There are two main reasons why many people who have Emunah don’t live their daily lives with bitachon, which would rid them of all stress:
1. Many people believe in the Torah and Chazal completely, however, they are not clear as to what chazal have taught us regarding the ways Hashem runs the world. This is especially so regarding bitachon. Why? For, though we know Hashem runs the world, we also know that one may not rely upon miracles and must perform hishtadlus, acting according to the natural order of the world. If he does not, he can in fact fail at attaining what he seeks due to this. This seeming contradiction confuses many people, leading them to a lack of bitachon.
2. Even once one clarifies how exactly Chazal define the roles of hishtadlus and bitachon in the way Hashem runs the world, this knowledge must be internalized in order for one to live his life based upon it. This presents an acute problem specifically in the area of bitachon. This is because, as the Rishonim teach us, that not everything we logically believe in our mind do we internalize in our heart. A human being internalizes knowledge based upon his actions. You may know something to be true, however, the more you act upon that knowledge, the more you will internalize it and the more you act in contradiction to that knowledge the less it will be internalized. This presents an acute problem especially in the area of bitachon as we will see upon analysis of the ways Hashem runs His world.
Therefore, there are two prerequisites to reaching bitachon:
1. Clarifying what Chazal teach us regarding the roles of hishtadlus and bitachon in how Hashem runs His world.
2. Find a way that our actions of hishtadlus help us internalize what we know to be its true role in the attainment of what we seek as opposed to internalizing the opposite.
Next week we will attempt to clarify what Chazal teach us regarding the roles of hishtadlus and bitachon in how Hashem runs His world.
Other parts to this series: Inspiration in Bitachon
