. So he says basically there isn't really any neutrality. You can't, right, Switzerland wasn't really neutral either, right? There isn't any neutrality. A person b'teva is a boteach. Dehainu, a person b'teva wants to feel secure. He wants to be secure in the present, he wants to be secure in the future. Ai, but lichora, so mi'meila that's what Rabbenu Bahya says, if a person's not being boteach b'Hashem, so besides the kiyum mitzvas asei she'bo in being boteach b'Hashem, there's a m'niya from negative. There's a m'niya from lo sa'asei as it were, because since a person b'teva is going to be boteach, if he's not boteach b'Hashem, again he's going to be boteach in himself, others, etc. Ai, but we'll taina that ha'chush me'id, you see people who aren't really ba'alei bitachon and they don't worry either. So generally when you see that, it's people who aren't really thinking. So you can't really bring any raya, you can't bring any stiras from that. But a person thinks, so then b'teva, again a person wants to feel secure. Either he looks to the Ribbono Shel Olam for that, or he looks to other things for that. Elsewhere Rabbenu Bahya has that this same idea of no neutrality he has it in other contexts as well. He says in terms of basically whenever a person, how a person spends his time. So we generally sort of divide life into, so there's a person can be spending his time in mitzvos, a person rachmana litzlan can be spending his time in aveiros, or a person can be in the neutral zone. So the Chovos HaLevavos says that's not really true. He says a person is supposed to use his time to the best of his ability, so... So if a person is relaxing because he needs to relax, so it's a mitzvah. If a person is relaxing but he doesn't need to relax, so it's not neutral even though he's not doing anything which is intrinsically objectionable while he's relaxing. But if he doesn't need the he already relaxed whatever he needs to to refresh himself and and energize himself. So there's no no neutrality there also. Important important yesod in to to make the most out of life. It's important to recognize that. Rabbeinu Bachaye says that מי שבוטח בזולת ה׳ when a person places his bitachon. You have the same idea again of of that a person's going to be boteach. The question is in whom, in what. You have it in other contexts also, not here I guess you could interpret it psychologically if if you want. In other contexts, not psychological context, like lichora the pshat in the Mishna in Pirkei Avos is that

כל המקבל עליו עול תורה מעבירין ממנו עול דרך ארץ.

And if a person is porek ol Torah, so then ol derech eretz is imposed upon him. So the pshat there too again, not in a psychological sense, more in a let's say metaphysical sense, is that Adam l'amal yulad. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu created that a person is supposed to bear an ol. A person is supposed to carry an ol. So to the degree that a person is mekabel ol Torah, so then to that degree Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't need to impose upon him ol derech eretz. To the degree that the person doesn't assume, to the degree that a person rachmana litzlan is porek ol Torah, then to that degree Hakadosh Baruch Hu imposes upon him all all ol derech eretz. On a metaphysical level the the same. Chovos HaLevavos continues that

מי שבוטח בזולת ה׳ מסיר אלוקים השגחתו מעליו ומניחו ביד מי שבטח עליו.

