How To Build Your Bitachon in HaShem

0:03says don't be overly righteous, meaning you have to know where you stand. You have to not push yourself to a limit where you won't be able to stand the test. So, you're not allowed to put yourself in danger when you know you won't be able to deal with the heat that comes with it, meaning that if a person has 100 percent, He has a hundred percent bitachon; yes, they should give their last fifty dollars without a second question in their mind. But guess what? They're most likely not watching this. They are living that life where they simply go to the supermarket without any money, similar to this tzaddik that actually did it in Yerushalayim, where the very, very famous story occurred almost 40 years ago. Famous story where there was a bunch of guys that were protesting. They were protesting because they were giving land back to the Arabs and so on. They were kicking people out. Anyway, they arrested a couple of people and they were going to keep them in jail the whole weekend. There was one particular tzaddik that wasn't blessed with money, but he had an enormous amount of bitachon in Hashem.

1:21He decided that he's going to fulfill the mitzvah of freeing the prisoners. Freeing a Jewish prisoner is a very big mitzvah in the Torah. But he went to the police department and said, "Okay, I want to free these ten people." They said, "No problem, a thousand dollars." Now, a thousand dollars forty years ago was a lot of money. A lot of dollars is a decent amount of money today, but it's not a lot of money. Forty years ago, it was considered a lot of money. For somebody who doesn't have any money, a thousand dollars might as well be ten thousand or a hundred thousand—it’s the same thing. Okay, he came to the kehilla. He says, "Listen, I need to free these prisoners before Shabbat. It's already Friday morning. I need to borrow a thousand dollars from the kehilla right now so I can free them before Shabbat." So the rabbi says, "Okay, but how are you going to pay everybody back?" He responds, "Don't worry. I'll get you the money by Sunday." Okay, you're saying you are a tzaddik; everybody knows this guy is a tzaddik. He doesn't say things for no reason. Tzaddik, everybody! Ten people got together, and each person gave a hundred dollars. They gave him a thousand bucks. He went to the police department, and with a thousand bucks, he freed the prisoners. Come Sunday, the guy who tells the story was the guy that watched the whole thing, was with him the whole time. He says, if I didn't see it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it.

2:46Tzaddik, whose name I forget, says to his friend, "Come on, you want to come with me?" He responds, "What? We're going to have a seudat? We're going to have a special feast? We have a special feast in the fields of, uh, and, uh, we're going to have a special feast over there in Tveria. Why? To celebrate and thank God for giving us such an opportunity to free the prisoners." Okay, fine, let's go. How are we going to get there? He goes, "Oh, let's get a taxi." "A taxi all the way?" "Yeah, let's go. What's the big deal if you have a car? Okay, let's go." "Okay, fine." They go, call the taxi. "Okay, take me to Tzriah." It's a big ride; it's a couple of hundred dollars. "No problem, go." They start riding, and his friend is sitting over there with this tzadik. Right as they're getting out to close the trailer, he tells the guy, "Listen, do me a favor. Stop by. There's a caterer right at the beginning of the city. Right when you get into the exit, there's a caterer on the left side. Stop over there." "Okay, fine, no problem." They stop at the first place. So, the caterer says, "Okay, come on. Wait for us outside. We'll come back in a little bit." They go inside. He tells the guy, "Listen, I need," and he lists a bunch of food that he wants.

4:02And his friend says, "Where did you get all this money?" He goes, "What money?" He goes, "To pay for all this." He goes, "I don't have any money." "What? I don't have any money?" So the guy starts getting scared. He goes, "I don't have any money." He starts looking in his pockets. He doesn't have any money either. Now, he's ordering a bunch of food like for a wedding. "I want a hero this way, hero that, this, naknik, this, that." He starts ordering food like they're having a feast for 20 or 30 people. So the Baal HaBayit (the owner) of the place with the food... So the guy's ordering a lot of food. It's early in the morning. He says, "What's going on over there? What are you guys doing? Are you having a party?" He goes, "Yeah, yeah, we're having a Seudat Hodaya." "Oh, it's for what?" He goes, "We're thanking Hashem for allowing us to do a big mitzvah to free ten prisoners on Friday." He goes, "Wow, chazak u'baruch. Those guys that got arrested?" He goes, "Yeah, yeah, you freed them? Wow, chazak u'baruch. You know what? I'm partners with you. Can I be partners with you on this mitzvah?" He goes, "Yeah, sure, no problem." He goes, "The food's on me, the food's on me." Oh, okay, fine. You know what? Let me take the food with you. So now, the food costs a few hundred—nothing. They take the food to the car. He goes, "Wow, you got here with a taxi all the way from where you are?" He goes, "Yeah." He goes, "Ask the taxi, how much is a taxi?" He goes, "Taxi is probably going to be, by the time I finish the meter, probably about $150." He goes, "Hold on a second." Goes, gets the money, goes, "Taxi's on me too. Taxi's on me too." They go, and they get to Tiberias. They start setting up the table.

