Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik
Fear itself can cause the thing you are afraid of to happen.With that one line, the Beis Halevi opens one of the most quoted essays ever written on bitachon - trust in Hashem. Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik of Brisk (1820-1892) was among the sharpest Talmudic minds of his generation. Here he turns that mind on a question every person faces: when life is uncertain, where do you actually put your trust?His answer is bracing. Emunah, he explains, is knowing that Hashem runs the world. Bitachon is emunah in action - actually relying on Him. A person can have the first without the second, and that gap is where suffering lives. Drawing on Tehillim, Mishley, Yeshayahu, Iyov and the Gemara, the Beis Halevi shows that our efforts cannot add a hairsbreadth to what has been decreed; that trusting in people brings a curse while trusting in Hashem gains both worlds; that Hashem first decrees the outcome and only then selects one of countless ways to bring it about; and that the more a person leans on his own scheming, the harder Hashem makes the road.Along the way he takes on the questions people actually ask. Why must we work at all, if it changes nothing? Why do open miracles no longer happen? Why does dishonest business never actually pay? What should be the very first thing you do when trouble comes? And what does it look like to reach the level where the heart itself stops wanting anything other than what Hashem has given?This is a short book - about a half-hour of reading - with a lifetime of work inside it. It is set in large, comfortable type with the essay’s argument broken into clear sections, making it ideal for a few minutes of daily chizuk, for a shul or yeshiva shiur, for the hospital bag, or to hand to someone going through a hard stretch.Published BeSiyata Dishmaya by PowerJews.com. Get Inspired and Inspire Others.
