Lean on Me
Life is full of crises; we go from one test situation to another. The fires on our southern border and the threats of war up north show us how totally Israel must lean on Hashem.
By: Rabbi Shalom Arush
What does it mean to trust Hashem completely? It means that we sincerely believe that our deliverance from any predicament is in Hashem’s hands. It means that we lean on Hashem, and on Him only. So, when we lean on Hashem, we never fall and we’re never disgraced.
Here’s an example: Suppose that you’re a soldier in combat and that your best friend has just been wounded seriously. You have to rush him to a waiting evacuation helicopter (photo, above), otherwise he’ll be in grave danger. Your friend can’t walk, so he must rely on you and three of your fellow crewmen to carry him on a stretcher to the chopper. You and your buddies know that if you let him go for even an instant, he’ll fall; you therefore grip the stretcher tight, because you’re fully aware that his life depends on the four of you.
Hashem is a million times more compassionate than we are. Imagine for a moment that if a person truthfully and innocently leans on Hashem because he or she doesn’t have the strength to deal with whatever they have to, do you think for a moment that Hashem will let you go? Never! All we have to do is strengthen our simple and uncomplicated trust in Hashem, and bingo! We’re home free, we never fall.
When we lean on Hashem’s lovingkindness, we always succeed. A person doesn’t have to be a righteous tzaddik to benefit from Hashem’s lovingkindness, for Hashem’s lovingkindness is a free gift available to anyone that truly seeks it. King David says in Psalms 32:10 that lovingkindness surrounds the person that trusts in Hashem. In other words, one who trusts in Hashem will always succeed, whether he or she deserves success or not. This is a fantastic key to whatever we want – by putting our genuine trust in Hashem, we are entitled to far more than what we deserve according to our deeds.
A person that truly trusts in Hashem, even if that person has been issued a difficult decree or sentence, no evil can befall him or her because of the principle that we just learned, namely, that lovingkindness surrounds the person that trusts in Hashem. In practical terms, it means that even if a person has committed transgressions – and he or she deserves to be punished in accord with their transgressions – if they truly trust in Hashem, then the powers of severe judgment are neutralized – completely disarmed – and they are unable to implement the harsh verdict against the person that truly trusts in Hashem. Once again, as things turn out, that if a person has true trust in Hashem, then he or she doesn’t have to be afraid of anything in the world.
Who can say that they never flub up? Who can say that they never hear gossip or slander for example; hearing lashon hara is just as bad as speaking it. The Chafetz Chaim goes to great lengths in describing the punishment that a person deserves for one transgression of Torah (better to sell everything you have, etc) – yet, with trust, the Heavenly debt collectors and executioners are neutralized. This is a principle of mind-boggling consequences: Imagine that a person is faced with a decree of a terminal illness or a severe calamity – when the Heavenly prosecution attorneys check the accused person’s file and discover that he or she innocently and truthfully clings to Hashem in full trust, then they can’t activate the punishment.
With this in mind, we can understand that attaining trust is the best effort we can do in life.
Many people often ask me, “Well, I’m not a big tzaddik – emuna and bitachon – complete faith and trust in Hashem is not possible for a person down here in my spiritual level. I can’t attain such a spiritual plateau!”
You can’t because you don’t want to!
Rebbe Nachman of Breslev carries the notion of trust a step further – in Likutei Moharan I:193, Rebbe Nachman writes that a person’s thoughts have enormous power, and if he or she focuses on a certain goal with strength, then they can achieve literally anything. When a person concentrates thought to the extent that all his or her other feelings are nullified, they are certain to attain what they set out to attain.
From Breslev Israel, here.