The topic is understanding bitachon. Now, we know what the word bitachon means. Bitachon means trust in Hashem, trusting, trust in God. And to really understand what bitachon means, because the way we usually translate the concept of bitachon is that a person is supposed to trust, and more than just trust, but be sure that under, in whichever situation he finds himself, Hashem is going to help him, Hashem is going to protect him, Hashem is going to save him. As the pasuk says, בטח בהשם. בטח בהשם means have bitachon, have trust in Hashem. You have to be sure that Hashem is going to help you. And this is explained in different sefarim that deal with this concept of bitachon, mainly a sefer called Chovot HaLevavot. Then you have Shaarei Teshuvah of Rabbeinu Yonah. They discuss this concept of bitachon. The source of this concept of bitachon is taken from a pasuk, as the Rabbeinu Yonah writes, where the pasuk says in Chumash Devarim, Hashem says, כי תצא למלחמה על אויבך, if you will ever go to war against your enemies, the pasuk continues, אל תירא מהם, do not be afraid. Now, some learn that the pasuk is that Hashem tells us, promise us, \"Don't be afraid because I will protect you.\" But the other meaning of the pasuk is it's not a it's not a promise, it's a commandment. Hashem commands us, \"Do not be afraid. You have to know that I will help you. You have to be sure.\" In other words, bitachon, according to this, means that a person is sure that Hashem is definitely going to help him. So a person finds himself in a time of stress, in a problem, he has to be sure that Hashem is going to save him and take him out of this problem. That means, not only that he has emunah, which means belief that Hashem is able to help you. That's emunah. Emunah is faith. You believe that Hashem is so great, and Hashem is the Creator, and Hashem, therefore, is able to help you. That's not bitachon, that's emunah. And we shouldn't confuse the two. Emunah is believing that Hashem could help you. Bitachon means that we are sure that Hashem will help us. That means that when a person finds himself in a problem, he has to be sure, that's bitachon. Bitachon comes from the word bituach. Bituach means guaranteed. You are guaranteed, you are sure that Hashem is going to help you. That's what the middah of bitachon is, as the sefarim explain. But the question that comes up here, how can we say that a person should be sure that Hashem is going to help him? Why are you so sure? How are you so sure Hashem is going to help that you have to have bitachon knowing for sure he's going to help you? Don't we find in Chumash, and actually it's in this week's parshah, that Yaakov Avinu, when he heard that Esav was coming after him, it says ויירא, he was afraid. And he davent to Hashem asking Hashem to help him, but he was afraid. Why was he afraid? Because he wasn't sure what's going to happen. The pasuk says he wasn't sure. He thought to himself, maybe Esav is going to come, and he's going to says he's going to kill us, so he said, let's divide the camp into two, just in case he hurts one, the other one will be safe. But he was afraid. Rashi says, why was he afraid? The truth is, he was promised by Hashem, as we learned in the previous parshah, Hashem promised him, ושמרתיך בכל אשר תלך, \"I'm going to protect you.\" So, if Hashem promised he's going to protect him, so why was he afraid? Wasn't he sure that Hashem is going to protect him? So Rashi says, he was afraid שמא יגרום החטא, maybe the sin caused that Hashem's promise should not come true. In other words, he was very humble, and he thought, maybe I don't deserve that Hashem should fulfill his promise. So, what do we see from here? That even Yaakov Avinu, who was promised by Hashem that he will be protected, nevertheless, he had a right to be afraid, and not to be sure he would be protected, because he didn't know, maybe he doesn't deserve it. So, certainly, average people, ordinary people who were not promised ever by Hashem that you'll be protected, and you'll be saved, and you'll be helped, how can you be sure that you deserve to be helped? Maybe Hashem will not help you. Using the expression of the Rashi, שמא יגרום החטא, why don't you think, \"Maybe I sinned,\" which means, \"Maybe I'm not ra'ui and I don't deserve that Hashem should help me\"? So, how can we have this middah of bitachon?

The truth is, even concerning Yaakov Avinu, there are certain opinions that when he was afraid, it was wrong He shouldn't have been afraid. We find a Midrash, the Midrash says like this: there were two people who were promised to be protected, and nevertheless, they were afraid. Who are the two people? Yaakov Avinu, as we just mentioned, that he was promised by Hashem, ושמרתיך בכל אשר תלך, \"I protect you\", and nevertheless, he was afraid. Moshe Rabbeinu. It says Moshe Rabbeinu when Og, when they had the war at the end of the forty years in the desert, when they had the war with Og, so Hashem said to משה רבינו, אל תירא אותו, He said, \"Do not be afraid of him.\" So the Midrash says, obviously, he was afraid. If he wouldn't have been afraid, Hashem would never have said, \"Don't be afraid.\" So he was afraid. So the Midrash says that he was afraid even though he was promised by השם, ואהיה עמך, in Parashat Shemot yet, he was promised by Hashem, \"I will be with you.\" So why was he afraid? So the Midrash says here we find two people who were promised to be protected, and they were afraid. And there are two opinions in the commentaries on the Midrash. One opinion is that the Midrash is saying it in a form of praise for Yaakov and Moshe, that even though these were two people who were promised by Hashem to be protected, nevertheless, they were so humble that they were afraid, maybe they don't deserve to be protected. But then there is another opinion in the Mefarshim, in the commentaries, that this is not a shevach, it's not a praise. This is a genai. This is showing some kind of form of mistake that Yaakov Avinu made and Moshe Rabbeinu made, that they shouldn't have been afraid. Because Hashem promised them, so they shouldn't have been afraid. But the question is, what is wrong according to this opinion that it wasn't good, what is wrong of them being afraid if they felt that maybe they don't deserve for Hashem to protect them? So the question is on Yaakov and Moshe, but the question is not only on Yaakov and Moshe, but the question is on the whole concept of bitachon. How can we tell a person that you must believe, and not have this common belief that it could be, but you must be sure, whenever something happens you have to have the complete bitachon in Hashem, trust in Hashem that He is going to help you for sure? How are you so sure? Maybe, שמא יגרום החטא, maybe you don't deserve it? So how can there be a tzivui, an obligation, upon us to be sure that we will be saved?

