Episode Details

  Bitachon
in the Desert: Trusting Hashem in Daily Portions 

When I first started working for my dad,
it was at a fiscally difficult time. His partner and cousin elected to be
bought out which created a huge financial burden, there were big loan
commitments and a new and very expensive showroom. 

My dad would hand me a paper on Monday
morning with an amount. This is what we need to deposit by Friday to cover the
week. It was a way to focus and keep things moving. 

Years later when all the commitments and
the loans were paid, he would still remind me every week of something which
stays with me today: 

“Don’t worry about making enough for the
year. Worry about making enough for the week. Because if you ask Hashem to
carry you through the whole year, you’ll forget to come back to Him tomorrow.
But if you ask for this week, you’ll come back next week. And the week after.
And every day, you’ll be in a relationship with Him.” 

He’d also tell us about the king with
two sons. One came once a year for his allowance. The other came every week.
The second son complained. “Why do I have to keep coming each week while my
brother only comes once a year? Why can’t you just give me everything at once?” 

And the king smiled and said: “Because I
love you. I want to see you. I want to hear your voice. Spending time with you
gives me great pleasure. So I only give you enough for a little while—because I
want you to come back.” 

That’s bitachon. Trust. Not just in the
outcome—but in the relationship. 

In Parshat Beha’alotecha, we read about
the manna—the miraculous bread that fell from heaven. Our Sages teach that
reading this portion is a segulah for parnassah, for sustenance. 

But the Mishnah Berurah warns us:
reading the words without internalizing their meaning is like carrying a check
without depositing it. 

The manna teaches us that hishtadlut—our
effort—is a vessel, but it is not the source. As Shlomo HaMelech writes in
Kohelet: 

“לא לחכמים לחם”—“Bread does not come to
the wise.” 

Rabbi Asher Weiss explains that the
portion of the manna reminds us our sustenance is ordained from Above. On Rosh
Hashanah, it is decreed precisely how much each person will earn for the year.
Our job is to do the necessary hishtadlus to create a vessel to contain
Hashem's blessing, while recognizing all along that it is not our effort that
brings success but Hashem's blessing alone. 

Some years back I wrote of a Shabbat
after season in Florida. I sat with some of the wealthiest men in our community
and they all started sharing their stories. To a man, they all testified, it
was not their brains, not their strategy, not even their hard work and long
hours which brought them wealth, it was in every case a convergence of
coincidences that could only be orchestrated by Heaven above. 

Rabbi Elimelech Biderman, quoting the
Tiferet Shmu