Daily Bitachon - delivered directly to your computer and/or mobile device https://itorah.com/daily-bitachon/sutton/all en-us Copyright 2026 iTorah.com Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss itorahwebsite@gmail.com Rabbi David Sutton Daily Bitachon Podcast - Daily Bitachon By Rabbi David Sutton Daily Bitachon by Rabbi David Sutton: Building Strength from your love, faith and devotion to Hashem episodic Torah Learning Resources. itorahwebsite@gmail.com No https://learntorah.com/content/18443d4a-2a84-4bd7-b423-fc5a3cf48a6c.mp3 Daily Bitachon: The Power of Daily Contemplation Welcome to Daily Bitachon. We spoke in the previous class on the three approaches to strengthening our emuna (faith): Seeing God through Torah Seeing God through creation Seeing miracles like that of Yetziat Mitzrayim (the Exodus from Egypt) Today, we're going to talk about the need to do this every single day. 1. Remembering Ma'amad Har Sinai (The Standing at Mount Sinai) When it comes to remembering Ma'amad Har Sinai , it says in Devarim 4:9 : רק השמר לך ושמר נפשך מאד "Beware," פן תשכח את הדברים אשר ראו עיניך "lest you forget the things you saw with your eyes," ופן יסורו מלבבך כל ימי חייך "and should never leave your heart all the days of your life," והודעתם לבניך ולבני בניך "and tell your children and grandchildren." What are we talking about? יום אשר עמדת לפני ה' אלקיך בחורב —The day you stood in front of Hashem at Har Chorev (which is Har Sinai) when He gave you the Ten Commandments. You see over here, the Ramban in his count of the mitzvot says you have to remember Har Sinai every single day. The Rambam in his Iggeret Teiman says the same thing: We have to remember Har Sinai every single day. 2. Finding God in Creation When it comes to finding God in creation, Devarim 4:39 states: וידעת היום והשבת אל לבבך כי ה' הוא האלהים בשמים ממעל ועל הארץ מתחת אין עוד "Know today and place on your heart that Hashem is God in the heavens above and the land below, there's no one but Him." As we quoted, Rabbeinu Yonah ( Sha'arei Teshuva , the third gate, letter 17) says this is the source that we must delve into the greatness of God and be maskil —to contemplate God in creation. Rabbeinu Bachya , commenting on this same pasuk in Devarim 4:39, also tells us it's a mitzvat asseh (positive commandment) from the Torah. What's the command? Lada'at oto (to know Him) ve-lachdor al achduto (and to delve into His oneness), ולא לסמוך על הקבלה בלבד —don't just rely on tradition. You have to look into His actions and His creations. Why does it say levavecha (your heart) with two beits ? As we know, the two beits refer to the yetzer tov (good inclination) and the yetzer hara (evil inclination). What does that mean? It means you have a yetzer hara inside of you that is going to pull you away and question your emuna . You have to engage in that internal battle and convince the darker side, so to say, that there is a God. Now, what's interesting is that Rabbeinu Yonah and Rabbeinu Bachya both count this as a mitzvah . What about the Rambam ? Rav Yeruchem Fishel Perla , in his commentary on the Rav Saadia Gaon (Mitzvah 3), says the Rambam holds like that as well. Of course this is a mitzvah ! He just doesn't count it from this specific pasuk because, as we mentioned, the Rambam considers that part of the general mitzvah of Ve-ahavta et Hashem Elokecha ("And you shall love Hashem your God"). I don't have to tell you to look into God in creation; I have to tell you to love Him, and looking into creation is the way to love Him. Included in the mitzvah to love God is obviously to contemplate creation and Torah in order to come to that love. On that pasuk , the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh says Ve-yadata hayom means she-be-chol yom —every single day. Every single day you have to contemplate God. 3. Remembering Yetziat Mitzrayim Yetziat Mitzrayim. Obviously, we know this is required every day because it says in Devarim 16:3 : למען תזכור את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים כל ימי חייך "Remember the day you got out of Egypt all the days of your life." So every single day you have to remember Har Sinai, every single day you have to find God in creation, and every single day you have to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim. These three pillars have to be done every single day. Keeping It Fresh: "Hot Off the Press" If we look at the pasuk of Ve-ahavta (Perek 6, Pasuk 5-6), it says: ואהבת את ה' אלקיך בכל לבבך... והיו הדברים האלה אשר אנכי מצוך היום על לבבך . "And you shall love Hashem your God with all your heart... And these words that I command you today should be on your heart." Rashi explains that through having the words of the Torah on your heart, you recognize God and connect to Him. And regarding the phrase "that I command you today," Rashi says it shouldn't be viewed like an old decree or an old letter that you don't care to look at. It should be brand new—like hot-off-the-press news that everyone runs to read, not yesterday's newspaper. Every single day when you read Kriyat Shema , it should be fresh and new. How do you do that? Well, if every single day you contemplate God in creation and contemplate Him in your Torah, you find a fresh, new excitement about Hashem. You say, "Wow, I didn't realize that wonder of creation before... I didn't realize that wonder in the Torah... I didn't fully appreciate Yetziat Mitzrayim until now." That is the daily aspect. The Warning of Yeshayahu Any time we talk about a daily obligation, this is God's concept of daily. How far does it go? Look at Yeshayahu (Perek 5, Pasuk 11-13) : "Woe to those who rise early in the morning to pursue liquor, who stay up late at night while wine inflames them. There are harp and lyre and drum and flute and wine at their drinking parties, but they would not contemplate the deed of Hashem and would not look at His handiwork. Therefore My people is being exiled because of ignorance, its honored ones dying of starvation, its multitude parched from thirst." Why is that? What kind of punishment is going into exile just because you get up late or party? Rashi asks: What does it mean that they didn't look into God's handiwork? Rashi explains: לא קלסו שחרית יוצר אור ולא ערבית המערב ערבים They did not say Birchot Kriyat Shema (the blessings of Shema) in the morning and at night. That is the daily contemplation that we need, and the lack of it brought the Churban (destruction). It's unbelievable. The Sefer Barak Hashachar (Habata- Reiya) comments that this is why the pasuk uses a double language: פועל השם לא יביטו ומעשה ידיו לא ראו ( "They look not at the deed of Hashem, nor see the work of His hands" ). One is for the morning, and one is for the evening. Yabbitu (look carefully): Relates to po'al Hashem (the deeds of Hashem), which means Hashem's Hashgacha (divine providence). That requires deeper contemplation. Ra'u (see): Relates to ma'aseh yadav (His handiwork). That is obvious; what He did in creation should be readily seen. The Secret to Human Nature: Finding the Right Thrill The Chatam Sofer points out that this is actually reflected in a pasuk we read right before the month of Elul ( Devarim 11:26-28 ): ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה "See, I am placing in front of you today a blessing and a curse." As we know, we pray to end the year and its curses, and begin the new year and its blessings. What does the blessing come for? It comes if you listen to the mitzvot אשר אנכי מצוה אתכם היום —the mitzvot that I command you today , meaning they are fresh and exciting to you. And what does the curse come from? If you don't listen to the mitzvot that I commanded you today , and you stray to follow other gods. The Chatam Sofer asks a powerful question: why? If I do everything right, but the words of Torah just aren't fresh in my eyes, I get cursed? And why does the pasuk immediately connect a lack of freshness to straying after strange gods? He answers based on human nature: We inherently crave things that are new and exciting. Torah is only exciting to you if it feels like the day you received it at Har Sinai; only then do you get excited by it and enjoy it. But if you don't enjoy the Chidushim (new insights) of Torah, or the Chidush in the Beriya (creation), or the Chidush of Yetziat Mitzrayim, then what's going to happen? You're going to look for other types of Chidushim —other types of new and exciting thrills. Everyone needs a thrill! If you don't get your thrill and excitement in the newness and freshness of Torah, you're going to look for it somewhere else. You're going to look for the next new religion, the new "ism," or whatever else it may be. Therefore, the ultimate key to our success is our dedicated, daily contemplation in all three of these areas: Torah, Creation, and Yetziat Mitzrayim. Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/75c70068-04ac-42df-8b6b-6e070e7cf661.mp3 Introduction to the Fundamentals of Emunah Welcome to our daily Bitachon class. As a continuation of our topic on Sha'ar HaBechinah (The Gate of Reflection), we are now going to discuss the fundamentals of Emunah —the ways in which we attain a clear recognition of God. To begin, there are three fundamental paths through which we recognize God. The first—in no specific order—is through creation, which we explored during our six months studying Sha'ar HaBechinah . The Chovot HaLevavot teaches us that the most direct and simplest way to understand God's Yichud (His oneness and exclusivity) is by delving into creation. This is why Sha'ar HaBechinah is placed as the second gate of the book. The first gate, Sha'ar HaYichud , is highly philosophical and is not commonly learned today; the Chovot HaLevavot itself suggests that we focus our attention on Bechinah instead. The second path through which we find God is through His Torah. God revealed His will and His desires for the world through the Torah. Recognizing His will allows us to fulfill the dictate of Vehallachta Bedrachav —to walk in His ways, which are the ways of the Torah. The third path is through His involvement in the world. We can look at this dimension through various lenses: Hashgacha Pratit (Divine providence), Sechar VeOnesh (reward and punishment), or open miracles. Whether hidden or revealed, seeing God's hand guiding the world is a powerful way to recognize Him. Our goal going forward is to build a structured understanding of how we observe God within these dimensions. The Two Tracks of Recognition In Darkei HaAvodah , Rav Meir Tzvi Bergman explains that there are actually two fundamental tracks for attaining recognition of God and coming to serve Him. The first track is Yetziat Mitzrayim (the Exodus from Egypt), which represents the very first statement God made to us as a nation: אנוכי השם אלוקיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים "I am Hashem your God who took you out of the land of Egypt." The second track consists of Torah and Beriah (creation). For simplicity's sake, we can categorize these as Track 1 ( Yetziat Mitzrayim , which is God's direct revelation to us), Track 2-A (delving into the Torah), and Track 2-B (delving into creation). Rav Bergman points to the Rambam in Sefer HaMitzvot (Positive Commandment #3). When the Rambam defines what it means to fulfill the commandment to love God, he explains that we must contemplate and understand His commandments, His words, and His actions. How does this intellectual understanding lead to love? Once you internalize the concept of Hashem Echad and truly recognize God ( Nassigehu ), you naturally experience a profound, ultimate pleasure from that realization ( נהנה בהשגתו בתכלית הנאה ). Love is always dependent on connection; you enjoy a person's presence and yearn to be close to them. Similarly, when we perceive the greatness of God in creation or in the Torah, it sparks a deep connection and a yearning to be close to Him. The Structure of Our Daily Prayers To anchor this with a practical, daily takeaway, we can look at our prayers. The central moment where we focus on Hashem Echad is, of course, the Kriat Shema . The Kriat Shema consists of three paragraphs ( parshiot ). The first two ( V'ahavta and Ve-hayah im shamoa ) focus heavily on loving Hashem, which, as we established, comes through studying His Torah and creation. The third paragraph ( Vayomer ) concludes with the remembrance of the Exodus: אנוכי השם אלוקיכם אשר הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים "I am Hashem your God who took you out of the land of Egypt." Thus, our daily Kriat Shema explicitly encapsulates all three of these foundational points. Furthermore, if we pay close attention to the blessings surrounding the Shema ( Birkot Kriat Shema ), we see this exact structure beautifully highlighted: Before Shema (Creation): The first blessing is Yotzer Or V'choshekh , which praises God for the natural world and concludes with Yotzer HaMe'orot (Creator of the luminaries). This corresponds to looking into creation. Before Shema (Torah): The second blessing is Ahavat Olam , which details God's love for us. The entire blessing revolves around the fact that He chose us and taught us the Torah ( וקרבתנו מלכנו לשמך הגדול ). In it, we ask Hashem for the ability to understand His Torah. After Shema ( Yetziat Mitzrayim ): After declaring Hashem Elokeichem Emet , we transition into V'yatziv Venachon , where we recount the Exodus, sing Mi Chamocha , and recall Az Yashir right before transitioning into the Amidah . Conclusion As Rav Wolbe writes, the single best way to strengthen our philosophical ideals is to focus on them during prayer, because the text of our liturgy contains the secrets to everything. Every single day, from Barechu until the Amidah , our prayers guide us through a deliberate spiritual sequence: we contemplate God in creation, we contemplate God in the Torah, and then—having reached a clear recognition through those two avenues—we declare Hashem Echad . From there, we move through the Shema , invoke the reality of Yetziat Mitzrayim , and emerge with a clear, fortified Emunah . Only then are we truly ready to stand before Him and pray. As we transition away from Sha'ar HaBechinah , this is the fundamental takeaway we must carry with us: strengthening our Emunah is a dynamic process that relies on all three of these powerful avenues. Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/9a829ea9-0007-443f-b40b-2e0c076d028f.mp3 Welcome to Daily Bitachon. We are now winding down Sha'ar HaBechina [The Gate of Reflection], looking at how we realize Hashem created the world, commit to serving Him, and ultimately learn to rely on Him. But never forget that the little bit we see with our physical eyes is just a fraction of reality; there is a much larger picture out there. The Zohar tells us about the existence of entirely different spiritual worlds. We have God's Kissei HaKavod —the Throne of Glory, so to speak—where we perceive His absolute control over the cosmos. Then we have the world of the angels, Olam HaMalachim , where the various holy hosts reside. Among them are angels who do nothing but constantly declare, " Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh ." The Zohar explains that from sunrise to sunset, they are continuously saying " Kadosh ," and from the moment the sun sets until it rises again, they say " Baruch kevod... " There are massive angelic forces up there constantly praising Hashem's Name! Yet, as great and powerful as these angels are, the Gemara in Tractate Chullin (91b) drops that unbelievable line: אין מלאכי השרת אוֹמְרִים שִׁירָה לְמַעְלָה עַד שֶׁיֹּאמְרוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל לְמַטָּה "The ministering angels do not sing praise above until Israel sings below on earth." The angels cannot say Kedushah above until we, the Jewish people, initiate it down here. Think back to our mashal [parable] of the king: with all of his vast empire, the king right now is focused entirely on this one sweet bird. We are Hashem's children, and our voices are sweet to Him. As the verse says, " Hashmi'eni et kolech "—"Let Me hear your voice." If God is literally waiting to hear our voices before listening to the angels, and He has the boundless ability to feed all of those massive heavenly hosts, shouldn't we realize that we can completely rely on Him? The beauty of it is that this exact lesson is built right into our daily prayers. Everything is inside our tefillah . Rav Shlomo Wolbe once said that all the core fundamentals of Judaism are hidden right in our Siddur; we just have to open our eyes and find them. Take a look at how it flows. We start off the blessings before the morning Shema with the words: " Yotzer or u'vorei choshech "—"Who fashions light and creates darkness." We begin by talking about the physical universe and the orbital luminaries. But then, right in the middle of discussing the sun and the moon, we suddenly switch gears. We begin describing God as the Borei Kedoshim —the Fashioner of holy ministering servants. We launch into a breathtaking description of what these angels do: they stand at the summit of the universe and proclaim with awe, together loudly, the words of the living God and King of the universe. We describe them as beloved, flawless, mighty, and holy. They perform the will of their Maker with dread and reverence. They open their mouths in holiness, purity, and song, and they bless, praise, glorify, sanctify, revere, and declare the kingship of Hashem, the great, mighty, and awesome King. The prayer goes on to describe how they accept upon themselves the yoke of heavenly sovereignty from one another, granting permission to each other to sanctify the One who formed them. With tranquility, with clear articulation, and with sweetness, they all proclaim His holiness as one, saying with awe: " Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh... " Then the Ofanim and the Chayot HaKodesh respond with a thunderous noise: " Baruch kevod Hashem mi'mekomo "—"Blessed is the glory of Hashem from His place." Then, right after this intense depiction of the angelic choir, the Siddur switches gears back to the physical universe, concluding the blessing with: " Baruch Ata Hashem, yotzer ha'me'orot "—"Blessed are You Hashem, Creator of the luminaries." Did you ever notice that question? What in the world are angels doing right in the middle of a discussion about the sun, the moon, and the stars? It's a classic question. I was once told an answer in the name of Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian (which he passed on to Rav Wolbe): Hashem is telling us, "Let's learn from the angels." Look at how the angels proclaim God's kingship, and let's emulate them. In fact, there is a custom brought down by the Ben Ish Chai in the name of the great Ashkenazi Kabbalist, Rabbi Nathan Shapira of Krakow. He notes that before we step back and take our three steps forward for the Amidah , we give a slight nod of greeting to those around us. Why? To show signs of peace and friendship to each other, just like the angels do before they praise God. We want to act angelic as we approach prayer. We even hold our feet tightly together during the Amidah to emulate them. Before you emulate the angels, you have to see what they are about. They accept God's kingdom with love and harmony among themselves. That means we have to get along and be unified before we declare Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad . But there is a second answer to our question, based on the teachings of the Chafetz Chaim. When you talk about the creation of the world—about the sun and the moon—you might think that's the entire story. You look out with your physical eyes and think, "Okay, this is the extent of God's power." And then, if you look at this physical world and see havoc, chaos, and a world running completely wild, you panic and ask, "How can I rely on Him to fix this?" So the Siddur tells us to take a step back. Hold on. You see the sun and the moon? That is not the whole story. The reality is vastly greater. There are layers of angels up there praising God, who see the inner gears of the universe. And for all their immense greatness, they can't utter a single sound until we respond down here. Are you actually worried that the King can't take care of you? Look at how holy and significant we are. All of creation needs sustenance, and God sustains the angels too. The only difference is that we eat physical food and they eat spiritual food. But make no mistake: angels need nourishment. They don't just live on thin air. Nothing exists independently on its own strength except for God. The Tomer Devorah discusses this at length. Every time we do a mitzvah , we create a holy angel. If a person commits an aveira [sin], chas v'shalom , they create a destructive angel. Those angels require spiritual energy to survive. What do they "eat"? They live on the energy of our actions. And what did we eat when we were elevated? We ate the food of angels! How do we know this? King David writes in Tehillim (78:25): " Lechem abirim achal ish "—"Man ate the bread of the mighty ones." Tractate Yoma (75b) explicitly explains that this means the Jewish people literally ate the food of the ministering angels—the Manna—while traveling through the desert. In the wilderness, Hashem treated us exactly like He treats the angels. We didn't need coarse, physical food; we survived on pure spiritual light. Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas writes in his classic work, Reshit Chochma ( Sha'ar HaKedushah , Chapter 15), that even today, there are elite talmidei chachamim [Torah scholars] who can live primarily on spiritual energy. He explains that this is why certain sages could go two or three days without eating a single thing—because the mazon haTorah (the spiritual nourishment of the Torah itself) kept them physically full. That is how Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son survived in the cave for thirteen years. This brings us right back to the incredible historical account recorded by Rabbi Yisrael of Shklov in his introduction to Pe'at HaShulchan . He describes his master, the Vilna Gaon, and how radically little he ate. The Gaon ate only two tiny meals a day, taking a piece of dry bread no larger than a kezayit [the size of an olive], dipping it in water, and consuming it. That was it! And yet, Rabbi Yisrael records that the Gaon remained physically strong, resilient, and robust. Where did that physical strength come from? It came from the literal application of the verse: "Man does not live by bread alone, but by all that comes from the mouth of Hashem." The Torah itself became his physical fuel. Great tzaddikim tapped directly into that spiritual nourishment, which proves that God can sustain a person in the most wondrous, supernatural ways whenever He wills it. When you think about these concepts—about the sheer scale of God's power and His intimate love for us—how can you not place your ultimate trust in Him? With this profound realization, we officially conclude Sha'ar HaBechina and read the final, beautiful words of the Chovos HaLevavos : והאלהים ישימנו מאנשי עבודתו "May God place us among those who serve Him," המכירים עניני טובתו ברחמיו ובחסדיו אמן "who recognize the matters of His goodness, through His mercy and His kindness. Amen." נשלם השער השני — The second gate is now complete. אל אדני אקרא ויענני — "To Hashem I shall call out, and He will answer me." We see from here that when a person truly identifies God within creation, they are fully prepared to call out and be answered. That recognition is the ultimate runway for our daily Amidah . Now that we have journeyed through Sha'ar HaBechina , stop for a moment, absorb the greatness, and make that prayer. Mabruk and a massive Mazal Tov to all of us on completing this incredible journey of over 100 classes! Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/484ded15-108b-4cf7-bd55-19c2d8c784bd.mp3 Welcome to the Daily Bitachon: Erev Shabbat Edition The Shulchan Aruch tells us in Siman Reish-Samech (260) that one should cut their nails on Friday afternoon. Simply speaking, cutting one's nails on Friday afternoon is Kevod Shabbat —it is showing respect for Shabbat. The Be'er Heitev , one of the commentaries on the side of the Shulchan Aruch , invokes the Gemara ( Niddah 17a) which tells us that one should not leave fingernails on the floor when they are cut. One should either burn them or bury them, but definitely not leave them out. What is the reason behind this? Why are fingernails dangerous? He tells us that before the sin of Adam HaRishon (the first man), man was cloaked in a clothing similar to a fingernail. That means his body and soul shone through this thin, translucent fingernail material. After man sinned, he was coated with the physical flesh that we have today. The Ben Ish Chai ( Parashat Bereshit ) says that originally it was Kotnot Or ( כותנות אור ) with an Alef —clothing of light—and it switched to Kotnot Or ( כותנות עור ) with an Ayin —clothing of skin and flesh. When Shabbat comes, we will see that Shabbat is all about going back to the state of man before the sin; the job of Shabbat is to lift us up above the sin. So, on Friday afternoon, we cut our nails to beautify them. We are going into Shabbat when our clothing is meant to be the cloth of nails—that is what it was supposed to be. The Transcendence of Shabbat and the Reality of Motzei Shabbat Then, on Motzei Shabbat , we look at our candle and we look at our fingernails. Why do we have a candle on Motzei Shabbat ? It is because God created fire on Motzei Shabbat . Why did God create fire on Motzei Shabbat ? What about Friday night? The answer is that when Adam sinned, there was a change in the light that God had created. Originally, God created a light which we call Or HaGanuz —the hidden light. It was a light through which you could see from one end of the world to the other. Because Adam sinned, God said that light was too dangerous to use because people could misuse it, so He hid that light away for the future. Today, we no longer have that light. When did that light disappear? On Motzei Shabbat . Out of respect for Shabbat, that original light stayed from Friday afternoon at twelve o'clock (when Adam was created) until Motzei Shabbat . So, it was lit for thirty-six hours. Motzei Shabbat is all about the consequences of the sin of Adam taking hold. We have that candle to remind us that we would not have needed artificial fire if not for the sin of Adam. We look at our fingernails to remind us that we should have been totally coated in that translucent material. Similarly, a woman is traditionally not supposed to drink from the Havdalah cup. Why not? Because there is an opinion that the Etz HaDa'at (the Tree of Knowledge) was a grapevine. Therefore, when Havdalah arrives, we do not want to remind anyone that Chavah (Eve) took from the grape when she was not supposed to, which could arouse a prosecution—a Kitrug . The Be'er Heitev explains that the Gemara says if a pregnant lady steps on discarded fingernails, it is dangerous for her pregnancy. Why? The answer he gives is that discarded nails remind us of the sin of Adam and Chavah. Originally, there was no such thing as a fingernail that you cut and discarded; your whole body was coated in it. These clippings remind us of the original sin, and the punishment of Chavah was difficulty in childbirth. We do not want an arousal of that sin, and therefore, a pregnant lady touching discarded fingernails becomes dangerous. The Power of Friday Afternoon Preparations Coming back to our main story, which is the positivity of Shabbat: Shabbat is all about bringing us back to Adam before the sin. The Sefer Chemdat Yamim tells us that the Erev Shabbat Friday afternoon preparation has the ability to atone for the sin that happened on that day. We also see this in a pasuk in Shemot 16:5: וְהָיָה בַּיּוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי וְהֵכִינוּ אֵת אֲשֶׁר־יָבִיאוּ וְהָיָה מִשְׁנֶה עַל אֲשֶׁר־יִלְקְטוּ יוֹם יוֹם "And it shall come to pass on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily." This refers to the Manna. They prepared on Friday, and they received a double portion. He tells us that the word Mishneh ( מִשְׁנֶה )—which means double, like shani —has the exact same letters as Neshamah ( נְשָׁמָה ). This hints to us that the preparation of Erev Shabbat causes us to be cleansed from the sin of Adam HaRishon , which brings down upon us the Neshamah Yeteirah (the extra soul) that we lost. The Neshamah Yeteirah symbolizes the level of man before his sin. Similarly, we say in the Shabbat prayers: Yismach Moshe be-matnat chelko ( יִשְׂמַח מֹשֶׁה בְּמַתְּנַת חֶלְקוֹ )—Moshe is happy with his portion. What does that mean? This might be a little complicated, and you might have to listen to this class twice! The commentators say that when we stood at Har Sinai, the negativity of the original sin disappeared. Adam HaRishon's sin was corrected, everything went back to the way it was meant to be, and we received two crowns on our heads. Those two crowns represent the same spiritual power as our extra Neshamah —the correction of Adam's sin. However, when we sinned with the Golden Calf, we lost those crowns. Who received them instead? Moshe Rabbeinu. And that is why his face shone. Every Shabbat, Moshe is kind enough— Yismach Moshe is very happy with his given portion—to give us back those crowns. Because on Shabbat, in a spiritual way, we return to the state of Adam before the sin, so we get our crowns back. Right after the end of Parashat Ki Tissa (which talks about Moshe Rabbeinu's face shining), the next Parashat , Vayakhel , starts immediately with Shabbat. The Ba'al HaTurim notes this connection because the Gemara says that a person's face looks different on Shabbat than it does during the week. We have a shining face on Shabbat because we are returning to that original Kotnot Or —the clothing of light. The Hidden Light and "Extra Credit" For some real extra credit: that light, as we said, is the light of the Or HaGanuz (the hidden light). That hidden light is symbolized by the Torah she-Ba'al Peh (the Oral Torah) that we toil over. Where did God hide the light? He hid the light in Torah she-Ba'al Peh —in the Mishnayot and the Gemara . That is why the word Neshamah ( נְשָׁמָה ) shares the exact same letters as Mishnah ( מִשְׁנָה ). The Mishnayot bring back that Neshamah Yeteirah ; they bring back that lost light. Again, that's extra credit—we're going a little into information overload here! The Bottom Line What is the practical takeaway from all of this? Through man's sin, he lost what he lost. But on Erev Shabbat, through our physical and spiritual preparations for Shabbat, we receive it all back once again. Then on Motzei Shabbat , we are reminded of what we lose until next week. Our nails—both cutting them on Friday and looking at them on Saturday night—are strongly connected to this profound message. But the main message is that Shabbat, which is what we are constantly working toward, lifts us up far above the sin of Adam HaRishon . The Chemdat Yamim further says that when man was originally placed in Gan Eden , he was given a positive commandment: l'ovdah ( לְעָבְדָהּ )—to serve it, and a negative commandment: u'lshomrah ( וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ )—to guard it. That is exactly why on Shabbat we have the positive commandment of Zachor (Remember) and the negative commandment of Shamor (Guard). He further notes that the beautiful clothing we wear on Shabbat is to remind us of those original spiritual garments. We see from so many different areas that Shabbat is designed to fix the sin of Adam HaRishon . I apologize if there was a bit too much Kabbalah and a lot of information at once, but I came across this recently and I just needed to share it with someone! Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/78360b7e-a384-4ff0-af1e-27e090be8021.mp3 Welcome to Daily Bitachon. We are now in Sha'ar HaBechina [The Gate of Reflection], in our final chapter. We are continuing with the lesson the Chafetz Chaim taught us, which builds on what the Chovos HaLevavos told us: our understanding of God in this world is extremely limited. Because of this limited understanding, it can look like the world is haphazard, out of control, or like chas v'shalom [God forbid] God is unable to fix what needs fixing—all because we focus on a minor rebellion in this small corner of creation. The truth is, every single day in our tefillah [prayer], we give over this exact message: Hashem is constantly sustaining a massive universe. The angels recognize this completely, but down here, we don't. We are limited to what God has revealed to us in this physical world, which is primarily His middot [attributes]. We understand the three intellectual faculties of the mind: chochma (wisdom), bina (understanding), and da'at (knowledge). God revealed those three areas of intellect, and He also revealed seven emotional middot : gedula (greatness/lovingkindness), gevura (strength/restraint), tiferet (glory/harmony), netzach (eternity/victory), hod (splendor), yesod (foundation/all-encompassing), and malchut (kingship/kingdom). God revealed these traits to us, and they correspond to the seven great tzaddikim [righteous pillars] who each perfected one of them. As we've mentioned before, Avraham symbolizes chesed (kindness); Yitzchak is gevura (strength); Yaakov Avinu is tiferet (glory/harmony between kindness and strength); Moshe symbolizes netzach (eternity); Aharon symbolizes hod (splendor/shining); Yosef HaTzaddik is yesod (the foundation, which also connects to the phrase " ki chol " from the verse, as they share the same numerical value); and malchut is David HaMelech. These are the divine traits we can actually grasp down here. We read about them and say them every single day. Look inside Vayivarech David : "And David blessed Hashem in the presence of the entire congregation. David said, 'Blessed are You, Hashem, the God of Israel, our forefather, from this world to the world to come.'" Parenthetically, notice how he explicitly mentions "from this world to the world to come"—the two worlds created by the two letters of His Name, just like we discussed in the last class. The verse continues: "Yours, Hashem, is the greatness (1), the strength (2), the splendor (3), the triumph (4), the glory (5), even everything in the heaven and the earth (6). Yours, Hashem, is the kingdom (7), and the sovereignty over every leader." So now it is clear: in this world, God revealed these seven middot to us. The verse continues: " Wealth and honor come from You, and You rule everything. " Right at this point in the davening, there is a beautiful custom to give three coins to charity. Why? Because at the exact moment we achieve total clarity in God's absolute control over the world's wealth, we give tzedakah to show we realize, "This isn't coming out of my pocket. It's Yours, God. You own it all." The prayer continues: " In Your hand is power and strength, and it is in Your hand to make anyone great or strong. And now, our God, we thank You and praise Your splendorous name. " They blessed His glorious Name, which is exalted above all blessings and praise. Then we take the next step: " It is You alone, Hashem, You have made the heaven and the most exalted heaven, and all their legions, the earth and everything upon it, the seas and everything in them, and You give them all life. " What does it mean, " You give them all life " ( v'Ata mechayeh et kulam )? The Chafetz Chaim points out, quoting the Zohar , that the text doesn't say God gave life in the past ( hecheyata ), but rather mechayeh —He is continuously giving life at this very microsecond. We've discussed this concept before from Rav Moshe Cordovero's Tomer Devorah . In the first divine trait of " Mi El Kamocha " [Who is a God like You], he writes that the world doesn't just keep existing today because it existed yesterday. It exists at this exact moment only because God is actively pumping vital energy into creation. The mashal for this is a large, inflatable bounce house that kids play in. It stays upright and full only because an air pump is running continuously. If you pull the plug, all the air is released instantly and it collapses. This world requires constant, active energizing. We don't see that with our physical eyes, and we don't naturally realize it. But the angels above? They see it clearly. The angels see exactly what is going on. They see that Hashem is constantly energizing everything, and that nothing moves without Him. The Tomer Devorah says that even when you bend your finger, that motion is being directly channeled by God's energy. Because they see this reality, the verse says: " U'tzva ha'shamayim Lecha mishtachavim "—"And the heavenly legions bow to You." They understand what we fail to grasp. They know that among the thousands upon thousands of angelic hosts, no angel has ever had a day without "dinner." Do you know how massive these angels are? The Gemara in Chullin (91b) tells us that the angel Gavriel measures an unimaginable size: two thousand parsa . If we translate that, we are talking about an entity that is thousands of miles high. Other angels are even larger, spanning what we would call light-years across the cosmos. Yet, God has absolutely no problem sustaining and fueling these gigantic spiritual entities. The Chafetz Chaim looks at this and asks: How can we—whom he compares to a tiny, insignificant onion peel—worry about where our parnasa [livelihood] is going to come from? Imagine the foolishness of that anxiety! We continue along the same daily prayer track: " It is You, Hashem, the God who selected Avram, brought him out of Ur Kasdim, and made his name Avraham. " The text walks us right through the foundational history of the Jewish people—the bitter times in Egypt, the miraculous Exodus, and the splitting of the Sea ( Kriat Yam Suf ). Then we break into Shirat HaYam [the Song of the Sea], the ecstatic song of praise beginning with " Az Yashir ." As Rashi notes in Tractate Berachos , all of this historical and cosmic imagery is designed to build our awe and get us ready to stand before the King in the Shemoneh Esrei [the standing prayer]. We need this exact reminder every single morning. Imagine if we prayed with this level of kavana [intention] each day. Imagine how it would transform our lives. They gave us this incredible introduction for a reason. Tomorrow, we will continue with a similar lesson on this exact concept—focusing on how great God is, how vast the universe is, and how small we truly are. Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/5d7a52c4-c49a-48bb-ab7e-fd8b08719f8c.mp3 Welcome to our Daily Bitachon series. We are at the end of Sha'ar HaBechina [The Gate of Reflection], where the author tells us a beautiful mashal [parable] to show the greatness of Hashem. He compares us to a child who was raised in a jail cell and has no concept of the king who runs an entire empire; the child thinks the whole world is just that jail cell. And that is us in this world. We only have a small glimpse of what the real picture is and what God can truly do, living here on this small little planet. The Chovos HaLevavos tells us to develop this mashal . And we will do just that, based on the Chafetz Chaim in his sefer Shemiras HaLashon (Volume 1, in the section called Sha'ar HaTvuna , Chapter 10). He gives the following mashal to explain how we can rely on Hashem even when we are living in an era where we don't clearly see Hashem's control—where it looks like the world is running wild. It's fascinating how he uses this mashal to build our Bitachon [trust], because ultimately, as we've said, our understanding of the world is what leads us to serve Him, which ultimately brings us to Bitachon . And here we go: There was a king who had total global control. He was a superpower, and he ruled his kingdom beautifully. He had more than enough food and sustenance to provide for his entire kingdom, for all of his generals, and for everyone under his rule in a highly respectable way. Yet, as can happen on a small, isolated island with a tiny group of people, a few servants decided to stage a minor rebellion out of pure arrogance. The king heard about it. Okay, his men would handle it, no problem. Right after the news reached the king, he went for a walk in his vineyard, not feeling threatened by this rebellion at all. While walking, he heard a beautiful bird chirping. It looked nice, it sounded beautiful, and he told one of his servants, "I'd like to have that bird in my palace so we can listen to its beautiful singing." And so they did; they put the bird in a cage and brought it to the king's palace, where it sang in a beautiful, sweet tone. One foolish man saw the bird and said, "You poor bird, I feel so bad for you. You know, you're going into the king's palace because you have a beautiful voice, but you're really going to suffer there because you won't have any food." The bird asked, "Why not?" The man replied, "Because I heard that there are people rebelling against the king!" Another, smarter servant overheard this and said, "What a fool! Our king rules the entire world. He has endless treasure houses. Taking care of this bird is a joke to him. And he loves the chirping of this bird! Do you really think he can't manage to find a few morsels of grain every day to sustain this bird just because there are a few rebels in some far-off little town?" That is the mashal . For the nimshal [the lesson], the Chafetz Chaim says that this analogy doesn't even compare one-in-a-million to what is really going on. God created this physical world, but He also created the upper worlds. The spiritual realm consists of many worlds. There are four basic spiritual worlds: our world is called Olam HaAsiya [the World of Action], and above it are the worlds of Yetzira , Beriah , and Atzilut . We aren't kabbalists to go into exactly what all these levels mean. But the point he is making is that when we see a "rebellion" happening down here in this tiny physical world, we are viewing everything through limited, physical eyes. We don't see what is truly going on; we have no idea of the full scope of the universe. And we are like that little bird—that tiny, teeny bird—worrying, "How is the king going to take care of me?" Who is the bird? The bird is us, the Jewish people, whose voices God loves to hear. As the verse says, " Yonati bechagvei hasela "—"My dove in the clefts of the rock." He wants to take care of us! Yet, we worry because we see rebellions going on, because there is Hamas, because there is Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and Hezbollah. We worry because we see a few rebels. Do you know what our King can do? The Chafetz Chaim says we should be more shocked at our own anxious attitude than at the attitude of that foolish servant telling the bird that the king can't feed him. That is huge. He says that all we need to do, every single day, is think about this. When we think about this, it will strengthen our Bitachon . And again, this is exactly what Sha'ar HaBechina is all about—seeing God's power and understanding how He is completely unlimited, and using that clarity to reach Bitachon . I will not stop stressing this point: You cannot jump to Sha'ar HaBitachon without going through Sha'ar HaBechina . You must first appreciate who God is, and then you can rely on Him. And even then, you can't just jump straight to relying on Him; you have to first commit yourself to serving Him. Your first reaction to God's greatness isn't supposed to be, "Wow, look how strong God is, look what I can get from Him!" No. It should be, "Look how strong God is—what do I have to do to reciprocate?" And how do we reciprocate? How will we find the tools and abilities to do so? That is where Bitachon comes in: rely on Him, and He will take care of you. The absolute fundamental of Bitachon is that Hashem takes care of His servants . You need to be a servant first. This is the path of Sha'ar HaBechina . That is what the author is telling us. We have a clear track. When you get to the end of this gate, you have to realize what the next step is, but never forget the foundation. As we say, you constantly have to go over this foundation again and again, every single day. He notes that this is the deeper meaning of the verse in Yeshayahu (26:4): " Ki b'Y-H Hashem tzur olamim ." Chazal [the Sages] tell us that God created the worlds with two letters of His Name: a Yud , which created Olam HaBa [the World to Come], and a Heh , which created Olam HaZeh [this world]. What does this verse say? Once we know that Hashem created both worlds and that He is a tzur —a rock, meaning He is completely reliable, the rock in whom we find refuge ( tzur achasayu bo )—the verse commands us: " Bitchu v'Hashem adei ad "—"Trust in Hashem forever and ever." What does "always and forever" mean? The Chafetz Chaim explains that "always" means even in our times, when it looks like a massive rebellion is going on. Rely on Him always! Why? Because you know how powerful He is: " Ki b'Y-H Hashem tzur olamim "—because God is the Rock of worlds , plural. Let's repeat this verse one more time: Bitchu v'Hashem adei ad . Rely on Hashem forever and ever. Why? Because Hashem is the Rock of the worlds. He is the Rock, meaning He is reliable—the ultimate Rock of Gibraltar. He is reliable, and He is the Creator of all the worlds. Regardless of what it looks like is happening downstairs, it is only a drop in the bucket. And from this, to quote the Chafetz Chaim: " Nuchel lehavin et godel habitachon she-yesh l'adam livtoach b'Hakadosh Baruch Hu "—"Through this, we can understand the immense scale of trust that a person must place in the Holy One, blessed be He." Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/1ad58309-3959-4754-b5ba-ab763a5456b6.mp3 Welcome to our daily Bitachon series. We're winding down Sha'ar HaBechina [The Gate of Reflection]. And the author tells us a very important thing that we have to know. He says that when you read this sefer and you get inspired or aroused by anything you read, you must realize that what you're reading is only a drop in the bucket of what is really going on. Even if you take that drop in the bucket from the sefer , and you work and work and work until you reach the absolute maximum of your ability to understand—even if you become a Rabbi Avigdor Miller—all of that is still only a minute example of God's abilities and His knowledge. The only things we see in this world are what is necessary for man to use in his service to Hashem. But what God truly has and knows, we have no idea. God just showed a little bit to us—exactly what we need. It's like a mashal [parable]: Imagine you have a Gadol HaDor [great Torah leader], okay? Let's say Rav Chaim Kanievsky, who knows Kol HaTorah Kula —he knows the entire Torah inside and out. He happens to walk into a second-grade classroom to give a shiur [lecture] because the regular rebbe was out, and Rav Chaim felt bad seeing the kids sitting there alone. He walks in and says, "Let me tell you about Parashat Lech Lecha ." He talks about Abraham and Sarah, and he adds a few extra insights that the kids have never heard before. The kids say, "Wow, this rabbi is unbelievable!" But someone tells them: "What you got is just a tiny revelation of what you could fathom. He gave you a little bit more than your regular teacher, but you can't even grasp the depth of what he truly knows." And even that mashal still does not do justice to what we perceive in this world vis-à-vis what is really going on. The author gives a beautiful, beautiful mashal to bring this point home. He says we are comparable to a child who was born in a jail cell. In those days, jails were underground pits. For whatever reason, the child's father had a life sentence; he had to be in jail, there was no way out, and because the rules couldn't be broken, it wasn't even up to the king. So, the kid was going to be there for life. But the king felt bad, so he told the jail keepers, "Listen, take care of this boy. Give him everything he needs." The boy was just a baby when he was born there, and they took care of him top-of-the-line. As he gets older, he knows absolutely nothing about the world outside the pit. Every morning, he receives breakfast from a messenger sent by the king. Every single day the messenger comes, bringing him candles, food, drink, and clothing. The boy asks him, "Who are you?" The messenger replies, "I am a servant of the king. And everything in this pit, including the pit itself and everything inside of it, is from the king. Therefore, you should thank him and praise him." The kid says, "Wow, 100 percent, I agree." So what praise does the boy offer? He says, "I praise the owner of this pit, who took me as his servant and singled me out with all the goodness he did, because he is paying attention to me and cares about me." It sounds like a nice praise, right? But the messenger says, "Don't say that, that is almost sinful! This pit is not all the king owns. He has multiples upon multiples of this pit. You can't even imagine the size of his kingdom! You are not the only one he takes care of; his servants are endless. And what you receive is just a drop in the bucket compared to all the goodness he does for the whole world. Do you think he is only looking at you? He has hashgacha [divine providence] over everything." The lad says, "I really don't understand what you're talking about. But what I do understand is that the king is much greater than I thought he was." So the messenger tells him, "Say the following instead: I praise the great king, for there is no end to his kingdom and no end to his goodness and kindness. I am a nobody among his many soldiers, and he still looks after me. What I see of his power is only a fraction of what he can really do. " Now the boy understood what he hadn't understood until then. He appreciated the king even more, and he began to have a much higher level of respect and awe for him. He also developed a greater appreciation for the goodness that came to him, because he finally realized how great the king is and how small he himself is. Suddenly, everything he received became so much more meaningful. The author continues and says: "And now, my brother, pay close attention to the mashal I just gave you. Look at the globe and see how much there is, how far the world goes, and what lies beyond our galaxies." He tells us to pay close attention to this lesson, and we will continue with this mashal and expand on everything we can learn from it in our upcoming sessions. Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/2a538b52-af2d-497d-80b6-bbef678d7676.mp3 Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/eedea074-9233-45c1-9ee4-2240d77e1e48.mp3 No prayers on Shabbat Welcome to our daily Bitachon special Erev Shabbat discussion on Shabbat . Today's question is why on Shabbat we have a shorter Amidah than during the weekdays. During the weekdays we have a full nineteen Brachot and on Shabbat we have seven Brachot made up of the first three that we always say the last three that we always say and there's only one Bracha in the middle Mekadesh Hashabbat . So there's basically two answers. One is that you can't make your own request on Shabbat hence we have a shorter Amidah . The second reason given is that praying in Amidah takes a lot of effort. It takes a lot of energy. Chassidim HaRishonim would pray an hour before prayer an hour after prayer and it takes a lot of Kochot and Shabbat we want to make life a little easier for you and therefore we have a shorter Amidah . That's one of the reasons given. But let's go back to the first reason. You can't make requests for your own needs on Shabbat and the question is why not? Why shouldn't you make requests for yourself on Shabbat ? One reason is because by making your own requests you realize what you don't need and what you don't have and that's going to make you sad so therefore we don't pray. So one of the answers is that on Shabbat Melachtcha is like it's finished. What is there to request? That you don't have any problems. Everything's done as it says ke'ilu melachtcha asuya like Hashem worked six days and rested on the seventh we too work six days and rest on the seventh. Now how can you possibly do that? Melachtcha asuya that's it finished done there's nothing to think about? How can we reach that level there's nothing to think about? And the answer is that on Shabbat we're supposed to reach the understanding that Hashem is controlling and running the world totally. When a person is in a car and someone else is driving them they don't say you know you have to make a right you have to make a left well maybe he doesn't know where he's going he has Waze he knows where he's going you sit in the back and you're going on an hour ride what do you do you put your chair back and you rest you fall asleep there's nothing to take care of. So although you might have a million things on your mind but you know someone else is taking care of you and therefore you just relax and that's what goes on in Shabbat when you have to do this and that and all the other things that's true but on Shabbat you're supposed to imagine that someone else is taking care. You need a dress you need a suit what if I told you you have your own personal shopper? They fly to Paris for you they get you a dress they measure it they tailor it so you're making a wedding in a week you don't have a dress don't worry about it you have someone that's going to buy it for you and they'll fit you and everything will work that is the feeling of Shabbat everything is done so I don't have to ask for anything I don't have to pray for anything I have everything. Now the one question is so hold on but there is one request where we go through קדשנו במצותיך תן חלקנו בתורתך טהר לבנו לעבדך we're asking Hashem for all kind of requests. Purify my heart make me holy through mitzvot I thought everything's done why do I have to ask for anything? And the answer is everything is done in the physical world everything's done there's nothing else to do Hashem will take care of everything. But when it comes to ruchniyut when it comes to spirituality there we say הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים everything in the hands of God but the fear of God that God doesn't take care of that that's our job. Of course you can pray for Hashem to help you that's okay but that job is not finished that job is just beginning on Shabbat when it's a day that's a more spiritual day. Now there is a further concept of why we I'm sorry that in these requests we're really asking for in a way gashmiyut as well because if we're having a headache on Shabbat how can I pray how can I learn? So when we ask for our requests on Shabbat we really are asking in a way for our own needs. We say רצה והחליצנו שלא תהא צרה ויגון ביום מנוחתנו we shouldn't have any problems any heartache on the day of our resting. Hold on I thought you're not allowed to ask anything? I'm not asking for anything I'm asking that I should have peace of mind. If I have a headache if I have worry I can't have peace of mind. So on Shabbat our requests are only regarding spirituality. We want to be able to spend time connecting with Hashem all of our work is done. We just like I asked to use the Mashal person should imagine he sold his business on Friday. Friday for a hundred million dollars. Nothing to think about, I sold it already. And then Sunday morning, I buy it back. That's the feeling of Shabbat , and therefore there is nothing to pray for. Everything's fine, we don't have to pray for. And the only thing I do pray for is to get. Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/e2868593-80ef-47cb-87b6-18597985c5dd.mp3 Here is a lightly edited version of the transcript that polishes the grammar and improves readability while keeping the original context, structure, and conversational flow completely intact: Welcome to Daily Bitachon and our Sha'ar HaBechina . We are discussing the factors that interfere with or ruin our contemplation of what God does for us. The Chovot HaLevavot starts by telling us to look back at the beginning of the book, which discusses three initial interferences: namely, that we get used to everything, we always desire more, and we allow the things in our lives that don't go right to interfere. And now for reason number four—an additional reason that applies specifically to Bechina —and that is a person's arrogance when it comes to the benefits of God. A person often thinks, "I am deserving of this and more." In the author's words: יחשוב הכסיל הפתי כי הוא ראוי להן וליותר להן ( "The foolish fool thinks that he is worthy of them and of more than them" ). Because of this, he does not contemplate what God gave him, and he doesn't feel a need to praise and thank Hashem. As it says in the pasuk in Mishlei 16:5: תועבת ה' כל גבה לב ( "Every proud heart is an abomination to the Lord" ); it's an abomination to God when anyone is arrogant. This is a very eye-opening concept. Who doesn't have a little arrogance? The text is telling us that we feel this way because we think, "Do you know who I am? I deserve so much more." I still remember an advertisement for an expensive watch, and at the bottom, it said, "You deserve it." That is the feeling of many people today. "I deserve this; I worked hard." People use that term all the time: "You deserve it." Rav Wolbe writes about this topic in his Alei Shur (Volume 2, page 278), where he gives two reasons why we lack hakarat hatov (gratitude). Number one is hamuskal harishon , which we could translate as an axiom—something that is accepted as self-evident, a premise, or prior knowledge. There is no exact English term to translate this type of basic assumption. For example, it's like saying hamuskal harishon dictates that a person who was raised in the lap of luxury is spoiled. That's a muskal rishon , even though it might not always be that way. Rav Wolbe says that our hamuskal harishon is to understand שהכל מובן מאליו בעולם —that everything in the world is self-understood. It means we believe things are simply supposed to be there. Of course there's supposed to be a sun, a moon, and mountains. What's the question? It's just obvious. And everything is deserved. This happens because a person is born without intelligence; as they grow and become intelligent, everything seems self-understood and feels like it has to be that way. A person thinks he has to be healthy, and he has to be full and complete in his bodily functions. This is similar to what we said at the beginning of the Chovot HaLevavot's Sha'ar HaBechina —that a person gets used to everything—but Rav Wolbe is adding a little nuance here. It's not just that a person is used to it, but because he is used to it, he feels entitled . Because he is raised by parents when he is young, he thinks that is just the way it's supposed to be. You're supposed to have parents to take care of everything you need and desire. So he thinks, "Why should I thank my mother? That's what she's supposed to be doing." Furthermore, a person is born with a fundamental ego to see himself as the center of the world, believing everything was made for him. Therefore, whatever people do for him is deserved. Why should he thank anybody? He is the center of the world. Now, this is an interesting concept, because in a way, it is true. The whole world is there to serve you. That is a Gemara : Bishvili Nivra HaOlam ( "For my sake the world was created" ). But what does it mean that it was made for you? It was made to be a tool for you to serve Hashem, not because you are the center of the universe. Rav Wolbe says you need a lot of hard work to wean yourself off this original axiom and to teach yourself that nothing is self-understood. You are not entitled to anything, and everything you receive is considered a chessed ve'tovah (a kindness and a favor). That is the job of hakarat hatov . It doesn't make a difference if it's benefits you receive from God or benefits you receive from people; it is our job to constantly train ourselves that everything—literally everything—is a benefit and a kindness to us. Life itself is not self-understood. As it says in Eicha : מה יתאונן אדם חי ( "Why should a living man complain?" ). The Gemara in Kiddushin 80b expounds on this: מה יתאונן על מדותיו ( "How could you complain about God's ways?" ), וכי גבר על חטאו ( "Has he overcome his sins?" ), דייו חיים שנתתי לו ( "It is enough that I gave him life" ). Rashi explains: what are you complaining about regarding what's going on with you? Everything is a chessed . The very fact that you're alive is a chessed . Rabbi Miller brings a beautiful mashal (parable) about this. Imagine a man in a concentration camp standing in a long line, and he is on the wrong line. Someone comes over to him and says, "I can save you." For argument's sake, let's say it's Schindler. Schindler is there and says, "Listen, Yankel, I can save you, but there are a few conditions." Yankel says, "Go ahead, what are they?" "Well, first of all, you're never really going to own your own house. You're going to live in an apartment." "Okay, I'll take that." "You're going to have a wife that's difficult. It's going to be a difficult marriage; she's not going to be that easy." "I'll take that." "Some of your children are going to have challenges and will not be that easy to raise." "I'll take that." "Are you sure? You might never be able to go on a trip to Florida." "I'll take that." "You might also never be able to go away for the summer." "I'll take that." Why? Because he is giving him life. But now, here we are, used to having homes, nice spouses, good children, and vacations. Therefore, we are not happy unless we get all of those things. And when we do get those things, we think, "What do you mean? Of course I should live in a house. Shouldn't I get married? Shouldn't I have children? Of course." This is what is termed in our modern world as a sense of entitlement, which means a stable, pervasive belief that one inherently deserves special treatment, unique privileges, or an exempt status from standard rules, without any obligation to earn or reciprocate those benefits. Now, everyone has a bit of that. Of course, there is a spectrum, and it can come to a point where it becomes a clinical description. But overcoming this is our job. Rav Friedlander, in his book Sifrei Sifsei Chaim - Chinuch (page 70), says: "I remember when I was in the house of my rabbi and teacher, Rav Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler. It was a hot day, and his wife, the Rebbetzin, brought him a glass of cold water. Wow, did he say thank you! With a large smile on his face, he made a big, full statement, really thanking her for that glass of water as if she had done the biggest favor in the world for him. It was not taken as self-understood." Entitlement is the source of a lot of complaints in marriages. You hear, "My wife doesn't make dinner when I come home." Well, who said she has to? "What do you mean? That's what all wives do." Not necessarily so. There is a famous Gemara about an Amora whose wife used to make his life very difficult. When he asked for oatmeal, she brought him cold cereal; when he asked for cold cereal, she brought him oatmeal. His son was watching this and said, "Dad, why don't you just ask for oatmeal when you want cold cereal, and ask for cold cereal when you want oatmeal?" The father replied, "You shouldn't teach yourself how to lie." Yet, this same rabbi was later seen at a wedding wrapping up some cookies to bring home to his wife. Someone said to him, "Your wife? She's the most difficult woman in the world!" His answer was, "It's enough that she takes care of my children and saves me from sin." Those are the two fundamentals of marriage. Does that mean it's supposed to be an automatic entitlement to have a wife? Of course you should say thank you. There is a deal when you get married—there's a ketubah —and the basic responsibilities of marriage are just that. Everything else after that is gravy. We are going to see that this is exactly how the world was built. There is a chessed of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Olam chessed yibaneh —the world is built on kindness. It wasn't that Hashem had to create a world. He wasn't forced to create a world, and He had nothing to gain from creating it. He is perfect; He doesn't need us, and He has everything already. So what was the point of creating a world? To do chessed . To do kindness. To give to us, and to give us existence. That is the shoresh —the root—of everything. Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/267d1fdf-fd48-4427-a749-ef8cd3367751.mp3 Welcome to our daily Bitachon. We are winding down our Sha'ar HaBechina , Chapter 6. The Chovot HaLevavot discusses the concept of being careful of things that ruin what you've reached. In Sha'ar Yichud HaMa'aseh , Perek Heh, in the gate of being focused on your deeds, he says a powerful line. Every area of goodness has a certain negative force that could ruin it. That means whether it's an apple that will have a worm, or a good quality that will have something that could ruin it—that's just the way the world is made. And whoever realizes and understands the forces of negativity that ruin things will be careful to stay away. But if you only know the goodness, you won't be able to be careful of the problems. And he quotes one of the pious people that told a student, "You must first learn about the evil to stay away, and then you could do good," which is actually a pasuk: Sur me'ra va'asei tov (Turn away from evil and do good). And he quotes an interesting pasuk: "Niru lachem nir," plow your fields, "ve'al tizre'u el kotzim" (and do not sow among thorns). It's a pasuk in Yirmeyahu, chapter 4, pasuk 3. And what does that mean exactly? And what's the relevance to our story about being careful and staying away from negative forces? The sefer Leket Sichot Musar from Rav Yitzchak Isaac Sher on page 397 tells us that when you want to plant a field and you want things to grow well, the first thing you need to do is plow your field and uproot all of the thorns and weeds that are there, take them out, and clean it up. And then you'll start planting, and you know what's going to come out is going to come out good. He says just like the land, so too it is with a human being and his perfection. First, you have to get the land ready. You have to purify your heart, clean things out, and then we could start planting and do good things, because otherwise we'll be growing thorns. Rav Yechezkel Levenstein quotes this in many of his writings and in his Musar classes. But he also has a book that was put together of letters that he wrote to people. And in Letter 102, he's writing to a rabbi that is now in a position of teaching. And he tells him this rule: everything in this world has good and bad mixed into it. He quotes our Chovot HaLevavot and he says there's a tremendous danger when a person takes on a position of leadership. Why? Because a person feels, "Hey, I'm leading a community. Look at the beautiful sermon I gave, look at the beautiful speech I gave." And now what happens when he gets up and gives a sermon and speech? He's basically pouring his emotions out to everybody else, giving rebuke to everyone else, but he's left behind. And sometimes he'll make the mistake of saying, "Wow, if I am giving everybody Musar, that's enough, I don't need to learn my own Musar." And therefore he says, no, don't make that mistake. First, it says about Moshe Rabbeinu: Zacha (he purified himself), then Zikka et ha'rabim (he made others pure). So there you go, a rabbi has a force that can ruin him. And in Letter 109, he explains the pasuk in Yirmeyahu 9:22 that says: "Al yithallel chacham be'chachmato, gibbor bi'gvurato, ashir be'ashro" (The wise, the powerful, and the wealthy should not pride themselves in their wisdom, their power, and their wealth). Why not? Because who knows if with that wisdom, that wonderful apple doesn't come with worms? Who knows if that wonderful strawberry doesn't have worms? And so on. You have those gifts and those qualities—don't be proud of them, because they themselves can bring to some ruination. It is like saying to a person, don't be proud of all the meat you have in your freezer, because when there's a blackout, it's going to create a stench. That's the way it is. Everything can be ruined if you don't take care of it. He quotes another pasuk: Be'rov chachma rov ka'as (With much wisdom comes much anger). And he says you could put your whole life into things and they can get... It says it's possible that a bird lays an egg, and then another animal comes and destroys it. Things are fragile. And therefore, as we're ending our Sha'ar HaBechina , we are learning this important concept. And it's not just the Chovot HaLevavot ; the Mesillat Yesharim bases his sefer on a braita: Torah brings to zehirut (watchfulness). Zehirut brings you to zerizut (alacrity). From there you come to having your actions clean ( nekiyut ). From there you reach the level of perishut (abstinence), separating yourself from this world. From there you come to purity ( taharah ), to piousness ( chasidut ), to humility ( anavah ), to fear of sin ( yirat chet ), to holiness ( kedusha ), and ultimately to ruach ha'kodesh (the Divine Spirit). A ladder of greatness. And he says, "I am going to tell you step by step everything that you need to do, how to get it, and how to stay away from what's going to ruin it." That's the opening introduction of the Mesillat Yesharim . And throughout the book, he points this out. He says in Chapter 1 that we came to this world to connect to God. How? By staying away from the interferences and the things that cause us to lose that connection. And every level that he goes through, he goes through what could ruin it—again and again, for every single level I mentioned, except when he finally gets to the level of kedusha . Once you've graduated from kedusha , then you're ready for ruach ha'kodesh . That's it. Every single step of the way there's something, but once you have ruach ha'kodesh , you're good to go. Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/3d4c0719-cd00-4f79-9b10-b3932b09a02e.mp3 Welcome to Daily Bitachon in our Shaar Habechina series. We are now about to start our final chapter of Shaar Habechina —the gate of contemplation of God's ways—chapter six. Chapter six opens up with the words: אך מפסידי הבחינה והדברים התלויים בה — What are the things that are going to ruin or make you lose this quality of contemplation? This is fascinating. The rabbis of old knew a fundamental rule: you can work incredibly hard to acquire something, but you can lose it just as easily. The source for this concept is actually a pasuk in the Torah that we say almost every day. We recite Kriyas Shma every single day, and in the second parasha , we end with the words: למען ירבו ימיכם וימי בניכם על האדמה אשר נשבע ה' לאבותיכם לתת להם כימי השמים על הארץ (דברים יא:כא) Now, the very next pasuk —which we don't read as part of Kriyas Shma , since the three parshiyos are compiled from different places in the Torah—says in Pasuk Chaf-Bet : כי אם שמור תשמרון את כל המצוה הזאת . You have to especially guard this mitzvah, or actually, these mitzvos that I command you. The Midrash is bothered by this. The beginning of the parasha already said vehaya shamor tishmerun —"you will listen." So if we already listened, what does the end mean by saying we must "guard"? Normally, we associate guarding with prohibitions, like Shemiras Shabbos (refraining from doing wrong). So why add this extra shamor tishmerun ? The Yalkut Shimoni explains that just as a person must be careful with their money so they don't lose it, so too a person must be careful with their Torah and their avodah (service of Hashem) so they don't lose it. You have to search for it, as the pasuk says: im tevakshena kakesef —search for religion and yiras shamayim like you would for money. Just like it is hard to acquire wealth, it is hard to acquire Torah. Now, you might think, "Well, if that's the case, silver doesn't destroy easily. You put it in a silver chest and it lasts. Isn't Torah the same way?" No. The pasuk says: לא יערכנה זהב וזכוכית —it cannot be compared to gold and expensive glass. Torah is compared to both gold and glass. Why glass? Because just as glass is easily broken, you can easily lose your divrei Torah and your hard work. It is as difficult to acquire as gold, but as easy to lose as glass. Glass breaks. I don't know if you have this problem, but stemware breaks. The silver cup I received from my wife when we got engaged over 40 years ago is still standing tall. None of the glassware we got when we married is still standing. We have spent six months—over a hundred classes, actually—on Shaar Habechina . This is class 102. You might say, "Okay, I'm good. I spent six months, a lesson a day, and I finished Shaar Habechina . I'm ready to move on." No, you cannot move on until you know what can cause you to lose it. This is a very important rule that many people don't know. How do I know they don't know it? Because the Chovos HaLevavos tells us so in Shaar Avodas Elokim (The Gate of Service of God). There, he lists nine levels of people on a scale of zero to ten. Level nine consists of people who have intentions lishma —meaning they are doing things for the absolute right reasons. Why, then, did they not reach total greatness? שלא נשמרו ממפסידי העבודות They were not careful to stay away from the things that ruin your avodat Hashem . Decay entered, and they didn't realize what was happening. They forgot to add the preservatives, and therefore the food rotted. He compares this to a pasuk in Kohelet (10:1): זבובי מות יבאיש יביע שמן רוקח יקר מחכמה מכבוד סכלות מעט "Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment smell and ferment; so too, a little folly or silliness outweighs wisdom and honor." Just as a beautiful jar of perfume can be ruined by a single fly, a little bit of silliness or carelessness can ruin your avodat Hashem . He quotes one of the pious men who told his students: "Even though you have purified yourselves from sins, I am still afraid of the greatest sin of all, the one that causes total ruination." And what is that? Gavhut and ga'avah —arrogance and haughtiness. As the pasuk in Mishlei (16:5) tells us: To'avat Hashem kol gva lev —"An abomination to God is everyone who is arrogant." If you do everything right, but arrogance enters, it can ruin it all. The Sefer Ne'ot Desha on Chumash (by the author of the Avnei Nezer ) discusses Pharaoh's dreams in Parashat Mikeitz , where the small, thin cows swallowed up the fat cows. Of course, the simple message is that the years of famine would swallow up the years of plenty. But he brings down that it also refers to the trait of arrogance. Arrogance can completely swallow up your spiritual plenty. You might have worked, learned, become a great teacher, a great orator, and authored books—wow, that is a lot of fat cows! But then the trait of arrogance comes in, and the very things that made you great can bring you down. You have to be careful of that. You need to know the great qualities, but you also need to know what can cause their ruination. And that is exactly what we are going to do, be'ezrat Hashem , this week. Thank you, and sorry for going over time. Wed, 03 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/2398dd01-3209-416a-be7b-babb8b399912.mp3 The Wisdom of Abundance: Physical and Spiritual Necessity Welcome to our daily Bitachon Shaar Bechinah series. This is a very important lesson from the Chovot Halevavot , teaching us about the wisdom of God: whatever we need for our survival can be found in abundance, and whatever is a luxury is less available. Again, this is from the wisdom of God. If the world were haphazard, you wouldn't see this pattern. This design is one of the greatest signs of God's creation. The Hierarchy of Physical Needs Air: Air is breathable, and you cannot survive without it for even a moment. Therefore, God made it so that air is everywhere; there is no place where you cannot get it. Imagine if you had to buy air in bottles—you would constantly be running out. Water: Water is next on the list. While not as immediate as air, dehydration is still a serious issue. Therefore, water is everywhere. It covers the oceans, and while you sometimes have to pay for it—in the old days to a water carrier, or today for a bottle of Poland Spring—it is highly available. Food: You can last longer without food than you can without water. Consequently, food is available, but it is a little harder to get; you have to work harder for it. Clothing: You can survive without clothing for a quite long time. It is important, so our sources for clothing (like wool) are readily available, but it requires effort. Luxuries: When it comes to expensive jewelry, gold, silver, and luxury goods, these are commodities we don't actually need. The only reason luxury goods have any value is because humanity collectively agreed to it. Inherently, a diamond has no real value—it is not like a medicine. It's just that everyone said, "Hey, diamonds look nice." Because it has no inherent value, it is not abundant. In fact, if it were abundant, it would lose all its value because everyone would have it. God created luxury goods to be less available precisely because they are not necessary. Look at how God turns the wheels of creation! The author of the Chovot Halevavot expresses his sheer amazement at this larger picture of divine wisdom, exclaiming: ישתבח הבורא החכם החומל המרחם על עבדיו אשר עינו עליהם לטובה בכל מה שהם בו תקנתם אין אלוה מבלעדיו "Praised is the Creator, the wise, compassionate, and merciful One, Who watches over His servants for good, providing everything necessary for their well-being. There is none besides Him." He then quotes a pasuk (verse) from Yonah, where God corrects the prophet: "You, Yonah, cared about a transient plant that you didn't work for or develop, which was here today and gone tomorrow. Should I then not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city?" God is saying: I care about creation; I care about the world. As David HaMelech (King David) says: טוב ה׳ לכל ורחמיו על כל מעשיו ( "Hashem is good to all, and His mercy is upon all His works" ). The Spiritual Parallel: Emuna is Our Air The Alter (Elder) of Kelm takes this principle a step further. If this rule is true in the physical world—that whatever you need most is most available—surely it applies to the spiritual world as well. Whatever my neshama (soul) needs most must be the most accessible. For example, the mitzvah of sending away a mother bird ( Shiluch HaKen ) is obviously not as vital for daily spiritual survival, otherwise it would be more accessible. Of course, all mitzvot are necessary, but that one is not a daily requirement. Mitzvot that are more vital are easily available. If I need tzitzit , I can make them easily, just like clothing. But what is the absolute spiritual necessity? What is our spiritual air? Our air is emuna (faith). As the verse says, צדיק באמונתו יחיה ( "The righteous person lives by his faith" ). We live on this air. Therefore, Hashem gives us opportunities at every single step to strengthen our emuna —whether it is by looking at creation, recognizing God's hashgacha (divine providence), or engaging with His Torah. The opportunities for emuna are endless. The Element of Choice There is only one difference between physical air and the "air" of emuna . Because God cares about us so much, He did not want to leave physical breathing up to our conscious choice; if we had to actively decide to breathe, we might forget one day and die. When it comes to emuna , however, God made it highly accessible, but it requires our attention. If you don't think about it and pay attention to it, you won't see it. We can easily ignore miracles if we choose not to contemplate them. Recognizing the Signs Consider the examples we have spoken about recently: The Survival of the Jewish People: The Jewish people exist to this day simply because Hashem made a promise to Avraham Avinu, and that promise is being fulfilled right now. Eretz Yisrael: God promised that the Land of Israel belongs to us forever. What other being could make a promise like that and sustain it, if not the Creator? Job writes in the pasuk : מבשרי אחזה אלוה ( "From my flesh I see God" , Iyov 19:26). God made it so that you can see Him right from your own body, placing the opportunity for awareness right in front of you. Because remembering Yetzias Mitzrayim (the Exodus from Egypt) is so critical, God surrounds us with it every single day through Tefillin , Tzitzit , and the Mezuzah . This shows the wonder of our caring, preparing God. Ultimately, this principle goes both ways: How do you know something is important? By how much of it exists. The fact that Yetzias Mitzrayim and emuna are emphasized so heavily throughout the Torah—and that we recite Kriyas Shema twice a day—proves just how vital they truly are. Working on our Emuna and Bitachon is our greatest necessity, and that is exactly what we are here doing. Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/4c14c526-e2ba-4372-bdbc-6bc95aff1365.mp3 Welcome to our daily Bitachon. We are in Sha'ar HaBechinah , talking about the tremendous wisdom behind the running of the economy. Rabbi Dov Ber Weissmandl, the famous Rosh Yeshiva of Nitra, was deeply involved in trying to save as many Jews as he could from the Holocaust. His full story is detailed in a book called The Unheeded Cry —a heartbreaking and tragic account of how he tried, yet was not as successful as he could have been. He shares a beautiful source for this very concept that the world runs on money. In Bereishit (Chapter 2, Verses 8 to 11), the Torah describes how Hashem established Gan Eden in the center of the world, detailing its many different plants, flowers, and rivers. One of these rivers is called Pishon, and the Torah describes its location by noting: אשר שם הזהב — "where the gold is located." We are in the very middle of the creation of the universe; why are we introducing the location of gold? In his sefer Torat Chemed , on the drasha for Brit Milah, Reb Michael Ber explains that one of the vital components Hashem established during the six days of creation was אשר שם הזהב —the presence of gold. He taught that after everything God created, the world simply cannot run without currency; God designed the world so that money makes all the wheels turn. What is so poignant is that Reb Michael Ber lived this exact reality. When World War II broke out in September 1939, he was safely in England. Astonishingly, he chose to volunteer to return to Nazi-allied Slovakia to stand with his people and help orchestrate rescue efforts from the inside. Through the Bratislava Working Group, he successfully arranged to pay a $50,000 bribe to an SS official, which miraculously halted deportations from Slovakia for nearly two years, from late 1942 to the autumn of 1944. As we know, these communities were among the last to be targeted, and what pained him most were those final months when so many lives were lost that might have been saved, including the vast majority of Hungarian Jewry. He had also conceptualized the "Europa Plan"—a negotiation to halt all Nazi deportations across Europe in exchange for $2 million—but tragically, due to a lack of international funding, the plan never materialized. Yet, from his story, we see that money is capable of stopping a war. Money can accomplish fascinating things. While the Chovot HaLevavot views this entire dynamic as the direct hand of God, the secular world of economics uses a different phrase. In 1776, the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith coined a term in his book The Wealth of Nations called "the invisible hand" of the economy. This theory essentially posits that uncoordinated individual actions naturally lead to an efficient and socially beneficial outcome. This system operates on a few basic forces: The first is the price signal . Price serves as the ultimate communication system of the economy. If a severe frost destroys orange groves in Florida, oranges become scarce and the price automatically goes up. No one needs to send an email to every consumer asking them to buy fewer oranges; the price signal handles it automatically. People buy less, naturally conserving the scarce supply. Then there is the profit aspect . When a product's price rises, it signals to others that there is money to be made. If everyone suddenly wants electric scooters, scooter prices spike. Seeing those high profits, new companies rush into the market to build scooters. Once multiple companies enter a market to chase those profits, they have to compete for your business. To win you over, they are forced to do two things: lower their prices and improve their quality. Thus, the self-interested pursuit of profit accidentally results in better, cheaper products for the consumer. In their description of the wonders of the invisible hand, economists do admit to certain blind spots, which they call "market failures." This happens with "public goods" like streetlights, national defense, or lighthouses. It is difficult to charge individuals directly to use them, so because there is no clear profit motive, the free market won't build them on its own. So, who creates the streetlights and traffic lights? The answer lies in the previous concept we discussed: God implanted the instinct within us to establish governments to handle these very tasks. The secular concept of the invisible hand is simply not enough, because the truth is, the hand isn't an accident. The invisible hand is actually God's hand, quietly managing all of these blind spots as well. Another problem with this secular theory is monopolies. If one company crushes all competition, the invisible hand stops working. Without competition, they can raise prices and lower quality without penalty. But again, we have government oversight to regulate this—which is another mechanism that Hashem's hidden hand built into the social framework. Hashem did a masterful job of hiding Himself within creation and nature, allowing secular thinkers to view it as a blind "hidden hand," where millions of people freely trade based on their own needs and skills, accidentally creating a complex, highly efficient society that no single human mastermind could ever plan from the top down. But that conclusion is a mistake. There is one single Mastermind planning everything from the top down, and that is Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Secular philosophy sees the system, but they feel compelled to invent alternative names for it. Instead of acknowledging that God sustains the cosmos, they call it the force of gravity. Instead of recognizing that God runs the economy, they call it the invisible hand. It is a brilliant system: individual self-interest leads to competition, which leads to efficient resource allocation, which ultimately leads to public benefit. It sounds perfect. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the one entirely behind it. Our job, through the lens of the Chovot HaLevavot , is to look past the labels and see these divine attributes actively at work. Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/93db1ee0-5605-4c40-9a4d-8d791bb9293e.mp3 Welcome to Daily Bitachon. We are back in Sha'ar HaBechinah of Chovot HaLevavot , where Rabbeinu Bachya continues to discuss the wonders and signs of wisdom in creation, specifically focusing on the human psyche. His next point is the universal human agreement to an economy based on money and currency, rather than a world of simple barter. He explains that God implanted the desire to work for money within us as an act of pure compassion. Why? That hunger for money is a great gift because it serves as the ultimate catalyst that drives people to work and fulfill their needs. The true wonder is that we passionately pursue money even though currency itself does nothing directly for us; it does not satisfy our hunger, quench our thirst, or cure our physical ailments. Yet, we all desire it for what it can bring us. Another wonder within this system is the deliberate disparity—the fact that some people possess a great deal of wealth while others have very little. While people often look at this inequality with frustration and wonder why we shouldn't have a system like communism where everything is equal, Rabbeinu Bachya explains that if everyone possessed the exact same amount, nobody would work hard. Instead, we have an aspiration for wealth, and because most do not inherently possess it, we are driven by a constant yearning to acquire it. He states: זה מן המחשבה המעולה אשר בחכמה עליונה — "This is among the most sublime thoughts within the Supreme Wisdom." It is the brilliant design of an economy that drives us forward. Everything in existence is propelled by this financial engine, and the entire world moves in sync with it. Think about the simple act of walking into a restaurant, sitting down, and ordering a bowl of spaghetti with tomato sauce. What did it actually take to bring that meal to your table? It required wheat to be grown, harvested, milled, and manufactured into noodles. It required those noodles to be transported on a truck that needed gasoline, traveling on a road that had to be paved, to a store or restaurant that had to inventory it. Consider the tomatoes sourced from elsewhere, and the sheer volume of global infrastructure involved—all delivered to you for $12 or $20. On the surface, does that logistically make any sense for just $20? It only works because it makes the world go round through an intertwined need for money. A businessman might fly all the way to China to manufacture goods just to fund his own life, but he doesn't realize that he is actually serving the globe. He is supplying shoes for the world; he is working for humanity. When you truly contemplate this, it is mind-boggling how every facet of society revolves around currency. A house is built because the laborers need money to buy their coffee in the morning and their food at night. That is the sole reason they are out there working through the extreme heat and bitter cold—to receive a salary at the end of the week. Money is the ultimate carrot on a stick, the quintessential metaphor for motivation. The beauty of the carrot and the stick is that as the horse walks forward, the dangling carrot moves with him. He may never fully capture it, but the pursuit keeps him moving forward and taking care of the work. This concept is given added depth by Rabbeinu Yosef ibn Shushan—one of the early Spanish Rishonim of the 1300s—in his commentary on Pirkei Avot (Chapter 4, Mishna 1) regarding the dictum, "Who is rich? He who rejoices in his lot" ( איזהו עשיר השמח בחלקו ). He explains that all physical desires have a natural end. If a person is driven by hunger to eat, they will eventually become full, and the desire subsides. The single physical desire that has absolutely no boundary or end is the desire for money. He notes that this was designed with tremendous divine wisdom. Because there are an unlimited number of people with an infinite number of needs—ranging from food and livestock to clothing and housing—and because it is impossible for a single human being to provide everything for themselves, God implanted this drive into the human heart. One person cannot simultaneously be the farmer, the shepherd, the craftsman, and the doctor. Therefore, as the Gemara states in Masechet Pesachim (54b), God decreed על המטבע שיצא —that coinage must be introduced into the world. This legal tender allows people to seamlessly buy from one another and hire one another. Because the world's collective needs are unending, man's desire for money was created to be equally unending, ensuring the world keeps rolling and moving forward. Parenthetically, this does not mean we should be consumed by the chase. Those of us who understand this divine psychological mechanism should step back and realize exactly what is happening. This entire drive was engineered simply to keep the global machinery functioning. The man traveling to China is exhausting himself to provide shoes for people he will never meet. Once we recognize that this boundless desire is just a tool to maintain civilization, we can internalize the true meaning of איזהו עשיר השמח בחלקו . We can choose to step back from the endless pursuit, find genuine contentment in our lot, and become truly wealthy. Fri, 29 May 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/4cd3717d-b049-4568-883e-6ed98cd165b0.mp3 Welcome to Daily Dose of Bitachon. We are back on a regular schedule of Shaar HaBechinah , appreciating Hashem's wisdom in creation. As of late, Rabbeinu Bahya has been discussing concepts that are not specific in nature—looking at a frog or a plant—but rather focusing on the human psyche. Now, he says it is worthwhile to contemplate the fact that people agree and their hearts unite, despite having vastly different character traits, to appoint one man over themselves and accept upon themselves to serve him. They listen to his voice, obeying what he commands them to do and not to do. At first glance, we might look at this negatively. Kings, dictators—we prefer democracy. But the Chovot HaLevavot is going to show us the immense benefits of having a leader. You could apply this to democracy as well, where having a president serves a similar, though less severe, function. Let's look at the points he is making: First of all, people have very different personalities, desires, and values, yet they all agree to unite and subjugate themselves to one human leader. This did not just happen by accident. We have to thank Hashem for putting this instinct into us to seek law and order, and for giving us the understanding that the only way to achieve it is through unified leadership. It requires being unselfish and recognizing that if we don't all unite under one person, we will have chaos. Hashem implanted these intuitions within us, which is a miracle in itself. Just like a spider intuitively knows how to spin a web, humans possess intuitive instincts necessary for our survival. We understand that we need a unifying authority because, otherwise, society won't function, so we willingly trade a degree of personal autonomy for the sake of this social system. Furthermore, ויראים אותו —we fear him; והוא שומר אותם —and he takes care of them; וחומל עליהם —and has compassion toward them; ודן בצדק ביניהם —and judges them properly; ומנהיגם על מה שיש בו תקנת כולם —and he leads them in a way that benefits the masses, so they won't fall into a system of ruination and the enemy won't be able to overcome them. Again, Hashem put this into us so that we respect and fear the leader. Sometimes that fear comes from his army, and sometimes it comes from a natural place of שום תשים עליך מלך ( "You shall surely set a king over you" )— שתהא אימתו עליך , that his awe should be upon you, which is a Torah concept. This is a fundamental human instinct: a person naturally wants to feel looked after by someone stronger than themselves. We want to be relieved of the constant burden of self-protection. We want to know that someone else is taking care of the police force and the infrastructure. While a leader might occasionally do things we dislike—and in extreme situations, like the dictatorships and horrors we watch in places like Iran or Venezuela, it is far worse—at the end of the day, people accept leadership because they gain vital stability from it. He continues: if everyone were only out for themselves and focused purely on their own defense, they could never agree to build a tower or a protective wall. Therefore, their lives would be left in a state of hefker (abandonment). Hashem programmed us to prefer order, even if it is strict, over a state of total lawlessness. We see this with children as well; children thrive on structure and order. What we observe in children reflects how human beings are hardwired from the start. He continues even further: if this leader keeps the laws of the Torah and leads with true justice, the benefit is even greater. He quotes a pasuk in Mishlei (20:28): חסד ואמת יצרו מלך וסעד בחסד כסאו — "Kindness and truth protect the king, and he sustains his throne through acts of kindness." Lastly, he quotes a Mishna in Pirkei Avot, familiar to all: הוי מתפלל בשלומה של מלכות שאלמלא מוראה איש את רעהו חיים בלעו — "Pray for the peace of the government, for if not for the fear of it, a man would swallow his fellow alive." This is a very real concept. Many Siddurim include a special prayer for the government, and people recite it to this day, even living under a president. The Pele Yoetz writes that it is a Mitzvah based on this Mishna to pray for the success of the sovereign. He notes that one should be careful to answer Amen after this blessing or Mishebeirach , thereby fulfilling the Mitzvah. Rav Chaim Volozhin explains the historical context: Who said this Mishna? It was Rabbi Hanina, the Deputy High Priest, who lived through the destruction of the Second Beis HaMikdash at the hands of the Romans, who caused us so much heartache. Yet, even then, the Tanna taught us to pray for the welfare of the government. How much more so should we appreciate it when we live under a benevolent government, recognizing the absolute necessity of an established legal system. The Midrash Shmuel adds an insight in the name of Rav Moshe Alshakar regarding the phrase "swallow his fellow alive." He notes that in the animal and aquatic kingdoms, a large fish swallows a small fish; it doesn't usually destroy a fish of its own size. Human beings, however, if left without a governing authority, would swallow their own peers alive. Furthermore, normally one chews food first, but here, they would swallow them whole. That is how desperately we need governance. Once again, we see the wisdom of creation: contemplate how deeply Hashem embedded this psychological need and understanding within humanity to appoint a leader for our own preservation. Thu, 28 May 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/ebc5efdc-7786-4ccb-8036-a6c730524ec2.mp3 Welcome to our daily bitachon. One of the fundamentals of bitachon is to realize that you have a loving father in heaven that you could rely on. Reshit Chochma in Shaar HaAhava, seventh chapter, said that one of the ways that we know that God loves us is because he gave us the Torah. That's one of the biggest signs of his love for us and as Shavuot is coming, we have to think about that as well. And as it says in Devarim, כי שאל נא לימים ראשונים you're going to ask from the days of old, did anything ever happen like this? השמע עם קול אלוהים did anyone ever hear of a nation that God spoke to them? And he quotes the Zohar as saying that through Matan Torah, Hashem showed תוקף אהבתו יתברך לנו his tremendous powerful love for us like a father loves his dear son. And that's what it says in Pirkei Avot, chavivin Yisrael, dear are the Jewish people, שנתן להם כלי חמדה שבו נברא עולם we received the dear utensil through which the world was created. God used the Torah to create the world, that's his machinery, and he gave that to us. And he tells us that one of the ways to remember this is in your daily prayers that the Anshei Knesset Hagedolah, the men of the Great Assembly, established in our daily prayers. ahavat olam ahavtanu, an everlasting love you loved us, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem our God, chemla gedola viteira you had compassion on us. And what does that compassion referring to? It's referring to the fact that he gave us the Torah. Pay attention to that. That's the way we say how do I know that Hashem loves me? From the fact that he gave us the Torah. Look at the words that it says in that beracha. Avinu, our father, ba'avur shimcha hagadol because of your great name that is attached to us. בעבור אבותינו שבטחו בך because of our fathers that rely on you and read through line by line. Avinu av harachaman, our father, our merciful father, rachem aleinu have mercy on us. And now although we're in galut, nagila venismecha bishuatcha we rejoice and be happy in your salvation. What do you mean your salvation? That God's with us in this difficulty. So when we get saved, he gets saved. ובנו בחרת מכל עם ולשון he chose us from all the nations. He's a poel yeshuot, he's constantly creating salvations we don't know about it. וקרבתנו מלכנו לשמך הגדול you brought us close to your great name, that's after the whole long story of love. And what does that mean, says the Arizal? It means you brought us to Har Sinai to give us the Torah. The Torah is shmo hagadol, the Torah is God's great name. The source for birkat hatorah is כי שם השם אקרא when I announce the name of God, havu godel Lelokeinu, give him greatness. So when you're mentioning the name of God, when you learn Torah, give him greatness and bless him. Whenever we learn Torah, the Torah is God's names, whatever that means. That means this is the essence of what we know of God. A name is what you know of somebody. The Torah is God's names, that's what we know about him is the Torah and he gave us that knowledge. And he says we continue our prayers, this is every day, after we say Kriat Shema. goaleinu goel avoteinu your savior, our redeemer, the redeemer of our fathers, till the words ga'al Yisrael he says הכל מורה על אהבת הקדוש ברוך הוא לנו . This all shows how much Hashem loves us. The miracles that he made for us, taking out of Mitzrayim, hitting the firstborn, splitting the sea. If you read these words of our prayer, not out of rote he says, for sure your heart will be aroused to a tremendous love and desire for Hakadosh Baruch Hu and want to cleave to him and pray to him. And this is an important point as a famous story that they once asked Rav David Feinstein or Moshe, I'm sorry Rav Reuven Feinstein, Rav Moshe Feinstein's son should live a long life, how did you know that your father loved you? Your father was a great rabbi, posek hador, busy with everybody. How did you know that he loved you? And he said two things that I remember that stand out. Number one was whenever we had guests over Shabbat, the greatest of people that they could be, my seat was never moved, I always sat next to my father. Number two is my father would get up early in the morning to. So when I got up I could put on those warm pants and feel warm on a cold day. That's how I knew my father loved me. So that means a child has to sometimes look for little things. Of course it's obvious your father loves you, but you want to look for the little signs, the little indicators. And that's the same thing with God. How do I know my father loves me? Well, one of the main ways we know that he loves you is he gave you the Torah. And he doesn't just give you in the past but every single day we say noten haTorah, he's giving us the Torah. So if anybody here is listening to this class, what's really happening is they're hearing words of Torah that God gave them. Every day the Torah that we hear, whether we learn or hear from others, is a gift of God. So let us think of these important lessons as we get to Shavuot, and realize that this giving of the Torah is a fatherly love. We say every single day hashivenu avinu letoratecha, bring us back our father to your Torah, vekarevenu malkenu la'avodatecha, and bring us close our king to your service. We refer to God as our father and as our king. When it comes to Torah, hashivenu avinu letoratecha, the fact that we have a Torah is an expression of God's fatherly love to us. Our service to him, that indicates the slave-servant relationship, there God is a king. But God is our father when it comes to Torah, and one of the responsibilities a father has to a son is to teach him Torah, and that's what God does. So let's appreciate that love expression that we're getting this Shavuot, like a father loves a son and gives him. Wed, 27 May 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/fb13c9c8-975e-4ff9-a60e-5a0ad43b721a.mp3 Daily Bitachon: Sha'ar Habechina — Lesson 96 Welcome to our daily dose of Bitachon. We are continuing in Sha'ar Habechina . Yesterday, we spoke about contemplating the ultimate benefit God gave us: the Torah, and the open miracles He performed to strengthen our emunah in that Torah—miracles like the Splitting of the Sea and Ma'amad Har Sinai . Now, this raises a seemingly obvious challenge: we don't see those types of open miracles today. To address this, the Chovot HaLevavot makes an unbelievable statement. He writes that if a person in our times wants to see something akin to the Splitting of the Sea or Ma'amad Har Sinai , they only need to look with a "true eye" at our very existence among the nations. Look at the fact that we have survived in exile from the time of the destruction of the Temple until this very day. We are surviving amongst them—and not just surviving, but thriving. We thrive even though we fundamentally disagree with them internally and externally, and even though they are well aware of it. More than that, we are quite often more successful than those around us in our financial status, or we find ourselves in a better, more protected situation even during wartime. Look at the difference between their middle class and our middle class; we just seem to be doing better. It is a miracle—not just that we are doing well, but that we even exist at all after waves of persecution, pogroms, expulsions, inquisitions, and the Holocaust. Yet, here we are today. This is the literal fulfillment of Hashem's eternal promise to us in Leviticus : " וְאַף גַּם זֹאת בִּהְיוֹתָם בְּאֶרֶץ אֹיְבֵיהֶם לֹא מְאַסְתִּים וְלֹא גְעַלְתִּים לְכַלֹּתָם לְהָפֵר בְּרִיתִי אִתָּם " (And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them). It is interesting to note that we read this pasuk every single year in Parashat Bechukotai , just two weeks before the holiday of Shavuot. We read it then so that "the year and its curses may come to an end." And the final words of comfort in those curses guarantee that, after everything is said and done, we will survive. As Ezra HaSofer later declared: we are slaves, but even in our slavery, God has not forsaken us. Similarly, in Tehillim 124, it says: "Lulai Hashem shehaya lanu yomar na Yisrael" —if not for Hashem being on our side, how could Israel ever have survived the galut ? The rest of that mizmor paints the exact same picture. The Verdict of History The Kuzari , in his second ma'amar (letter 33), notes that if any other nation were to be dispersed across the globe the way we were, their total assimilation would be guaranteed. He points out that we have seen this happen throughout history. We watched it happen to the Romans, and to Amon and Moav, which were once massive world powers. Aram was a great power; so were Peleshet, Kasdim, Madai, Paras, and Yavan. These were the empires of the world! He notes that so many others like them have simply vanished from the face of the earth—whether it's the ancient empires or the Aztecs—leaving nothing behind. Yet, here we are. The Elder of Kelm, in his sefer on emunah (page 99), writes: Who would ever believe that a nation so completely separated from all other nations could survive like this? Where do they even get their parnassa (livelihood) from as they are being bounced around from country to country? He suggests that if you were to stand there at the time of the Churban Beit HaMikdash (the Destruction of the Temple), watching the Jewish people being pulled down to Babylonia in shackles, or later dragged off to Rome, you would think there was absolutely no way this nation would ever be a nation again. You would never imagine that not only would they survive, but they would be respected, they would be close to kingdoms, and they would eventually even be accused of controlling the world! Who could have envisioned such a reality? It is nothing short of a miracle. The Hidden, Ongoing Miracle While the Chovot HaLevavot gently frames this as something "similar" to an open miracle, Rabbi Yaakov Emden goes a step further. In the introduction to his Siddur , he writes: "Chai Hashem" —I swear by the Living God—that when I look at the survival of the Jewish nation from the time of the Churban , it is in my eyes "yoter mikal hanissim vehamofetim she'asu b'Mitzrayim" —even greater than all the miracles and wonders performed in Egypt! Rav Yechezkel Levenstein, in his sefer Torah VeDa'at , analyzes the exact wording of the Chovot HaLevavot : "Veyivakesh adam bazman hazeh lirot..." (If a person seeks to see it in this time...). He points out that the author adds the words "yabit be'ein ha'emet" —one must look with the eye of truth. Why? Because this miracle is hidden. If you want to, you can try to explain our survival away with politics, economics, or sociology. It becomes an open miracle only for the person who is actively looking for the truth. Rav Chatzkel explains that this is just like the phrase we say in Hallel , "Lemakeh melachim gedolim... ki le'olam chasdo" (To Him Who smote great kings, for His kindness is everlasting). That reality is ongoing right now; it is just happening behind the scenes. Mark Twain's Witness We can beautifully conclude this idea with the famous 1899 essay, Concerning the Jews , written by Mark Twain. He captured this exact concept from a historical perspective, writing: "The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?" These are incredibly powerful words coming from a Gentile writer—someone who possessed that very "discerning eye" the Chovot HaLevavot spoke about, recognizing the living miracle of the Jewish people. Tue, 26 May 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/8dcbbf41-6731-4ec0-89e7-38f66296762f.mp3 Welcome to Daily Bitachon in our Shaar Habechina series. We are now going to share a miracle with you because Hashem's hidden miracles are the same as his open miracles, and hashgacha pratis is one of those concepts. We're doing Shaar Habechina for 94 lessons. This is lesson number 95. And coincidentally, the next topic that the Chovot HaLevavot says we're supposed to contemplate, and I say the words coincidentally obviously in jest, the greatest benefit that God gave us is the Torah. And on top of that, he gave us ways to demonstrate the validity of our traditions of the Torah. Now, what are the odds that on the week of Shavuot, when I was contemplating should I continue talking about Shaar Habechina or maybe I should switch to a more timely topic like Shavuot? And this is what showed up as our next lesson. So here we go. Hashem showed miracles. He changed nature. He showed us wonders so that we will rely and believe in him. It says, וירא ישראל את היד הגדולה at Kriat Yam Suf, he saw his great hand אשר עשה ה' במצרים and because of that miracle וייראו העם את ה ' we feared him ויאמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו . So not only do we say thank you for what God gave us, but we say thank you and recognize that he gave us miracles to strengthen that belief. Furthermore, and this refers to Matan Torah, ata horeta ladaat, you showed us to know כי ה' הוא האלהים that Hashem is the God, ein od milvado, there's no one but him. Famous ein od milvado, where we have bumper stickers and there's none but him. We can give classes on that as a separate topic, and we have. But when did God show that? When he gave us the Torah, he opened up all the heavens and he opened up to the depths of the ground, and he said there's... we saw there was nothing else but him. We saw there was nothing else but him. So God gave us that great benefit that he showed us with our senses ein od milvado. Another pasuk, מן השמים השמיעך את קולו , you