At first glance, we could explain the concept of bitachon in this way: bitachon does not mean, and I'm saying this is not the real, real peshat, that's why I'm saying we could to a certain degree explain it that way, but as I'll show later, this is not the real peshat, we could explain that bitachon means not that you believe 100% you are sure that Hashem is going to help you and protect you and save you or do whatever whatever you expect Him to do, all it means is that you have the proper emunah. You have the belief, the faith, that everything comes from Hashem. And when you believe that everything comes from Hashem, automatically you're not worried, because whatever Hashem will do, it'll be fine. If everything comes from Hashem, Hashem knows what He is doing, and therefore, if I'm in trouble, I'm not worried. Hashem will take care of it, whichever way. If I deserve, He'll take care of it and He'll save me from my problems. Even if I see, even if I'm in a in a in a situation that you can't see in a natural way how I could be helped, it doesn't matter. If I'm in the hands of Hashem, Hashem is not limited to teva, to nature. Hashem could save me even if naturally we don't see any way how He can save me, if I deserve to be saved. So if I deserve to be saved, I am sure He will do it, and I don't care what it looks like. There's a letter from the Frierdiker Rebbe, an interesting letter where he describes what is bitachon, trust Hashem, so he says that trusting Hashem means even in a place, in a situation, when there is no He uses the term צל מראה מקום, there is no way possible that naturally you should be saved, you still trust Hashem that He will save you. And he gives an example: when a person, God forbid, is drowning and there is no way how he can be saved, you have bitachon. And he says like this: there are two concepts. There is a concept of tikvah and a concept of bitachon. Tikvah is hope; bitachon is trust. Hope, says he says, as long as there is some, some, some chance, some slight chance, in דרך הטבע, in natural ways, that you could be saved, that's not bitachon yet, that's still tikvah. When there is no way naturally for you to be saved at all, then comes in bitachon. And he gives an example: when you're drowning and there is a straw floating on the water and you see the straw, and you hope to be saved by you're holding onto the straw, now we know that's pretty slim chance that holding onto the straw will protect you, will save you, Thinking that this will help you, this is still tikvah. When there's not even a straw, that's bitachon. And he says we find the expression tikvah in Tanach, when Yehoshua sent the two spies (not to confuse it with the twelve spies sent by Moshe Rabbeinu), before they entered Eretz Yisrael, Yehoshua sent two spies, Calev and Pinchas, and they came to this house of Rachav. And Rachav hid them because the government was looking for the police were looking for them and she covered them and hid them. Because of that, she asked them for a favor. She said to them that, \"When you're going to come into this country to invade the country, please let my you please protect my family because of what we did.\" And they promised to do it. But they said, \"We can't take responsibility. The only thing we want you to do is bring your family to this house and hang out a red string from the window, and that'll be the sign to us that this is your house.\" And they called that red string תקות השני, the hope of the string. It's called tikvah. It's hope. Why is it hope? Because you know how many things could happen to that string? The wind could blow it away, it could get covered that you can't see it, but there is still hope you could see it. But because there is something there, that's called tikvah. When there is nothing there, that's called bitachon. So a person believes that Hashem could do anything, so therefore Hashem could save him, and he thinks to himself like this: \"I am now everything that happens to me is from Hashem, and therefore I have the bitachon, meaning I am not worried. I don't care what happens. I know if Hashem feels that I deserve to be saved, he will save me. And the fact that it doesn't we can't see any natural way how he will save me, that makes no difference, because Hashem is not limited to nature. So he could do it if he wants. Who made all the rules of nature, that if this this happens, then naturally this will be the result? Hashem made it. Who made this law, this rule, that when you're on the water, you fall in, you sink, you drown, and when you're walking on dry land, you don't fall, you don't sink into the ground? Who made that? Hashem! So the fact that I'm drowning, and because of the laws of nature I have to drown, to Hashem that's not a limit, he made it, so he could change it. But if he wants to, if he I deserve it. If I don't deserve it, then he'll do whatever he wants. So I'm not worried at all.\" So we could teitch like this: that bitachon means a person does not worry at all of what's going to happen because he knows Hashem will take care of him, and that's it. Especially that we know that whatever Hashem does is for the good. So even if chas veshalom it'll be bad, well, sometimes a punishment is also good because it purifies a person, etc., etc. So why do I have to worry? So this seems to answer the question, the question we had before: how can there be an obligation that when something happens, you have to be sure that it's going to be good? The answer according to this pshat so far is that it doesn't necessarily mean that you're sure it's going to be good. It might not be good, but you still don't care. So it means you don't worry.

