Suri: Shaar Habitachon: Love and Being Loved

LESSON 46:  THE SEVEN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A MAN WHO TRUSTS G-D FOR HIS LIVELIHOOD AND HE WHO DOESN’T TRUST G-D FOR HIS LIVELIHOOD. PART VI

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/el-dee/episodes/Sixth-Difference-Between-a-Man-Who-Trusts-in-G-d-and-a-Man-Who-Doesnt-Trust-in-G-d-e2p2pm6

 

In the last few classes, we discussed the seven differences between a man who trusts G-d for his livelihood, and he who doesn’t trust G-d for his livelihood.

One who trusts G-d for his livelihood:

  1. is always grateful;
  2. Has inner peace;
  3. Has a proper attitude in obtaining his livelihood;
  4. Uses his money for his needs, and provides charity with the excess;
  5. Will search for work which is compatible with his torah values;
  6. Loves others and is beloved by them
  7. Lives in the moment understanding that what he has now should be used appropriately and G-d will provide what he deserves, wants and needs in the future.

In this class we discuss number 6, loving others and being loved by them.

A person who relies on G-d is believed by all types of people and they feel at ease with him because:

  1. they feel secure that he will not harm them;
  2. Their hearts are at ease because of him;
  3. They are not afraid of his taking their wives or their money.

One who trusts in G-d feels secure with people because:

  1. he knows that his benefit or harm are not in the hands of any creation;
  2. It is not in their power to do either good or bad to him.

Therefore, he is not afraid of them harming him, just as he does not expect to benefit from them.  Whether they “hurt” him or “benefit” him is all decreed by G-d.

 

It appears to me two verses in torah confirm this:

  1. Numbers 23:8 when Midian king Balak, asked a gentile prophet, Bilam, to curse the Jews, Bilam replied to the request: “how shall I curse he who G-d has not cursed, and how can I defy he who G-d has not defied.” In other words, although Bilam had great supernatural powers, he understood the source came from G-d’s will alone.
  2. Lamentations 3:37 “who has declared that something should occur, unless G-d has commanded that it occur.”

When someone hurts us with words or actions, it could not have occurred without G-d’s consent.  When man benefits us or compliments us, that too has been decreed by G-d.

The man who doesn’t trust in G-d has a more difficult time having friends:

  1. he covets what others have;
  2. he is jealous of others;
  3. he considers what they have, comes at his own expense:
    1. Their livelihood was taken from his livelihood;
    2. All of his desires were denied to him because of them;
    3. It is in other people’s hands to help him attain his desires;
    4. If bad things happen to him, or he has trouble with money or children, he thinks it’s because of others, or at the very least, it is in their hands to rid him of the harm and push away the bad from him.

Since these principles have been fixed in his mind, he will come to despise other people as a result of this, and to denigrate them, to curse them, and to hate them.  Such a person is abhorred in this world and in the world to come.

I own thefivetowns.com.  When a competing website opened by a friend’s son several years ago, many people called to say wow I can’t believe that he is competing with you, and others asked whether it was okay to advertise with him, and I remember saying, “I have no competitors, hashem doesn’t have to take from me to give to him and vice versa. We can all make the parnassah that we deserve.”

And when it comes to October 7th and post October 7th, if we focus only Hamas and don’t focus internally as to why G-d brought this upon us, then we are missing the point of changing ourselves so this doesn’t happen again.  Hamas was the messenger, but they could not have lifted one finger without G-d’s acquiescence, and we have to ask ourselves why, what did we do to deserve this, including the outing of worldwide governmental and individual antisemitism which revealed itself thereafter.

In sum:  a man who trusts in G-d knows that when a person harms or benefits him, it is from G-d alone, and doesn’t overly praise nor shoot the messenger.  One who does not trust in G-d, is jealous of others and what they have, and feels that he received what he had by taking it from another, and what he doesn’t have is because another took it from him, and will come to despise those around him.

What we have and what is done for us or to us by man is all from G-d and as a message from G-d.

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