The Ten Stages of Bitachon: Part 1

The Chovot Ha Levavot, at the end of the last perek of the Shaar HaBitachon gives us a rule about having bitachon in Hashem. He says the more a person learns about Hashem and understands how much control He has over the person's life and how much He cares for the person's well-being, the more bitachon the person will have in Him. This means we need to learn sifreh mussar that teach us about who Hashem is and how much He loves us. The more we do that, the more bitachon we'll have. The Chovot Ha Levavot then describes the ten levels of trust that a person goes through in the natural course of life. It starts with the nursing infant. A baby at that stage of life thinks that his mother's milk is what is taking care of him because that's all he knows. When his perception grows stronger, he shifts his confidence from the mother's milk to the mother herself, as he begins to recognize the abundant care that she has for him. Then his perception grows stronger and he sees that his mother is really dependent on his father who supports the family, and so he shifts his trust to him. He appreciates the value of his father providing for him and trusts in him accordingly. When he becomes physically stronger and is ready to use his own talents to earn a living, then he shifts his trust to his own skills. He does not yet realize that everything that happened to him in his life until that point was all because of Hashem's benevolent control. He is supposed to understand that just like he was not born because of his abilities and was not nursed because of his abilities, so too he was not supported because of his abilities until then, and will not be supported because of his abilities going forward. The Chovot HaLevavot then tells a story about an expert scribe who supported himself through his craft. One day, his neighbor asked him how things were going. The scribe replied, “As long as my hand is in good shape, I will be in good shape.” Unfortunately, that same night, a mishap occurred to his hand and he was never able to write with that hand for the rest of his life. The Chovot HaLevavot said it was a consequence because he believed in his hand instead of Hashem. That hand became a stumbling block for his real purpose in life. If a person earns his livelihood through other people, he will then shift his trust to them, assuming they will help him whenever he is in trouble. However, when his perception grows stronger, he will see that the people he thought were self-sufficient have their own deficiencies and are in need of Hashem's help themselves. He comes to realize that the person he is trusting in does not live forever. He also can get sick or weak. He also has his struggles with business. At that point, he will begin trusting in Hashem, but on a limited basis. He will trust in Hashem for matters that he knows he has no control over. He will pray to Hashem for rain. He will pray to Hashem to protect him while at sea. Or he will pray to be protected from sicknesses and life-threatening circumstances. When his awareness of Hashem gets stronger, he will then trust in Hashem even for things in which he feels like he has at least some control over. But then, when his awareness of Hashem grows even stronger, he'll begin placing his trust in Him to help him with everything he does, even the simplest tasks. He'll find himself asking Hashem to help him get to his destination safely, although it's nearby. He'll ask Hashem for help throughout his day, every step of the way. He will know, even when he's at work talking to a buyer, it will be Hashem deciding if he'll get the sale. A man told me he's a workaholic. He feels any minute he's not at his business, something catastrophic could occur. He is working very hard on trusting in Hashem more. One day recently, he was feeling very run down and in need of a day off. He forced himself to stay home and rest. As he was feeling a little better, he went to his back porch to learn Torah and catch up with his children who are learning in Eretz Yisrael . While he was on the phone with one of them, he got another call from his business telling him someone important called asking to speak with him. He called that man back, who made an order by phone that was the biggest order he had received in a very long time. He told me the lesson was clear. He thought his business couldn't run without him there. And Hashem showed him, on the day he's not there, he'll get his biggest sale. With Hashem's help, tomorrow we'll continue with the final two levels of bitachon .