But this is not really the pshat of bitachon, I must say. It is not true. The meaning of bitachon actually is that when something bad happens, you have to be sure that it'll be good. And the question is why? After all, maybe you don't deserve it? Maybe big tzadikim, the greatest tzadikim, who are sure that their behavior is a 100% the right way, and therefore they are sure that Hashem is going to protect them because they don't deserve to be hurt. But a person that's not a tzadik, and most people are not tzadikim, as the pasuk says, אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא, there is no tzadik in the world that only does good. So who is the one that's able to be sure that Hashem will help him and will not punish him, so to speak? So how can he be sure everything is going to turn out to be good? Plus there's another question here: if bitachon means that I am sure 100% that Hashem is going to save me, protect me, whether I deserve it or not, then how does it fit with שכר ועונש, with reward and punishment? We know there is such a thing as reward and punishment, that's one of the foundations of Yiddishkeit. That means if a person doesn't behave properly, we believe, we know, Hashem punishes him. Now if Hashem punishes, then therefore when a tzarah comes, when a person is in a has a problem, if we believe in onesh, maybe this is the time when Hashem is punishing him? And there is such a thing as punishment. So how can a person say or how can he be sure that he's not going to be hurt? Maybe you deserve to be punished? So what is the meaning of bitachon? How do we reconcile this with the concept of bitachon, that bitachon means that you are 100% sure that what happened that whatever happens to you, definitely Hashem will save you? There must be something deeper in this meaning of bitachon. Tzemach Tzedek told different people, there were different stories of time when people came to the Tzemach Tzedek with different problems, he told them in Yiddish, and it's a famous expression, he said to them, Tracht gut vet zayn gut. Think good and it will be good. And this statement seems to be saying that the fact that you think good, that itself is the cause for it to be good. Which means, and I will explain it in detail in a moment, which means that bitachon is something that by having the bitachon itself, this causes that Hashem should actually help you. In other words, it's possible that I am in a situation where Hashem does not necessarily definitely have to help me, maybe I don't deserve to be helped, but if I have the bitachon, if I have that trust, that itself will be the reason why Hashem will help me, and He will definitely help me because I have the bitachon. Not like we learned the simple pshat, that bitachon means that whatever happens we don't care, we know for sure Hashem is going to help. Why are you so sure? The pshat is, based on my previous behavior, I'm not so sure He's going to help, but if I have the real bitachon, that itself will make Hashem help. Tracht gut, think positive and think it, be sure that Hashem will help you, that itself will make Hashem help you. But the question is, why? So let me explain it.

Normally we think bitachon means it's an automatic result of emunah. When you have emunah, you have true faith in Hashem, and you know Hashem is the Creator, and you know Hashem could do anything, there's nothing in the way of Hashem, and you know that Hashem is רחום וחנון, השם is kind and pitiful, merciful, all these things, so automatically you will have bitachon. If Hashem is able to do anything, there's nothing in His way, and you know that Hashem is good, so that's where bitachon comes in automatically. If you have the real emunah, you will come to bitachon. It is not so. Bitachon is a separate avodah. Bitachon is something different. What is it? Bitachon means that a person in his mind gives himself over to the hands of Hashem. That's what bitachon means. Emunah, when you have emunah, when you have the faith, it doesn't mean that you're giving yourself over to the hands of Hashem. When you have emunah, it's still possible a person should believe in Hashem, and believe in Hashem 100%, and still at the same time go and do something wrong. That's possible. The Gemara says, גנבא אפום מחתרתא רחמנא קרי. You could be a ganav, and while you're stealing, you're davening to Hashem that you should succeed. Why are you davening to Hashem? Because you believe, you have emunah, that Hashem watches there, He's standing there, sees what you're doing. You believe, you have the real emunah that Hashem hears what you're saying, because if you feel that He doesn't hear what you're saying, you wouldn't daven, you'd have to scream out loud that He should hear you in the seventh heaven. Obviously you're davening quietly, so you know He's standing there. So you have the proper emunah, and at the same time, you're able to go steal. Why? Because emunah, Chassidut says, is a makif. It's around you, it's not really part of you. You could have the emunah, and you ask the person, \"Do you really believe that Hashem is all over?\" \"Yes.\" \"Do you really believe that God is next to you?\" \"Yes.