CHOCHMAS NASHIM: TRUSTING THE KING
By: Suri Davis
This year, my focus is on Bitachon/Trust in G-d. I started podcasting my first podcast, Be Bitachon on Spotify, after losing two very close relatives.
Honestly, I read Shaar Habitachon by Rabbi Bachya Ibn Pekudah four times this year, because I felt resistance to his concepts of just how much one has to give it over to HKBH. I want to share some of the highlights as we enter Rosh Hashanah, the holiday we re-coronate G-d as our king every year.
Work: It is merely a spigot, a pipe through which G-d provides to us. On Rosh Hashanah we ask G-d to turn on the spigot generously for the entire year. The author tells us that G-d allocates to us an allotment of goodness between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the form in which that goodness comes down to us, whether by having children or parnassa or other kinds of goodness depends on how much we devote ourselves to G-d during the year.
Work is also a test for us. Will we stay within the confines of Jewish law with regards to ethics on our job, ensuring that we prioritize Shabbos and other Jewish holidays etc. In the early 1900s it was a great challenge to keep Shabbos and one’s job.
When we profit from our job, do we allocate it to our own might and smarts, or do we know that it is a direct blessing from G-d. Work also uses up our time, so we don’t have time to physically sin, or use our minds to frivolously ponder what G-d does and why in a manner which challenges our observance of Jewish law.
Are we angry that competition pops us which makes us feel that our income is challenged or threatened, or do we understand that G-d is omnipotent, and can provide for each person without taking from another.
For those who don’t need to work because they don’t need to be tested as they have proven to G-d that they are devoted to him, and as to those who have shown G-d that they use their free time in avodat Hashem/doing good deeds, G-d can provide for them without their own effort, e.g., inheritance, lottery etc.
Theodicy: Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper? First, we are limited in our knowledge of people, we do not know what goes on behind closed doors, nor in people’s minds, therefore we do not know if a person is truly righteous or wicked, only G-d knows.
We don’t know if what a person gets is good or bad. For instance, we can say that when a person wins a lottery, that is good, but it might be a person’s downfall, he might end up in jail for doing something wrong with his money
Additionally, I had a friend who moved into his home and that very week, his water main burst, his home flooded. It appeared to be bad. He collected insurance money and was able to redo his entire home with the money. He had intended to renovate, and it would have been out of pocket for him, ultimately, home insurance paid for it all.
We trust that all is good because it comes from g-d. What we ask from g-d, is that we receive revealed good, that good which appears to man to be good as well.
We don’t know a person’s past. A person who is righteous now, might need challenges in this world as punishment so he receives a greater reward in the world to come.
A person who appears to be wicked, might have been righteous in the past, and he is being rewarded for those prior actions. He might also receive good now as a test to determine whether he can do better, or he might receive money not for his own pleasure but because he has a righteous child who can inherit him.
Sometimes well-regarded people in the community suffer so they can be a role model to those around them on how to accept suffering with love and devotion to G-d.
I have spent many hours trying to understand our Father in Heaven, my avodah on a daily basis is simply to know and trust that all is for the good and G-d, who is Eternal has our backs. On Rosh Hashana we sit in shul and ask G-d for what we need, or what we perceive we need. In truth, G-d knows better than we, what we need. As our children want cotton candy and sugar a whole day for it pleases them, we know they can’t function without spinach and milk and other necessities, which might not taste as sweet, but ultimately better for us.
May G-d answer your prayers only for the revealed good. May He answer our communal prayers by bringing Moshiach/Messiah, speedily in our days.
May you be inscribed in the Book of Life.
-Suri