5:27Setting up the table for people to come, as we see on top of the hill, is the Baba Sali having one of his famous meals with people that follow him. All these rich people are giving this and that. I watch this with my own eyes. He tells the tzaddik next to me, who’s been doing this whole thing. As soon as we get there, the Baba Sali points at him and says, "You, come here." No words are exchanged. We go to the Baba Sali, and as we approach, a gvir, one of the wealthy individuals, comes to the Baba Sali and hands him a closed envelope. The Baba Sali takes the envelope from the gvir, gives it back to him, and says, "This is for you." The gvir, in turn, gives it to the Rav and then leaves. The Rav takes the envelope, gives it to me, and says, "This is for you and the other nine guys." Upon opening the envelope, we find a thousand dollars.

6:28If you have that kind of emunah (faith), do everything he just did. But not doing it, oh, let's see if it's gonna work. That kind of emunah, you know it's gonna work. How? That's the bitachon (trust). If you have that kind, you give your last $50. You go to the supermarket without having even a credit card, let alone money. But we're not that. We're not over there, we're not at that level. So every person needs to know where they stand. so if you have money and you're okay as far as gonna eat. It's not like it's the last fifty dollars. You're not gonna leave yourself stranded in the desert with nothing to drink. You have money to drink. You have money to eat. I'm not saying you have a 401k with enough money to live for six months—that's not what I mean. You have money for today; you're okay. And let's say, for example, you have this fifty dollars that perhaps you don't need today. You may need it in a week; you may need it in a month. But you don't necessarily need this fifty dollars now. You give this fifty dollars. You give the hundred dollars. You give the ten thousand dollars. Whatever it is, you give it.

7:33And if you want to build bitachon, bitachon is only built once you start stretching. Meaning, it's that, yes, I used to give when I had enough money for six months. Then it was five months. Then it's four months. Then it's three months. Then it's two months. Then you start living week by week, day by day. So the bitachon is built based on how much you are willing to have as a reserve, if you will. But the key is that the only way that bitachon is built is by stretching yourself a little bit more and a little bit more. But don't stretch yourself right away to the final line, because even if you make it, it doesn’t mean that you're going to get bitachon because of it. Bitachon is only something that you can repeat over and over again without any questions in your mind. It's not like, okay, yeah, I jumped off the cliff and I made it. Great, would you jump again? No, okay, that's just craziness. That's just craziness, you jumped off the cliff, good for you, you survived, Hashem had mercy on you, but it doesn't mean that you should do it. You should know first how to climb, how to do this, how to do that.

8:40Chovot HaLevavot says that The greatest benefit that someone who has bitachon gains is the shelavat nefesh. It's simply the peace of mind that you have all the time. What's shelavat nefesh? What's peace of mind? Simply, you don't lose yourself. You don't lose your mind. You don't get upset. Somebody cuts you in line. So? Somebody cuts you off, so you're late to an appointment. I tried my best; I'm driving, there's traffic, okay. Yeah, but the shiur is supposed to start at nine; it's already 8:59. You're not going to get there for another 20 minutes. I'm here in a car; I'm pressing the gas pedal. That's the best thing I can do. It's the best thing I can do; I can't do anything else. And being perfectly okay with that.

10:01Being perfectly okay with it. That's bitachon. That's the benefit of having bitachon, where you have shalva, you have peace of mind. You're not one of those crazy people who start cutting people just to get into the elevator faster so you can get to your floor 30 seconds sooner. You're not one of those crazy people who jump to get to the teller first so they can take your ticket and not his ticket so you can finish your appointment an extra five minutes faster. Like, simply just go through life as is, without losing your mind, without losing your cool. If the payment didn't come on time, okay, it'll come when it comes. Oh, I sent you a package, it was supposed to arrive today. It didn't arrive. Oh, is everything okay? I'm sure it is. When Hashem wants it to arrive, it'll arrive. Nothing that I can do will change that. Yeah, but that may not come if you don't act. Okay. If I need to do something, if I get a notice from UPS or USPS or some type of postal service telling me that I need to take action, I'll do it. But until then, I'm going to continue with my life. I'm going to keep going. And when the package needs to arrive, it will arrive.

11:09This, rabotai, is a day-to-day benefit of having bitachon. You simply run through life not being lethargic and careless—that's not what I mean. I mean that you simply have a clear understanding that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is running the world, He knows what He's doing, and it includes what's going on in your particular life right now. That is included in that list. So there's nothing to worry about. Everything is okay. The only thing that's not okay is that we haven't completed our teshuvah yet. That's the only thing that's not okay—that Am Yisrael has not completed its teshuvah yet. That's the only thing that's not okay. Everything else is okay. Everything else is okay. So that should encourage us, B'ezrat Hashem, to get closer to Hashem, to understand what He wants from us, B'ezrat Hashem, and to really have a true understanding of who runs the world, which is definitely not us. As a rabbi, I must emphasize that this mitzvah is mandatory for every Jew, as it ensures all members of Am Yisrael can properly celebrate the holiday with dignity and joy.