\" But it doesn't mean that you change your behavior because of that emunah. We'll go a step further. Even if a person does change his behavior because of the emunah, but it doesn't mean that he gives himself over 100% in the hands of Hashem. Emunah means you believe, you have faith in Hashem, that means you believe Hashem is there, and you believe 100%, and you follow Hashem's ways, but it doesn't mean that I'm also not there. I'm here too. I'm a metziut, I'm a being, I'm something, and I believe that Hashem could do with me what He wants, that's true, but I'm also something. That's emunah. Bitachon is a step further. Bitachon means that a person trusts Hashem so much that he puts himself in the hands of Hashem, and he says, \"Hashem, I'm in Your hands. Do what You want,\" and not make any cheshbonot. You don't make any calculations of what's going to be the result, will He help me or not. The moment you start making calculations, will He help me or will He not help me, do I deserve to be helped or don't I deserve to be helped, automatically what it means is that I am a metziut and I'm looking out for myself, and I'm wondering, will He help me or will He not help me? And even if I come to a conclusion that even if He won't help me, still Hashem knows what He's doing, but as long as I'm thinking about myself, then I didn't really reach the proper level of what bitachon is. Bitachon means a person put himself into the hands of Hashem, not thinking about what is going to happen to him at all. He says to Hashem, and it's not just saying, really meaning it, feeling it in his heart, and it's a hard avodah, it's not easy. Thinking, or feeling in your heart, Hashem, You are the boss, I'm nothing, and whatever You do, that I will agree and that'll be okay. I don't care because it's only You. It's not like we said before that a person said, \"I don't worry because if I deserve He'll protect me, if I don't deserve He won't, but since He wants it, let it be that way.\" But there the pshat is, according to that, that you still care about yourself. Bitachon means that you give yourself over completely into the hands of Hashem. And that's the difference between emunah and bitachon. Emunah means that a person believes in Hashem, has faith in Hashem, but it doesn't take away the possibility of him of him being also a metziut, a being which a being who is guided by Hashem or Hashem makes everything happen to him, but he's still there. Bitachon means giving yourself over to Hashem. What is the result of bitachon? The result is that if a person makes no cheshbonot, makes no calculation, no cheshbonot of what is with him, automatically Hashem will behave with him midah keneged midah, measure for measure, and Hashem will not make any cheshbonot with him either. And therefore, Hashem will help him. The whole question we had before was that how can a person be sure Hashem is going to help him when according to the cheshbon, maybe he doesn't deserve it. Maybe he doesn't deserve to be helped because he did aveirot. When is that a question? When we deal with a cheshbon. Hashem makes a cheshbon, and in a cheshbon He gives you reward, He gives you punishment. But when Hashem deals with a person beyond cheshbon, then whether you deserve or not, He will definitely help you, because there is no reason not to help you, because there is no cheshbon. When does Hashem deal with a person beyond cheshbon? Only when the person himself deals with Hashem without cheshbon. By Hashem it works that way: middah keneged middah. Whatever you want Hashem to do, you have to do the same thing. And when you do it, this will cause Hashem to do the same thing to you. And this is the meaning of bitachon, that when you have bitachon, we are sure that you will be helped, regardless of whether you deserve or not. And the question was, how is that possible? The bitachon itself will make that happen. This is what the Tzemach Tzedek meant: tracht gut vet zayn gut, because you tracht gut. What does it mean you tracht gut? Not that you tracht gut, you think, \"Oh, I'm sure the Oibershter will be good to me and He will help me.\" That's not the point. The point is tracht gut, think that you are not a metziut and you are completely in the hands of Hashem, and that's it. No more. Hashem. And whatever happens happens, not because I think of myself and if it's not so good it's still because Hashem wants it. It's more than that. It's a hard avodah, it's not easy. To come to real bitachon is not easy. But if a person reaches that madregah, if you reach that level, automatically the person will definitely be helped by Hashem. And this is what the Midrash means, that the two people, Yaakov Avinu and Moshe Rabbeinu, according to this pshat, when they were afraid, they shouldn't have been afraid, the pshat is why? Because they were missing, so to speak, kivayachol, this giving themselves over to Hashem completely. Now obviously, someone might ask, how can we say by Yaakov Avinu or Moshe Rabbeinu that they were missing this concept of being given over to Hashem? Who was more given over to Hashem than than Yaakov Avinu or Moshe Rabbeinu? Well, it means at their level, obviously. According to their level, it wasn't as perfect as they should have been as far as their giving themselves over to Hashem. Or it means that they behaved in a way that to us seems as if they were afraid. And that itself is in their level something that is not perfect. This is the general answer always whenever we talk about the sins that the great, great tzaddikim did. Tzaddikim like Moshe Rabbeinu, Yaakov Avinu, all the tzaddikim if you say everyone had some kind of sin, that doesn't mean the literal sense that they sinned the way we imagine. It was either in their level it wasn't as perfect as they should be, or the fact that they did something that could be, Yiddish would say, oisgetaytsh, could be translated, could be perceived by others as something wrong, is in itself a chesaron, something lacking in their high level of perfection. And the same thing is with Yaakov and Moshe Rabbeinu in this case. That Hashem writes in the Torah that Yaakov was afraid and Moshe was afraid to teach us not to be that way, according to that peshat, in our level. Their level we according to their level, who had if we would have their level we'd be ten a million times a higher madreigah, but they, just like they in their level were lacking this pure giving themselves over to Hashem, and therefore in their level they had this fear, we should not be that way, we in our level should not have the fear. Why shouldn't we have the fear? Because we have to put ourselves in the hands of Hashem. And then we could be guaranteed, we will be guaranteed that Hashem will help us. If a person If a person has proper bitachon, meaning if a person does really really gives himself over to the hands of Hashem, is guaranteed that Hashem will help.

