שער הביטחון 2

So, after we began to explain in the previous lesson the merit of a person who trusts in the Holy One, blessed be He, what the whole matter of trust in the Holy One is, is the peace of mind a Jew has in this regard—both in matters of the mind and in material matters. The moment a Jew knows that he trusts and relies on the Holy One, blessed be He, and that he has someone to lean on, and he doesn't do all the spiritual matters out of

fear and awe ( that the Holy One is now watching me, so I must do it and He demands it of me , I must perform Torah and mitzvot)— even when a person trusts in matters of Torah, mitzvot, and so on, it is much calmer, easier, and better for him to fulfill them. Rabbeinu Bahya continues and details for us: because if he does not trust in Hashem, he will trust in someone else, and whoever trusts in someone other than Hashem—Hashem removes His providence from him and

leaves him in the hands of the one he leans upon. On the face of it, that is a somewhat difficult statement to hear.

Yes. After all, we know, we study Chassidut, we know that in Chassidut it is explained and clarified by the Baal Shem Tov that the Holy One, blessed be He, never actually removes His providence from any Jew, ever, in any situation. Yes. So what is the meaning here?

That is how a person is by nature ; he is accustomed to leaning on something. He cannot live in uncertainty, in some kind of pressure. So he must lean on something—either on the Holy One, blessed be He, or on something else. And when a person chooses to trust in someone who is not the Holy One, blessed be He, meaning, he has, for example, a millionaire friend who he remembers told him that the moment he has a financial problem he should turn to him, and he will immediately transfer it to the bank and everything will be fine, and he will settle accounts with him later.

So what , what is that person actually doing? He is not trusting in the Holy One, blessed be He, that He will provide for him at that moment and fill his needs, and so on. He remembers in his head that he has a friend named Moshe, who once told him that he would immediately deposit all the money into his account, right. And then what does the Holy One, blessed be He, actually do?

He removes His providence from him. What does that mean? So, as we said, the Holy One, blessed be He, will never remove His providence from a Jew, but what is it? There is providence that is revealed, and there is providence that is hidden.

The moment a Jew chooses to lean on a flesh-and-blood human being and not on the Holy One, blessed be He, then suddenly the providence of the Holy One is hidden. All the life that a Jew has while trusting in the Holy One, blessed be He, is in the revealed, and a Jew can see the abundance that comes to him and the blessings, and so on. When he begins to trust in flesh and blood without the Holy One, he naturally begins to see that the providence is

hidden, and then he also realizes that Moshe, his friend, is a flesh-and-blood person, and suddenly he forgot the promise he made him and he cannot transfer all the money to him, and so on. A Jew can always turn back and return to the Holy One, blessed be He, but what then?

The Holy One, blessed be He, tells him: Listen, you rely on him? I will leave you in his hands for the meantime, yes. My providence will be there, but in hiding. That is our point for today.

Wishing everyone a Shabbat Shalom and good news.