One of the most difficult things to do in life today is give up our personal control over the world around us. Everything we do today is in one-way-or-another an attempt to control our surroundings, outcomes, relationships, business deals, vehicles, the environment, the Government, our finances, our children, our spouses, etc.
In a constant race to control everything around us, we often miss our opportunity to appreciate that which we already have as a result of all this labor. How depressing it is to realize you have reached the end of a specific experience, or life itself, and yet were so busy trying to control everything around you, that you never set aside any time to fully use, or enjoy the things you had working so hard to control and create. Anyone that has organized a wedding, gone to prom, or attended college, knows this mistake very well.
One of the themes of Shabbat, and faith in general, is taking the time (as G-d did) to stop and appreciate what we have created during the past week. Although we as humans have made many great strides in being able to effectuate the world around us (electricity, cars, planes, phones, stoves, fire,…) we are still just humans, and thus greatly limited. No matter how hard we work to try to control our surroundings, our great towers and expansive empires can crumble in an instant!
Even the most powerful human is limited. He or she cannot control everything, all the time. Thus, time must be taken to appreciate what we can control and have created, and what we cannot. At all times we should trust in G-d, who truly has control of all of Creation.
An article discussing this concept further can be found below the fold.
For those Jews who celebrate the precious gift, have a purposeful Shabbat. To those who do not, have a incredible weekend.
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Behar (Leviticus 25:1-26:2)
The Big Trust
At the end of the book of Leviticus – with all the offerings, Temple vessels, and priestly duties – we have a special group of commandments that may be one of the strangest ideas in the entire Torah: the Sabbatical year (Shmitta), when we abandon the agriculture of our country for an entire year.
And while we’re at it, why not command mass suicide for the entire nation? This surely would be the outcome of not plating food and working your field for an entire year. How would your tribe, or animals eat? Some say that the concept of Shmitta was to let the land rest and rejuvenate. However, if that is the only purpose of Shmitta, you could just rotate the fields and not have to completely skip planting an entire year. This is especially true in biblical times when agriculture was the main source of the nation’s food supply and commerce.
Why would God cause such hardship? He explains in Leviticus 25:21: “I will command My blessing for you in the sixth year, and it will be enough produce for three years.” This is something only the Infinite One can promise as He is the only one that can promise a blessing in the land for a bumper crop and who can control the sun, wind and rain to make such a promise? Only the Almighty can promise that. But the question still remains; why would He? The answer is that God, wanted to teach the Jewish people an even greater lesson then the earthly requirements of argiculture and commerce. He wanted to teach that trust, and faith in God is a greater power than anything a human could create on earth, with his own hands.
* * *TRUST
To trust the Almighty is a natural consequence of believing in Him. If there is an Infinite Being Who loves you and wants the best for you, then it follows you should trust Him. The more convinced you are of the truth of His existence, His infiniteness, and His love for you, the more trust and faith you’ll have.
When we discuss concepts of trust, it usually seems to be an outgrowth of our adherence to Religion; it doesn’t feel like a specific command on behalf of the Creator. But we see in Shmita a commandment to trust that God will take care of us.
Of course, trust in God is a broad topic, and is not limited to the realm of Shmita. But every seven years we express in the grandest way we can as a nation that we believe in the Almighty. It’s sort of like millions of people all affirming our belief in the oneness of God at the same time, or every Jew fully practicing Shabbat? These are acts of complete faith as for many of us, the ability to leave work for a day each week difficult, and could directly affect our jobs, social lives, etc. Shabbat and Shmita parallel each other in this way: Both are a sign of our trust in God over those things we create and wish to control.
* * *HEAVENLY SCORECARD
Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler (1892-1953) described trust in God as a constant fluctuating relationship. We have choices all day long that affect our relationship with the Almighty, how much we rely on Him, how much effort we think we need to put into our endeavors, etc. If we do nothing, and wait for Him to fulfill our needs, saying, “God loves me, He’ll provide,” it may be a cop out. We may not want to do any work and we’re just using trust in God as an excuse. If so, when the money doesn’t fall through the window, we might conclude that God doesn’t run the world.
Many times I have personally put an effort into a particular endeavor, only to find that my effort was not linked to the desired outcome; it came about through a different means. God likes to remind us that He runs the world. But we need to be open to this message.
In Heaven, there is a hidden scorecard, so to speak, that evaluates our trust. The events that happen to us are somewhat based on the types of challenges to our trust that we need in order to get to the next level.
Some sages even suggest that all of life – all of our challenges – are really about trust, as the Prophet Habakuk said; “A righteous person lives by his trust” (Habakuk 2:4).
* * *RAISING THE BAR
How do we put in a proper amount of effort, while at the same time trust the All-powerful, All-loving, Infinite Being running the show? Here’s a four-point plan:
1) Don’t worry so much. Whatever challenges arise are for your growth.
2) Pray for the outcome you want – no matter how much effort you’ve put in, or how sure you’re going to achieve what you want.
3) Keep track of the times when things worked out the way you wanted “accidentally.” (Nothing is an accident.) Once, when my teacher, Rabbi Noah Weinberg o.b.m., asked an extremely wealthy man how he was able to be so successful, the man replied with great honesty, “Sometimes mistakes turn out wonderfully.”
4) Keep your mind on what God wants in every situation, and you’ll see more of His hand in supplying you with what you want. As it says in the Talmud (Avot 2:4): “Make His will your will, so that He will make your will His will.” The more you see His hand in your life, the more you’ll come to trust Him.
Tags: Open thread, Shabbat, Trust