They tell a story of this, one of the chassidim, Rav Shmuel Gronem, he was the mashpia in Lubavitch, in the city of Lubavitch, that he had, once he had a very hard time, parnassah, he didn't have any money, and he knew that you have to have bitachon, you have to trust Hashem, not only trust, you have to be sure that Hashem is going to help you. And if Hashem, if you're sure Hashem will help you, then Hashem will help you. So, he felt, how come Hashem is not helping him? Probably he's lacking in bitachon. So, he decided he's going to sit down and learn through the different sefarim that deal with bitachon, until it'll be clear in his mind what bitachon is, so he'll have bitachon. So, he closed himself up in a room for two, three days, and took out all the sefarim, and I don't know which ones they were, but I imagine it was the Chovot HaLevavot, and שערי, in Shaarei Teshuvah, Rabbeinu Yonah, and all the different sefarim that I mentioned before that deal with bitachon, and he sat down for a few days, and he looked into this thing, and he was thinking about it very much, so finally, after at the end, it was oisgeklart like that, the whole concept of bitachon was very clear. But after thinking so much, he pashut had a terrible headache. So, he decided he has to catch some fresh air. So, he finished, closed the sefarim, went outside, catch some fresh air. As he was walking, he found a gold coin on the floor. And that gold coin lasted him for many months to support himself. And he saw that after he really, really understood what bitachon is, so then takeh der Eibershter helped him and he had, really had bitachon, and really had, Hashem helped him. So, the truth is, if you have the real bitachon, Hashem will help, but to have the real bitachon is a very, very high madreigah. It is not just to believe, like I said before and repeating again, not just to believe that we are sure Hashem is going to help. Why? Because Hashem is kind. But if I believe that, then there's a question, so where does punishment come in? So, then Hashem, a person can never feel he's going to be punished? It is a reward for the bitachon itself that Hashem helps. So, if you have the proper understanding in bitachon, meaning giving yourself over to Hashem completely, then Hashem takeh help the person, and the person will be helped by Hashem.

The only thing we have to understand still when it comes to bitachon is bitachon is that we are sure that Hashem is going to help us. If a person is sick, he will become cured. If a person is poor, he will get money. He will be helped in a way that he will see how Hashem helps him. How does that fit to emunah? On one hand, bitachon is a result of emunah. If you have the proper emunah, then automatically it's easier to have the proper bitachon. But in one point, emunah, bitachon are a contradiction. Emunah means, one of the things of emunah is that we believe that everything Hashem does is for the good. A person is supposed to say on everything, \"גם זו לטובה,\" this is also for the good. We have the story in the Gemara with Nachum Ish Gamzu, that he used to say on everything, \"גם זו לטובה,\" this is also for the good. And it takeh happened that whatever happened by him, which seemed to be bad, turned out to be good. Famous story in the Gemara with Nachum Ish Gamzu that he was sent by the Jews to the emperor to be mishtadel concerning a certain decree that he made, try to nullify the decree, and they sent along a box of diamonds and jewels as a present to the emperor, hoping that this would soften his heart. On the way, he stopped over at a hotel, and he went to sleep, and he put the box under his head, and the owner of the hotel was a thief, and he robbed the box, took out the jewels, put in sand, and put it back. And when he woke up in the morning, and he looked at it, and he saw it's sand, he didn't care. He said, \"גם זו לטובה.\" If it happened, it's for good. And he continued to Rome, and he came to Rome, and he gave it to the emperor, and he asked him to nullify the decree, and the emperor opened up the box and he saw sand. He said, \"What is this? The Jews are making fun of me?\" So, Eliyahu HaNavi disguised himself as one of the guards, and he said to him, \"Maybe this is something special. Maybe this is the type of sand that Avraham Avinu used when he fought the war against the four kings.\" Because it says in Midrash that when Avraham fought the war against the kings, he was himself with his servant, or a few people, he would throw, pick up sand and throw sand, the sand would turn into spears, into arrows. So, this so looked the disguised guard said to the king, the emperor, \"Maybe this is that type of sand.\" They said, \"Let's try it out.\" Actually, they were at war at that time. They sent it to the front, and yes, that was the sand! So, not only did they were the king happy, but they sent him back and they nullified the decree, and they gave him presents, and we don't know what would have happened had they stayed jewels, because the king has plenty of jewels, maybe he wouldn't have cared, and it wouldn't have helped, and this way it helped. Anyway, the story ends that on the way back, he stopped by the same hotel. The owner of the hotel was sure that this guy is going to be killed, because they're going to open up, and they're going to see the sand. He came back, and he saw him. So he said, \"How did this happen?\" So he says, \"Well, it was special sand. It was sand that you throw it, it turns into arrows and spears.