THE ANATOMY OF TRUST
In this week’s Parsha, Vayechi, our father Yaakov lies on his deathbed giving blessings to each of his sons. To Dan he references the great leader, Shimshon, who singlehandedly brought down the Plishtim when they rose up against our people. Immediately after referencing Shimshon, Yaakov adds a prayer that he trusts in Ha-Shem for His salvation. One of the commentaries points out that Yaakov is clarifying to his children that although there will be an extremely powerful leader who will be able to bring down the enemy, nevertheless, the one in whom they must place their trust is HaShem and in nobody else.
Yaakov uses the word ‘kavei’ which means to trust or to hope. Kavei derives from ‘kav’ which means a direct line. The use of the same word indicates the nature of that trust and that hope. When one places their trust in HaShem they are drawing a strand of hope from their heart to Him.
There are two types of trust. The first is the optimistic fellow, equipped with a degree in business management and quality employees is hoping to find success. There is no guarantee for success; there are so many factors that are out of his control and anything can happen. If after some time nothing materializes, sooner or later, he will give up and move on. His hopes were dashed and misplaced.
The second type of trust is the fellow who does not trust in his investment, know-how and employees. Rather, he trusts HaShem will help him. Now, quite frankly, even with trust in HaShem it may not work out if HaShem does not wish it to work.
However, there is a distinction between him and the first fellow. The second fellow placed his trust in the Source of all success. By so doing, he drew a ‘kav’, a direct line connecting himself to HaShem. That line was not lost. Even when he decides to fold up the business and move on, that trust was not misplaced. While the business endeavor failed, the direct line that was drawn from deep inside his soul to HaShem did not fail.
HaShem designed our soul with incredible depth. The levels of our emotions are infinite. When we are great need of a refuah (recovery) the deeper levels of our soul call out. If at this time we draw a line to HaShem in our trust in Him, we accomplish in-credible attachment to Him. So many times this connection ac-tually yields a refuah. But even when it does not, the line re-mains attached and a salvation will come somewhere else.
Ramchal writes that one who lives in a constant state of trust is in a constant state of happiness. No matter how much time endures before his salvation comes, he continues to wait and hence his happiness endures. How are we to understand this? What if he waits his entire life for a successful bone marrow transplant which never occurs and he succumbs to his disease? Was this not misplaced trust? Any happiness he had by trusting yielded no salvation.
The answer is that all that time that he and his relatives were davening, were learning, were saying Tehillim, they were drawing bands of connection from their souls to HaShem. Those bands came from a very deep point in their soul to HaShem. Those bands remain. HaShem’s salvation will come. No prayer that is said earnestly is ever turned away empty.
When Yaakov saw the incredible strength of Shimshon standing up against the forces of the Plishtim, he quickly focused his attention on his trust in HaShem. Yaakov was not interested in the salvation per se, he wanted to use the fright of the Plishtim threat to draw the direct line from that deep spot in his soul to HaShem.
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind