Emunah With Bitachon

This is another piece on Bitachon. Outside the series. But I need to share it.

It's directed at you, my friend. Something I couldn’t put into words until now.

Until you asked for it.

The more I write, the more I begin to realize that the journey of the Gibor is tied to the avodah of Bitachon.

Every frayed thread snaps where Bitachon is missing.

In fact, it is impossible to be a Gibor without a serious daily engagement with Bitachon.

The learning of it, the applying of it, and the Hisbonenus needed to get it in your soul.

Everything starts with bitachon.

Emunah is the course; bitachon is the action.

There is no success or growth without real, tangible action.

It is almost not worth discussing Emunah in a world where we prize the learning over the action.

The Yetzer Hara’s cleverest lie? “Master Emunah first, then act.”

The sinners don't get this push from the yetzer. No, this one is for us Frum ones.

Learning without action will rot and infect you with a spiritual sepsis, killing you slowly then fast, from the inside.

Bitachon is the beginning. It is the end. And all the in-between.

Those who tell me they need to work on their Emunah before they can think of Bitachon have some of the worst kind of spiritual sepsis.

Shaar Habitachon speaks about the one who says he needs to make his money before working on Bitachon, and once he is comfortable, then he will work on it.

This is foolish, shortsighted, and likely never to come to fruition.

The same would go for the overthinkers, the ones who say, “I need to fully understand before I can truly trust.”

Fools.

I know, because I’ve played the fool myself.

I know all the proofs, all the counterproofs.

But when the job isn’t going well, or you get that call from the school, no amount of discovery seminars is going to help.

When the letter from the IRS arrives at your door with the bill that you knew shouldn’t exist because you’ve settled your accounts, what do you do?

You smile, hug your five-year-old, and tell your wife that it's going to be ok. Hashem’s got this.

Because you are not in control and never were.

You will wait your whole life, and all your logical, deep thoughts will languish, grow mold, and infect your soul.

Bitachon needs to go alongside Emunah.

It is action.

For every bit of Emunah you develop, slam it into the chamber of your bitachon cannon and fire it upon the world.

The Ramban teaches that Emunah is the tree and Bitachon is the fruit.

When you focus on Emunah without Bitachon, it is quite literally as if you acquired the seed for the tree, put it in a protective box lined with soft silk in an environmentally controlled room, and polished it every day trying to make it shine and perfect and beautiful.

If you never plant it in the ground, it will never grow.

You will keep collecting these seeds.

Shining, polishing, and storing them in nice little compartments, and you will have nothing to show for it but rotten old dried-out husks that produce nothing.

Are you scared to get your seed dirty? Are you worried about losing it?

It may even disintegrate when you place it in the dirt, but it is the only way for it to grow.

Bitachon is where you roll up your sleeves and enter the fray.

It is the game, while emunah is the manual.

Bitachon is the meal, while Emunah is the menu.

The menu is useless if there is no meal to follow.

The surprising thing is you don't need that many seeds to start. You only need one.

Your emunah will grow and multiply in a healthy way as long as you are working the Bitachon right.

You don't need to wait until you read all of Lawrence Kellerman’s books, or the Kuzari or Daas Tevunos.

Take one thing and plant the darn thing.

Then find another seed and plant that with kavanah, hisbonenus, and consistency.

Before you know it, you will have an orchard.

Plant the seed. Shoulder the trust. Strike again before doubt reloads.

Do not fool yourself.

Do not waste your days trying to build Emunah so that one day you can have Bitachon.

Work on your Bitachon so that you can maintain your Emunah.

You seem to have woken up. Give this to a friend who is about to walk off the cliff of overthinking.