\" So he said, \"Yeah? You know where I took the sand? From my backyard, so I have so much of it.\" So he loaded up wagon full of the sand, and he brought it to the emperor. He says, \"You see, you got a little bit of sand, I have so much of it.\" He brought it to him, he says, \"Very good.\" They tried it out at the war, and nothing happened. So he said, \"This is what you brought me?\" So they killed him. So here we see how he says גם זו לטובה, it's all it's everything is for the good. Then we have the story in the Gemara of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva had a different expression. He used to say, כל דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד. Whatever Hashem does is for the good. And the Gemara tells a famous story with that he went once to a city and he wanted to stay over in a place, and they wouldn't let him in, so he had to stay outside of the city. So he slept outside, and he had with him a candle and a rooster and a donkey. And what happened was the the the the candle burned out, and the rooster was killed, and the donkey was taken away, and he felt very bad, whatever Hashem does is for the good. That night, robbers came and robbed the whole city. So now he says, \"Now I see how Hashem helped me.\" So we know that our belief is everything is for the good, not only when it turns out like the story of Nachum Ish Gamzu or the story of Rabbi Akiva, when you actually see how it's good, even if we don't see. We know for sure whatever Hashem does is for the good. Therefore, when somebody, chas veshalom, is sick, has to say Baruch Hashem. The Gemara says, כשם שמברכין על הרעה כך מברכין על הטובה, על הטובה כך מברכין על הרעה. Just like you bless Hashem for the good, you have to bless Him for the bad. And the Gemara asks a kashya, but it's not true, there is a different brachah that you make for good and bad. For good, you make שהחיינו, הטוב והמטיב, for bad you make Baruch Dayan HaEmes, by a funeral. It's different brachot. So the Gemara says it doesn't mean the same blessing, but it means לקבלה בשמחה, you have to accept it with joy the same way, because we know whatever happens is for the good. So we have to have the emunah that whatever happens is for the good. And at the same time, we have to have bitachon. And what's the bitachon? We have to trust Hashem that it'll certainly be good. What kind of good? A person is sick, he has to have the bitachon, give himself over to the hands of Hashem no matter what, he cares about himself as we said before, and then we are sure that what's going to happen, it'll really become good. What will happen? He'll become healthy. But we said a minute ago that he believed that when he's sick, that's good. So how come all of a sudden you have the bitachon that you say that what that you're going to become healthy, it'll be good? These two things seem to be a contradiction. When a person is poor, you have to say to Hashem, \"Thank God, I'm poor.\" Why? Because it's the best thing in the world that could happen. That's what we have to believe, whatever Hashem does is the best. At the same time, we are obligated to first of all daven to Hashem, say, \"Hashem, please give me money, give me health, because it's no good the way it is, I need I have to change.\" What do you mean it's no good? You just You're feeling it's good, and at the same time you're asking of Hashem to help you. And not only asking, but you have to have the bitachon. Bitachon means that we are guaranteed it's going to happen. Why are we guaranteed? Because if you give yourself over to Hashem, Hashem will make it good. But why good? This is good the way it is. Now, the difference is between the past and the future, that's the emes, but that doesn't explain it. We know that for the past, anything that happened is good, no matter what it is. For the future, we have to ask Hashem and have bitachon that it'll be real good, good that we could see, טוב הנראה והנגלה, good that we could see. But what's the difference? They say the Frierdiker Rebbe, they once asked him, I mentioned this many times, he once was talking about how good it was for him to be in jail, how it helped him spiritually, how it elevated him to higher levels, so someone asked him, \"Rabbi, oy, in that case, would you like to go back?\" So he said, \"I wouldn't sell for a million dollars one minute of my being in jail. I wouldn't go back for one minute for a million dollars.\" The difference between the past and the future, but what's the explanation? The why? So, number one, even if we don't have an explanation, we don't care. If we know that you have to have this emunah and we know that you have to have this bitachon, whether it makes sense or not, we don't care. Even if it's הפכים, they're opposites. A Yid is able to take opposites. We know Hashem is נושא הפכים. Hashem could hold opposites. Whatever in our mind is opposites, it's not opposites in the eyes of Hashem. Hashem is not limited. We are limited to a limit that things which are opposites can't be together, if they're opposites. Hashem, who is not limited, could take opposites. The famous statement of Hashem being נמנע הנמנעות, He is the impossible of impossibilities. I'm not going to go through that that subject, but there's some people who used to hold that even though Hashem could do anything, but יש טבע נמנע קיים בחק הבורא, which means there is the concept of impossibility by Hashem. That's what some Jews held. Some people who wrote to the Rashba held that there is a possible there is a concept of impossibility by Hashem. Ay, we say Hashem could do everything, Sure