That there is a midda kineged midda which operates here as well. That to the degree that a person doesn't trust in in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's hashgacha, so to that degree Hakadosh Baruch Hu takeh withdraws that hashgacha and doesn't and doesn't protect him. The way the Chovos HaLevavos presents it, he seems to present it sort of in very broad strokes. Seemingly almost all or nothing. If a person has bitachon then there is hashgacha, if a person doesn't have bitachon, there isn't hashgacha. Pashtus is he means what other sefarim talk about, Rav Dessler has this in in for instance in Michtav Me'Eliyahu, that it's not only that but it's to the degree that a person has bitachon so to that degree a person is mushgach, has has a special individualized hashgacha from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So it's not an all or nothing, but the midda kineged midda is very very specific. Shailah is whether or not the whether this ever translates literally halacha l'maaseh. Literally halacha l'maaseh. Can can a person ever ever say that even though it seems like it's a sofek whether to fast on Yom Kippur, he has bitachon he's going to do it. Does it ever translate halacha l'maaseh? So so there is I think in the biography from the Chazon Ish there there is a... I think that the context was, I'm not positive, but maybe double check this. I think the context was that it was during the war of independence in Eretz Yisrael and it was a question of when there was of turning out lights on Friday night that it should not be a target for the Arab planes flying overhead to bomb but that should in wartime. So there's, that's why there's blackouts in wartime not to provide targets for the enemy planes. So I think it's in that context that the Chazon Ish was saying that was quoted as saying that if a person has bitachon and he's not worried then then he doesn't turn the lights off. Doesn't turn the lights off. L'chora, what's pshat? Ma? So l'chora it's as follows. L'chora even according to the Chazon Ish, there's two types of cases when something will be treated as a safek nefashos and when you have to be mechallel Shabbos, mechallel Yom Kippur, have to do everything. One is when the safek is very well-defined, even to the degree of being roughly quantified. Meaning the doctors can tell us that based on their experience, based on studies, whatever, so they can even quantify what the danger, what the relative danger is in such a case. The pashut is that when it's objective there, it's hard to see that the Chazon Ish thought that even in such a case that a person can say halacha l'maaseh well, the hashgacha is k'fi middas habitachon. No, the hashgacha is k'fi middas habitachon when the bitachon is appropriate. But if al pi din a person is mechuyav to be doing something, al pi din he's v'nishmartem me'od l'nafshoseichem, he's mechuyav not to be fasting, so then l'chora this whole yesod that the midah kineged midah between bitachon and hashgacha doesn't apply. There's another type of case where also mechallel Shabbos and mechallel Yom Kippur which is where you can't really define the safek. I mean you can't define it. Sometimes you can define a safek and say it's so remote it's not sakannas nefashos. And sometimes you can define the safek and say it's clearly very real enough that avadai it is safek nefashos. And sometimes you have a situation which doesn't lend itself to being defined, such as what are the odds if there's an indication that somewhere in the country there are going to be airplanes flying overhead or somewhere in the country to update the example, there's a missile flying overhead, so what are the odds? You can't quantify the odds. So lemaaseh there when you can't quantify the odds, so you also say that it's a safek. It's also a safek nefashos. There yitachen that that's where the Chazon Ish says a person has bitachon so then that can impact even the dinim of pikuach nefesh because there the whole definition of the safek is that v'choshesh, a person has bitachon he's not choshesh. They tell the story, I don't know, have to, I'll tell the story, I don't know what's pshat in the story, but they tell the story that the Satmar Rebbe once had a blood clot in his leg and so his doctors told him that it would be dangerous for him to dance by hakafos because they were afraid that that could cause the blood clot to move. Rachmana l'tzlan if it moves towards the heart. So as the story goes, without hesitating a moment, so the Satmar Rebbe said שמיני רגל בפני עצמו and that was his response. Okay. Chovos HaLevavos continues about the type of substitute sources. betachbulosov, koach gufo, v'hishtadlusov, the feeling of I'll take care of myself. Then it talks about אם יבטח ברוב עשרו. Then that a person sometimes the the substitute for the Ribono shel Olam, Rachmana litzlan, is a person's wealth. So we read this and it sounds like as though Rabbeinu Bachya is sort of drawing a caricature of someone. But the emes is maybe it takeh is that, but it's not so remote from modern sensibilities. It's a very big nisayon. It's a very big nisayon. A person has savings and a person has a retirement account and a person has - forget all the rashei teivos - all these different all these different accounts. It's very - it's a big nisayon not to slip into a mindset that that's where his that's where he feels his security lies for the future. That he's he's not worried, I'm not worried about when I get old, I'm not worried about when I have to retire because I have again I have this retirement account and these savings and that pension plan and not poshut at all to avoid slipping into that into that mindset. Now obviously the the implication is not that a person isn't supposed to isn't supposed to save. If the Ribono shel Olam gives him presently more than he needs, the implication is not that a person isn't supposed to save. Takeh it's it's a little bit of a complicated parsha in terms of how a person weighs giving more tzedaka towards towards saving. Not poshut at all. But again the implication of what we're saying is not that there's no such thing as as savings. I don't think that's the implication at all. It's clear from Chazal lichora that there is such a thing. המבזבז אל יבזבז יותר מחומש means well today I have enough. No, but maybe what you have today you're going to need tomorrow, you're going to need the next day. So it's not that there is no such thing, but a person has to be very, very careful not to do it in such a way that it translates into being boteiach b'rov oshro. b'rov oshro doesn't mean that a person has to have 10 million dollars to be susceptible to this nisayon. No, a person can again just be boteiach again in more modest sums also. A person has to make sure that that it's only b'geder hishtadlus and and that it's not a source of security, that it's not a source of bitachon. There's a Gemara in Taanis, not in Aggadita, it's in a in a context of halacha. The Gemara darshens the pasuk - how's the pasuk go? באסמיך ובכל משלח ידך? What's the beginning of the pasuk? u'veirachecha something באסמיך? It doesn't go exactly like that. u'v'chol mishlach yadecha... יצו ה' אתך את הברכה באסמיך. Yeah, shkoach, thank you. So the Gemara says like this. The Gemara has a din that הנכנס למוד את גרנו. A person is coming to the threshing floor and he's going to begin ich veis collecting and and calculating what yield there was from the crop. So he's supposed to there's a tefilla he's supposed to say:

