We discussed in the past that although the basic level of bitachon is living our emunah, as the pasuk states regarding bitachon, “And the Tzaddik by his beliefs will live,” (Vilna Gaon) most people who believe that Hashem is the Sole Decider of their fate still have a difficult time living constantly based upon that feeling. We discussed two basic reasons for this:
1. We are required to perform hishtadlus, which means that throughout our day we are performing actions that, on a very simple level, seemingly contradict our emunah that Hashem alone decides our fate.
2. Exactly what the actual effect of our hishtadlus is on our destiny is an unclear topic. For example, we know that everything is decided on Rosh Hashanah, however, if one just lies in bed his business will not succeed.
To counter these issues, we said that while one is performing hishtadlus throughout the day he must constantly remind himself why he is doing so, i.e. just to fulfill his obligation of hishtadlus. This is necessary because it is prohibited to rely on a miracle, and by doing so one can potentially change for the worse the good that was already decreed upon him on Rosh Hashanah. By doing the above we not only counter the negative effects of acting in a way that seemingly counters our emunah, we also strengthen our bitachon throughout the day.
Since bitachon is, as the Vilna Gaon states, “The main reason Hashem gave the Torah to Klal Yisroel,” besides for the ways which we can counter the negative influences of hishtadlus, the Torah and Chazal have also provided us with all-powerful methods to constantly strengthen our ability to live our emunah. In the following weeks we will discuss some of them.
Other parts to this series: Inspiration in Bitachon