he could, but not two opposites. They gave an example: Hashem, if he wants to push an elephant, elephant through the hole of a needle, could do it. How could he do it? He can make the elephant so small and push him through. He can make the hole all of a sudden become so big and push it through. But the hole should remain small, and the elephant should remain big, which are two opposites, that he can't do. And the Rashba wrote to them, it's not true. Hashem is impossible of impossibilities. Ay, it makes no sense? Why doesn't it make sense? Because in our eyes it's an opposite, and opposites cannot work together. That's all according to our laws of nature and the way we are. Hashem is not limited to all that, because he is the one that made it. He's not limited to it. So, by Hashem, there is no such thing as opposites. We, who are Yidden and have a neshamah, a holy neshamah, which is a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש, part of Hashem, we are also able to have two opposites. Yes. A person could fully believe a 100% that what he has is good. A person who is sick could believe a 100%, without a question, that it's good, because Hashem made it happen, so it's definitely good. And at the same time, this person can have the proper bitachon that it's going to be good, meaning that he's going to become healthy, even though this is also good. And that's what he's supposed to think about. Even though I said he does not have to think directly, but knowing that if I give myself over to Hashem, Hashem is going to help me, help me in the form of טוב הנראה והנגלה, that something that's good that we could see good. So, Ay, it's opposites? So it's opposites. Ha kashya? S'iz nisht kein kashya. But besides that, there is a point of explanation, and the point is that Hashem is so good that when is his goodness complete and strong? When it comes down in a form that even down here, in the eyes of us human beings is good. That's how strong Hashem is good. As long as it doesn't come down in what we call טוב הנראה והנגלה, the good that we could see, it's good in a spiritual sense. It means that that goodness did not penetrate through all the levels all the way down. When the goodness is so good that even we with our physical eyes, who are low parts of the creation, we are the lowest, this physical world is the lowest, even here it would it's seen to be good, then the kindness, the goodness of Hashem is very strong. And that's why, on one hand, we know whatever Hashem does is good, true, and we believe it's a 100% good, and at the same time, the bitachon helps that it should turn out to be good that we see good, because then it's a goodness that comes down in a form that it's begilui, that means that the goodness of Hashem is revealed even down here for us. That's why whenever we daven to Hashem, we ask Hashem to forgive us. קריאת שמע שעל המיטה we say, אבל לא על ידי יסורים וחלאים רעים. Please Hashem forgive us, but not through yissurim, not through suffering, not through sickness. We ask Hashem not to, because we want it to be good for us. In the in the in Neil ah there is a one of the piyutim, one of the passages that we say is, we ask השם, שערי שמים פתח, open up the gates of heaven, ואוצרך הטוב לנו תפתח, and your good treasure, treasury, לנו תפתח, open for us. Der Rebbe Rashab, when he used to say that, he used to say it a little bit different. Same words, but he stopped at a different point. He would say like this, שערי שמים פתח ואוצרך הטוב לנו תפתח. Which means open the gates of heaven, and your treasury that's good for us, open. Simple peshat is your treasury that's good, for us you should open, but he used to say what's good for us, because טוב הנראה והנגלה, that is the good that comes down and penetrates into this physical world. And that comes from Tracht gut vet zain gut.

So it comes out here like this, that on one hand, what is bitachon? It's a very high madreigah. Bitachon means guaranteed, we are sure that it's going to be good in a form of טוב הנראה והנגלה that we could see. That's what the bitachon is. How are you so sure, we said before? You're takeh not sure. But if you have the real bitachon, you'll become sure. Tracht gut vet zayn gut, the trachten good, the bitachon itself will bring it that you will actually have the good. And what kind of good? The good that we could feel with our eye, see with our eyes and feel with our hands, so to speak. That even to us, like there's an expression I think that the Rebbe once said to somebody, that it should be good אז די ווייב זאל זאגן גוט, it should be so that even your wife should say it's good. In other words, something that you could see that the people, the human beings, should be able to see that that's good. Not just good that if you're learning chasidut, and you're a big chasid, you'll be able to say it's good. די ווייב, she doesn't know so much. Okay, nowadays are different, now the women learn chasidut, and they know just as much as the men. But in amalike tsaytn the women didn't learn chasidut, so the man, the husband could say it's good because he learned chasidut, He knows what's good. But the wife, she should also believe it's good, she also see it's good. Then it's the the real good. But what makes it happen for sure if we have the proper bitachon. And this is the bottom line. Proper bitachon to really trust Hashem that He'll make it, but not because I deserve it, because I know that I'm putting myself in His hands 100%. And if I put myself in His hands, that itself, that bitachon, will bring the right thing.