יהי רצון מלפניך ה' אלוקינו שתשלח ברכה במעשה ידינו. מדד ואחר כך בירך,

but let's say first he's already he's piled up and tallied up what the yield has been from this year's harvest. מדד ואחר כך בירך, this is Ches in Beza and Taanis. Hareizu t'fillah shav

לפי שאין הברכה מצויה לא בדבר השקול, לא בדבר המדוד, ולא בדבר המנוי, אלא בדבר הסמוי מן העין.

So m'akeva, this is a din, not a, this is a din. And it's not saying that the only time for the t'fillah is before you plant. No, this is after the harvest. I mean objectively it's all the same. The difference is whether I just have all this wheat but I don't really know how much I have because it's not yet modud, monui, or shakul. And therefore it's samui min ha'ayin in the sense that I don't really know what's there. So then it's appropriate to say a t'fillah. But after it's modud, monui, or shakul, so then it's t'fillah shav because אין הברכה מצויה אלא בדבר הסמוי מן העין. What does this mean? So the Meor Einayim says basically along these lines. He says once it's modud, monui, and shakul, he says when you get your bank statement every month and you see that you have so much here, so much there, so much there, so then what happens is that the bitachon's not in the Ribbono Shel Olam, the bitachon's in the bank statement because after all look how much I have in my account and it's all federally federally insured so it's as the saying goes, it's money in the bank, right? So then a person's going to be drawn into that mindset, so where's the room for a bracha? A person's not being boteiach b'Hashem, so there's not going to be bracha. Exactly this idea from the Chovos HaLevavos. As long as it's samui min ha'ayin, so then a person doesn't I don't know exactly what he has. He has something, he doesn't know what he has. He doesn't know if it's going to be enough, it's not going to be enough, so then he still toleh bitachono b'Hashem, so then there can be bracha. Chovos HaLevavos continues another one of the to'aliyos of bitachon:

שהבוטח באלהים יביאנו הבטחתו עליו שלא יעבוד זולתו ושלא יקוה לאיש ולא ייחל לבני אדם ולא יעבדם להתרצות אליהם ולא יחניף להם ולא יסכים עמהם בבלתי עבודת אלהים ולא יפחידהו ענינם ולא יירא ממחלקתם אבל יתפשט מבגדי טובתם וטרח הודאתם וחובת גמולם.

