שער הביטחון - שיעור 3

Good afternoon, in the following lines Rabbeinu Bachya will explain to us and give us a few verses. >> The first verse is from Jeremiah and it starts like this. He wants to nullify the idea for us that someone who trusts in God... >> Must trust only in the Holy One, blessed be He, and no one else.

Okay, and from which verses does he prove this? Where does he bring this from? In Jeremiah it is written: That person who trusts in something other than God is in the category of those about whom it is said : "For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew them out cisterns, broken cisterns." Water symbolizes Divine pleasure for us , and in this verse the prophet actually rebuked the people of Israel for leaving their source of living waters. What is the source of living waters?

It is the Holy One, blessed be He. So they took their connection with the Holy One , blessed be He, and took it from somewhere else, from a broken place. And it said: "And they exchanged their glory for the likeness of an ox that eats grass." When was this? At the event of the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, the people of Israel literally saw Divinity tangibly.

And after that uplifting experience, we remember what happened there, that they essentially exchanged the glory of the Holy One, blessed be He. What did they do? A calf. An ox that eats grass.

Yes. So, in fact, another verse that emphasizes to us that they went to another source that is not the Holy One , blessed be He. Okay? He gives another verse.

And the scripture said: "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord will be his trust." Yes, it is also written in Jeremiah, we all know it . When a Jew trusts in the Holy One, blessed be He, he is automatically blessed. Okay? Automatically, he is blessed.

Meaning he receives the blessing of the Holy One, blessed be He . And what does he merit? That the Lord will be his trust. What does he want to say?

Just as he trusts in Him, so the Holy One, blessed be He, will be his security and help in all the matters he needs. Okay? And he said: "Happy is the man whom the Lord is his trust, and who has not turned to the proud and to those who follow lies." Yes. From what does true happiness come to us?

From the trust in the Holy One, blessed be He. "Proud"( Rehavim) comes from the root of pride and arrogance. When a Jew turns to those people out of a desire to reach them, and as if to draw strength from them, and these are the same people who are full of pride: "Yes, I have a livelihood to give you, I have money, etc.," and he goes and puts his trust in that Jew, then actually the Holy One, blessed be He, as we said in the previous chapter, the Holy One, blessed be He, continues to watch over him, only with providence that is not open, hidden providence. What does that mean?

He is under providence. There is no such thing as a Jew not being under the providence of the Holy One, blessed be He. But what does the Holy One, blessed be He, tell him? You are currently going to that arrogant person who is supposedly proud of what?

Of the money that the Holy One, blessed be He, ultimately gave him. Yes? So I am putting you in the hands of that person , and you deal with it. I want to see if you can manage, now see if you can manage.

>> Okay. That is also power. >> Yes. >> Control.

>> Power. Yes. True. True.

No, I need to talk. >> And he said: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and his heart turns away from the Lord. " Unlike someone who trusts in the Holy One, blessed be He, one who trusts in man is automatically cursed. Yes, he who trusts in man is cursed, and naturally, as soon as a person is cursed, his heart forgets the Holy One, blessed be He.

And he who relies on his own counsel and schemes—a person who thinks he is an expert in every area of life, and has vast experience in economics and every field of life. Yes. And relies on his physical strength and his own efforts, not just regarding intellectual matters, but also his physical fitness and everything else. He is abandoned by God to his own devices.

The Holy One, blessed be He, as if says to him, "You rely on yourself? Please, manage with your own powers, as it were, without Me." Once again, in concealment. And then what is the result ? The result that will come straight to any person who goes in this way is that his toil will disappoint him and his ability will weaken.

That exertion and that intellectual and physical effort—he effectively builds up certain expectations for himself. Yes, he trusts only in himself—yes, in his power, his intellect, in everything, in his relationship, in everything—and the Holy One, blessed be He, is not in the story. So what happens? That goal he set for himself, that expectation, he will not reach it.

Those results he expected to reach and his own abilities—he will realize that he is actually not that smart and not that strong in this sense and that sense , and his counsel will fail to achieve what he sought. All the pool of ideas that person had in his head began to dwindle little by little, and he will not succeed in achieving what he wanted. Suddenly, what becomes clear to him? That all those capabilities, all those intellectual abilities, and the maneuvering he thought he could do, and all sorts of things he thought were right for his life— So what do we discover?

That they are actually useless and they do not yield the results he expected them to yield. Just as the scripture says, "He catches the wise in their craftiness." Meaning, without assistance from above from the Holy One, blessed be He, from the divine power, the wise man is ensnared and fails by his own mistakes. A person is, after all, flesh and blood; he is not the Holy One, blessed be He, he is not a divine power. A flesh-and-blood person makes mistakes.

He is not an angel. Therefore, as soon as he lacks assistance from above, he falls into the trap of his own mistakes. And with the help of God, tomorrow we will continue with the rest of the verses.