Any questions? Yes. Like the Holocaust, I can understand that when we go through hard times to say everything is for good, but it didn't turn out good. So when we use biblical examples of things that eventually turned out for the good, then we can have... but here things turned out for the bad, I mean in the gas chambers, and we can say we have any more merit than these people, so... I I I said, that's what I said before: When we say everything is for the good, not only when we actually later find out it's how it's for the good. Could be we don't even find out. Could be it's good spiritually. Could be it's good for the neshamah. We don't know. We don't know what the real good is and what Hashem has in mind. We know that if it doesn't come down here, it's something that's not b'gilui, true. But as far as it being good in itself, if if we don't see how it's good, it doesn't change the fact that it's good, if you have the proper emunah. ...like when the guy found the gold coin... we might not find the gold coin, but we still have to assume it's for the best. Right, right. But what... Yeah, sure, you have to assume it's always for the best, that's emunah. But the bitachon that you have for later is that it'll be good in a good way, in a good way, and that's a very high madragah, not everyone has it. And very few people can have it, unless you really work on yourself. ...that none of them had that high level? So, when we talk about things of such a major scope, we don't really know. ...six million that didn't make it, all the ones that made it out, they shouldn't have made it out. They would have said it's good. For them, for them, it definitely was. But even for those people, no, he's right, that's those those definitely saw it, but even the others, when we're talking about a major scope of something that happens to Klal Yisrael, we don't really know what is really, really good even in a giluydik way. We will see it very soon. Mashiach will come, we will look back and see that this is probably one of the things that made Mashiach come or things like that, whatever it is. So we don't see it yet. But something that we can't just know, when it's something of such a major scale. ...I guess basically personal basis... Right. This is... these are major things. So, a lot of times we see things happen. The best example always given that some things don't seem to be good turn out to be good is the example when you're trying to make a plane, and you missed the plane, and you missed an appointment, and you might lose a lot of money because you missed the appointment, and the plane crashes. So here, when it happens, it's a terrible thing. Then it turns out to be good. That's something that you see b'gilui how it's good. Now, sometimes we don't see it. There's a story once, a lady asked the Rebbe about going on a certain plane, so the Rebbe told her to go this time, whatever, and she went, and the plane crashed, but they all survived. So she came ta'anot to the Rebbe. She said, \"Rebbe, you told me to go, and look what happened, the plane crashed!\" So the Rebbe said to her, \"What do you care? Because of your zechut, so many other hundred people were saved.\" So we never know exactly what the good is. ...it comes down... When it comes down... to see with the flesh eyes... Right, right. Then it's it's not It doesn't It's not that the highest It doesn't show It could be the highest. It doesn't show to the furthest degree the goodness of Hashem. When is the tokef, we say, the strength of the goodness of Hashem, when it penetrates all the way? Just like it says, one of the reasons it says in Kabbalah why Hashem created the world, because when is the light of Hashem its strongest? When it comes down to the lowest level. So then it means it goes that it's so strong that it can even penetrate into gashmiyut. And the same thing here, when it's good in a spiritual way, it's one thing, but when it's good that it penetrates, it comes down into a gashmiyusdike way, then that shows the strength of Hashem's kindness even more. Now, it could be that spiritual goodness is a stronger good, but to show Hashem's kindness in strength, that's only when it comes down all the way. Yes. Why didn't he run to go out to go to work? Huh? Why didn't he run to go out to go to work? Why didn't the... the rav? Just because he was working in the yeshivah, he had a job, but he wasn't paid. He wasn't getting paid? Yeah, I guess so. He wasn't paid. He didn't The yeshivah didn't have any money. I'm asking the question because... How do you balance... Oh! I was really going to say, takeh, that this this here... Today on bitachon is only the first of a series. Next week we're going to continue with another part, and that is if we have to have bitachon and we know everything is from Hashem and everything will be good, then why do we have to go out and work? And why do we have to do things in דרך הטבע? If a person is sick and you have bitachon, Hashem, why go to a doctor? Why go out to work? And we know that we have to do it. The question is why. Well, that will keep you in suspense for next week. Yes, you should use your head. You shouldn't liegen in it, but you should use your head. No, you, well, what do you think? You do business without a head? Ein seichel? Not necessarily. The neshamah The body itself is to a certain degree more connected to the etzem of Hashem than the neshamot. It says in Tanya that the bechirah of Hashem, the real choice of Hashem, is in the body. No, it's But the physical body is in that madregah. That's why the end result, the ultimate goal, is techiyat hameitim, when the body will come back. Why? According to the Rambam, he feels that the last level is neshamot without bodies. But Chassidut says, from the Arizal, that neshamot with bodies. And the bodies are going to remain forever, because the body has to do with the etzem of Hashem. Therefore, what's good for the body, that's so much more to take care of the kavod of Hashem. You're right, but I think it sticks to all of us. Okay, yeah, exactly. Just one more question here. That's a good question. As I explained, the fact that from bitachon we are sure things will be good is only as a reward for the mitzvah, because you had bitachon, you gave yourself over to Hashem, that's why it will happen. And the other mitzvot, we don't find that the reward comes on the spot. This is not really a reward. It's a natural result. You have two things: you have a reward, and then you have a cause and effect. If you have the bitachon, which means that you go with Hashem without cheshbonot, automatically, not as a reward, automatically the result is that there is no cheshbonot to you. Other mitzvah, you put on tefillin, and the reward is whatever the reward. That's a reward for the mitzvah. This is not a reward. This is just a behavior. You behave that way, automatically this is your level, and automatically Hashem behaves with you that way too, and therefore everything turns out to be good. No, no, that's that's there no, there it's a reward. That's a reward. Now, certain mitzvot have a reward in this world for some reason, but it doesn't also necessarily mean it will come right away. Here we're saying it's not a reward. It's just a natural result, an effect of the cause. If you are in a level of not making cheshbonot with Hashem, Hashem doesn't make cheshbonot with you. Yeah, but in their level it was. According to our level they had the highest bitachon.