That if a person's a ba'al bitachon he's independent. He doesn't have to chanef for people. He's not afraid to do what's right, to say what's right. He's not worried about what his boss thinks, what his boss doesn't think, he does what's right. It's also a big can also be a big nisayon in the workplace. In the workplace when you have to submit billable hours that the company then passes on to the client, so obviously the more hours the more money the more revenue the company's going to earn. So if one's superior in the corporate hierarchy isn't straight as he should be so there can be pressure to generate more billable to list more billable hours than there actually were. And a person can feel that his parnassa is at stake and it's a nisayon, it's a nisayon. So the Rabbeinu Bachya says so if a person's a ba'al bitachon he knows that the parnassa comes from the Ribbono Shel Olam and there's no way that if the Ribbono Shel Olam wants him to have parnassa that he's going to lose his parnassa over this. He'll lose his job over it, the Ribbono Shel Olam will send him parnassa through some other channels. When we forget that who the source of parnassa is, so then it can become a very scary proposition to buck the boss. So then it can become a very scary proposition to, to buck the boss is not, is not poshut. It's a scary proposition. And then Chovot HaLevavot has a, he describes how the differences between the Ba'al Bitachon's sense of security and that of an alchemist. Right? An alchemist, that they, they believed was able to convert different types of metals, cheaper, inferior types of metals that eichshehu he was able to convert them into silver, gold, into precious metals. And because of that, so because of that, that skill, that chochma that he had, so he was sort of the paradigm of someone who could have self, self-assurance. So Rabbeinu Bachya sort of uses that as a foil again to explain what, what real bitachon is and lists ten differences between the ba'al hakimiya, the alchemist, and, and the ba'al bitachon. He says, difference number one, he says the alchemist still needs certain raw materials to ply his, his trade and he won't necessarily always have them. By contrast,

הבוטח באלהים טרפו מובטח לו מכל סיבה מסיבות העולם. כמו שאמר הכתוב למען הודיעך כי לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם וגומר. כי הסיבות אינן נבצרות ממנו בכל עת ובכל מקום כאשר ידעת מדבר אליהו עם העורבים ועם האשה אלמנה

etcetera. So a person has bitachon, has bitachon doesn't depend upon any physical prop. Bitachon is something a person can and always should have. It's interesting, according to the Chovot HaLevavot so the pshat in the pasuk

למען הודיעך כי לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם כי על כל מוצא פי השם יחיה האדם

is not that a person can't survive only on bread but also needs mazon nafshi, but also needs spiritual sustenance. It's quite clear that Rabbeinu Bachya is saying the correct pshat in the pasuk is כי לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם that meaning even physical survival, don't think that physical survival depends upon lechem. It's not true. Physical survival doesn't depend upon lechem. There can be no food in sight, but כי על כל מוצא פי השם יחיה האדם as long as HaKadosh Baruch Hu will be gozer. Again, it's not just meaning that a person can't live on bread alone, so we think it means he needs bread and peanut butter. We think it means that he needs bread and has to learn and has to and v'chulu v'chulu. So Chovot HaLevavot says no, a person doesn't need bread at all, it means לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם. That's not the only source of life, not that that's not the only thing a person needs. That's not the only source of life. The real source of life is the מוצא פי דבר השם and that's what he's illustrating with Eliyahu with the orvim and with Ovadia hiding the, all the nevi'im in, in the cave. The other important point here just to reflect upon a little bit. When he says that הבוטח באלהים טרפו מובטח לו מכל סיבה מסיבות העולם that bitachon isn't dependent upon any, on the presence of any particular or specific natural or physical cause. So l'ma'aseh this also, again, you read it, it seems, yeah, obviously. But one reflects in real life, so its implementation is not always so obvious. When you think about it, a lot of time when we have bitachon... So we have bitachon because we have a certain plan or we see a certain range of options and we see, oh, ain hachi nami I'm short on money, but I own these, these shares and stock so maybe the dividend will be, will be higher, will be higher this month. It's getting close to the end of the year, so maybe I'll get an end of the year bonus. Our bitachon is that we sort of identify the, the natural avenues and channels that exist. And we have bitachon, it's okay, it is a madreiga of bitachon, but it's bitachon that the Ribono Shel Olam is going to send, he's going to send the, the delivery through these. But when that's the bitachon and then we don't really see any channels, we don't see any avenues, so then, so then that can then our bitachon can be tested. And what the Chovos Halevavos says is that what we have to work on is that again, if there's hishtadlus to be made, so then a person makes hishtadlus along the avenues that, that, that are there. But when there's no hishtadlus to be made, when there's no siba misibos ha'olam that look there, so a person is still supposed to have bitachon. A person has to be careful that all along when when those sibos ha'olam exist, that again, it shouldn't be a combination, it shouldn't be I have bitachon in this and of these various things, one of them is going to bear fruit. Again, either that my stock will go up or I'll get the end of the year bonus or, or, or I'll have to work overtime and, and get paid time and a half or the bitachon shouldn't be that one of these things is going to materialize, the bitachon's in the Ribono Shel Olam. And then the second, the second of the differences that the Chovos Halevavos draws between the Ba'al Hakimiah and, and the Ba'al Bitachon is that the Ba'al Hakimiah apparently, whatever they used to do to, as part of their trade to try to convert the metals, so they used to release all kinds of fumes. And he says that

אפשר שימיתוהו ריחם ועשנם עם השמדת העבודה ואורך היגיעה בהם לילה ויומם.

All kinds of fumes which over the course of time can, can kill them. By contrast, הבוטח באל בבטחה מהפגעים. One who, who trusts in Hakadosh Baruch Hu is, is secure from, from mishaps, ולבו בטוח ממצא הרעות and and he's, he's confident, he's secure that bad won't befall him. So what does that mean? It means that people don't get sick? It means a person who's a ba'al bitachon never gets sick? So apparently not, that's not what the Chovos Halevavos is telling us. וכל אשר יבואנו מאת האלוקים יהיה לו לששון ולשמחה. So the meforshim explain here that what what the Chovos Halevavos means to develop the idea in this line is when he says that a person is bebitcha mehapga'im and לבו בטוח ממצא הרעות, again, that he's secure, he's safe from, from mishap and, and he can be confident from being safe from, from any bad, it doesn't mean that, doesn't mean that the person is immune to illness or anything of the sort. What it means is, that won't be a pega, if that happens, it won't be, he knows it won't be a pega, it won't be a mishap, it won't be something ra, it will be כל דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד. Or in other words, the, the way the meforshim explain this line here in the Chovos Halevavos, it's like, you know, what's, what's very famous beshem the Chazon Ish. He says that people make a, a fundamental error when it comes to bitachon, that they think that if only a person has bitachon, so vet zein gut, meaning that it will be good on, on our terms, according to what we define as, as good. If only a person has enough bitachon, so then the Ribono Shel Olam's going to do what I want. And the Chazon Ish says... What it means if a person has bitachon and vet zein gut, it means that whatever Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to do will be good. It's not that it's going to be good according to my definition of good. So that's what the way the meforshim explain it. That's what the Chovos HaLevavos is saying here. That a person is batuach that there's not going to be any ra. But then he turns around and says וכל אשר יקרהו מאת האלוקים יהיה לו לששון ולשמחה, meaning and even if it would be what sort of from a secular perspective would have been classified as ra, it won't be because since he has bitachon, so he knows that nothing is happening accidentally, incidentally and that since כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד, so that's why יהיה לו לששון ולשמחה. Again, it's easy to grasp intellectually, it's an avodah to be able to feel it when a person has what he experiences as adversity, setbacks, yissurim Rachmana l'tzlan. K'mo shekasuv בנאות דשא ירביצני על מי מנוחות ינהלני. So presumably the raya is that David HaMelech didn't have what we would describe as a tranquil life. So what's pshat בנאות דשא ירביצני על מי מנוחות ינהלני? So it means that all of David HaMelech's tefillos and all of the suffering notwithstanding but simultaneously was also na'os deshe and mei menuchos. Okay, maybe we'll continue here.