heard his voice from the heavens. And he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from the fire. So the part of Shavuot, or the main part of Shavuot, is not just that we received the Torah, because we didn't receive the whole Torah, it was the ten commandments. It's we call Maamad Har Sinai. That's the great event, that event of being given the Torah, because that not only did we get the Torah, but with the Torah came the emunah that we realized that it's true. Rav Chatzkel Levenstein in his sefer Torah veDaat talks about this Chovot HaLevavot, that without the Torah we would also not be able to have the whole Shaar Habechina. We'd not be able to recognize godliness just with our sechel and just with our intellect and contemplating creation. With the Torah and Har Sinai, everything now became emunah b'chush, we could sense everything. So that emunah that we got with the Torah and Har Sinai enabled us to see God in all creation. As it says in Devarim, פנים בפנים דבר ה' עמכם בהר , he spoke to you face to face at the mountain. And he quotes Ramban that says Maamad Har Sinai annulled all of our doubts in emunah because everything became clear. And that's why, according to Ramban, one of the ten things you have to remember every single day is Maamad Har Sinai. Rav Wolbe used to say how it's important to use our imagination to create our emunah. And he said Rav Chatzkel Levenstein was known for that. When it was the night of Az Yashir of Shvii shel Pesach, he was once seen with buckets of water on both sides walking through like he was walking through the ocean. And Rav Wolbe said he once overheard him talking about Har Sinai, imagining the thunder and the light, and he says, 'Ooh, the bombs are loud like the ones that we heard in Shanghai.' He was living through Har Sinai and making it real to him and causing him emunah. And this is an important principle that the Ramban talks about, how we have to know that a father doesn't lie to his son. And the fact that generation after generation we talk about Har Sinai, that's the biggest proof. And was Har Sinai just wasn't an event with one person standing there? It wasn't one person alone like all other religions started with one man with no witnesses. There was 600,000 people there. You can't make up a hoax with 600,000 people claiming that 600,000 people saw it. Imagine someone says that there was a UFO, unidentified flying object, that landed in Yankee Stadium when there was a full crowd during the World Series. You can't say that because there's too many people to deny it. There's thousands of people in the crowd. You can't make a claim that 600,000 people saw an event. I want to say me and my friend were at the river when we saw the Loch Ness monster. When I was a kid that was a thing that we spoke about. I don't know if anyone here knows about it. It's about somewhere in Scotland where they saw this monster head coming out of a river. And there was a picture that was taken of it and that became roots for this monster that was in this river. And it was revealed later on there was a hoax made with a toy submarine and some wood paste or whatever else it may be. Modern technology they searched this river and didn't find any possible DNA or any signs of anything like it. It was a hoax. Now if 600,000 people said that they saw this monster, that would give it a little bit more credibility. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us not just the Torah, but he gave us miracles, and not just miracles, but 600,000 witnesses so that we could know that it's true. As we said, one of the fundamentals is that we believe that God spoke to Moshe Rabbeinu, that's one of the Yud Gimmel Ikarim. And he was the Navi and the greatest Navi and we saw that again at Har Sinai. So you have to thank Hashem, A for what he gave us and B for the built-in emuna that comes with it. And as we said, you're supposed to work on that every day, but especially as we come to Shavuot this is something definitely to have on our minds. Mon, 25 May 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/653206d5-582e-4da3-9522-6ef0f11f7ce0.mp3 Welcome to our daily Bitachon. Today is Erev Shavuot and we will begin with something we normally don't do: a brief halachic discussion. The Halachic Discussion: Meat on Shabbat vs. Yom Tov Does one have to eat meat on Shabbat? According to both Chacham Ovadia Yosef and Chacham Ben Zion Abba Shaul, it is not halachically required. If you enjoy meat, eating it is a wonderful fulfillment of Oneg Shabbat (Shabbat pleasure). However, if you simply do not like meat and it is not your cup of tea, you can certainly have a wonderful fish meal instead. Of course, the meal must still be respectful—like a wedding. You shouldn't just put tuna fish and crackers on the table. It should be elegantly set up. Just as a wedding features high-quality salmon, you can choose to serve fine dishes other than meat at your "Shabbat Queen's" wedding feast. It all depends on your personal enjoyment. If you are a meat eater who enjoys a steak on Thursday night, don't suddenly decide to go vegan on Shabbat. But if you are someone who avoids meat all week for dietary or health reasons, Shabbat is no different. When it comes to Yom Tov (the holidays), however, the rule is reversed. On Yom Tov, eating meat and drinking wine is an obligation. The Torah states, "V'samachta bechagecha" (You shall rejoice in your festival), and Chazal teach: אין שמחה אלא בבשר ויין "There is no joy without meat and wine." The Rambam writes in Sefer HaMitzvot (Aseh 54) that rejoicing with meat and wine is a positive commandment from the Torah. To fulfill this joy, women should receive clothing or gifts that make them happy, children should be given sweets, and men are meant to have meat and wine. The Shavuot Challenge This brings us to a common challenge on Shavuot: Isn't Shavuot supposed to be a dairy holiday? The tradition to eat dairy does not mean your entire meal must be dairy, nor does it mean you can forget the mitzvah of eating meat. Ideally, one should eat meat both night and day on Yom Tov. If that is too difficult, the daytime meal is the more critical time for meat. How do you balance both dairy and meat? You must eat your dairy foods first. For example, you can have a dairy Kiddush or light meal in the morning when you return from Shul, and then eat your meat meal for lunch. Alternatively, you can eat a dairy lunch and then have a meat meal later in the afternoon before Mincha. The Spiritual Essence: Two Types of Joy Now, let's transition into our usual focus on Bitachon and the spiritual essence of the day. There are sources that suggest we do have a requirement of simcha (joy) on Shabbat. The Sifrei (Bamidbar 10:10), commenting on the verse "Uveyom Simchatchem" ("On the day of your gladness"), states that this phrase directly refers to Shabbat. The Baal HaTurim even finds a gematria (numerical hint) showing that the word Simchatchem ( שמחתכם ) has the exact same numerical value as Gam Beyom Hashabbat ( גם ביום השבת - "also on the day of Shabbat"). Furthermore, the Shibbolei HaLeket (Chapter 82) notes that we recite "Yismchu Bemalchutcha" ("They shall rejoice in Your kingship") in the Shabbat prayers based on this very concept. On the other hand, Tosafot (Moed Katan 23b) states that there is actually no formal requirement of simcha on Shabbat. The proof is that if someone, Heaven forbid, is in mourning, Shabbat counts as part of the Shiva mourning period, whereas a holiday puts mourning on hold. This is because you are not halachically obligated to actively rejoice on Shabbat; you are only forbidden from being visibly sad. So, how do we reconcile this? Is Shabbat a day of simcha or not? The Acharonim (later commentators) explain that there are two distinct types of joy: Yom Tov (External Joy): This requires outward actions of joy. You must actively do things that bring happiness, namely eating meat and drinking wine. Shabbat (Internal Joy): Shabbat is called Yom Simchatchem , meaning the day itself is inherently joyful. You do not need to perform external actions to force it; rather, the happiness resides naturally in your heart. Because Shabbat is a deeply spiritual day, its joy is internal. We say in the prayers, "V'yismechu b'cha Yisrael" —we rejoice in You . Our happiness on Shabbat is a direct connection to God. Practical Takeaway Rav Wolbe used to say that Shabbat is a day of pnimiyut —an internal world. Therefore, it requires no external performance. The joy of Shabbat is found in serenity, calm, and menuchat hanefesh (peace of mind). It is the quiet happiness of connecting deeply with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The practical takeaway is that every single Shabbat, we should walk around feeling that this is our internal day of happiness. This week, we are blessed to experience Shabbat and Yom Tov coinciding. We have both of these beautiful concepts merging into one day—the outward celebration of the festival and the deep, serene intimacy of Shabbat. Have a Chag Sameach and a Shabbat Shalom! Thu, 21 May 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/d390d5a0-5d32-4485-a3f5-cafc5d0671b9.mp3 Welcome to our daily Bitachon Shaar HaBechina series, the Chovot HaLevavot teaches us how God can bring about great outcomes through small, seemingly insignificant causes. Many years ago, I read an article based on the book Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America by Michael Beschloss , a critically acclaimed 2007 non-fiction book exploring pivotal moments when U.S. presidents took high-stakes risks for the nation's benefit. The narrative highlights leaders who defied public opinion, risked their careers, or faced threats of assassination to do what they believed was right. It reveals the behind-the-scenes story of how, on May 14, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed a single word— "Approved"—making the United States the first nation to recognize the new State of Israel, just eleven minutes after its birth. The Roots of a Connection The story truly begins in Independence, Missouri. Long before Harry Truman was President, young Harry served as a "Shabbos goy" for his Jewish neighbors. Growing up, he was a student of the Bible and was particularly captivated by Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who ended the Babylonian captivity and allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. During World War I, Truman served in the army where he met Eddie Jacobson. They became lifelong friends, and after the war, they opened a men's clothing store together in Kansas City. When the business failed during the Depression, their paths diverged—Truman entered politics and Jacobson became a traveling salesman—but their bond remained unbreakable. A Political Tug-of-War In 1947, President Truman was caught in a political tug-of-war. On one side was the State Department, led by General George Marshall, who argued that recognizing a Jewish state would jeopardize Middle Eastern oil and alienate the Arab world. Marshall warned that if the State of Israel were attacked, the U.S. would be forced to intervene with troops it didn't have. On the other side were the Zionists. Frustrated by the intense lobbying, Truman grew resentful, eventually banning Zionist leaders from the Oval Office and writing in his diary that they were selfish and lacked a sense of proportion. The Meeting that Changed History In March 1948, someone remembered Eddie Jacobson's old friendship with the President. Jacobson secured a meeting, but when he mentioned Jerusalem, Truman exploded in anger. Tears welled in Jacobson's eyes. Pointing to a statue of Andrew Jackson on Truman's desk, he said, "Harry, you have a hero. I also have a hero. My hero is Chaim Weizmann. He is a very sick man, yet he traveled thousands of miles just to see you." The room went silent. Truman turned away for a moment, then looked back and said, "You win. I will see him." "I am Cyrus" The meeting was held in secret. Truman promised Weizmann that he would support statehood, even as the State Department pushed for a "trusteeship" instead. When the State Department acted without Truman's knowledge and announced to the UN that the U.S. would not support a state, Truman was livid. He wrote in his diary, "I am now in the position of a liar and a double-crosser. How can I ever face Weizmann again?" Despite the embarrassment and the political risk, Truman fought his own administration for the next two months. On May 14, as British forces withdrew, Truman ignored the fallout and approved the recognition of Israel. Years later, when Jacobson introduced Truman to Jewish activists as "the man who helped create the State of Israel," the former President corrected him with a grin: "What do you mean 'helped create'? I am Cyrus! I am Cyrus!" The Divine Perspective It is remarkable to see how Hashem orchestrated the existence of the State of Israel—which, regardless of one's political views, serves as a major global center for Torah. This was not merely a calculated geopolitical move. It was the result of a Missouri Baptist's memory of a Persian king and a shared business failure in a Kansas City haberdashery. When Eddie Jacobson passed away in 1955, Truman wept openly, saying he had lost a brother. As a final "cherry on top," when Chaim Weizmann visited the White House, he presented Truman with a Sefer Torah. To this day, that Torah remains in the Truman Museum—a lasting testament to how Hakadosh Baruch Hu brings His will to fruition through the smallest of threads. Wed, 20 May 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/76b84996-98d3-4e04-8774-894f123c6d0c.mp3 Welcome to Daily Bitachon. Today, we are continuing our exploration of the concept of seeds, specifically through the lens of the Chovot HaLevavot (Duties of the Heart). The author uses the phrase yishtabach hachacham hachonen —"Praised is the wise and gracious One"—who brought about "great events from the smallest and weakest of causes" ( ha-mesabev le-hawayot ha-devarim ha-gedolim min ha-ktana ve-hachalusha she-be-sibot ). To support this, he quotes the verse in Shmuel I (2:3), ve-lo nitkenu alilot : "And by Him, causes are set up." Defining "Alilot" The word alilot literally means "causes." We see this reflected in Rabbeinu Bachya's commentary on Shemot (10:2), where Hashem says, et asher hit'allalti —referring to the plagues in Egypt. While Rashi interprets this as "I made a laughingstock" of Egypt, Rabbeinu Bachya explains that hit'allalti stems from the word illa , meaning the primary cause behind everything. As we say in the daily proclamation based on the Zohar, God is Ilat ha-Ilot ve-Sibat ha-Sibot —the Cause of all causes and the Reason behind all reasons. This theme is echoed in the Sephardic Ne'ila prayer, El Nora Alila : "God who is awesome in His causes, provide for us forgiveness at the time of the closing of the gates." The Intermediary Causes In Shaar HaBitachon (The Gate of Trust), the Chovot HaLevavot explains that everything unfolds in two stages: The Divine Decree: The initial decision by the Creator. Intermediary Causes: These are the vehicles that carry out the decree. They may be near or far, hidden or revealed, but they all rush to fulfill the Creator's will. He gives the example of drawing water from a well. The closest cause is the pail. The pail is attached to a rope, which is attached to a pulley, which is pulled by an animal, led by a shepherd, who answers to a boss. If you were the water, you might think the pail is the one acting upon you. In reality, the pail is merely the final link in a long chain of command starting with the boss. We often focus on the "closest cause"—like pleading with a meter maid to avoid a ticket—but she is simply an intermediary for a supervisor, who answers to a department, which follows laws set by Congress. The Megaleh Amukot explains that Chana meant we shouldn't say God is "high up" and removed from the world; rather, He is the El De'ot —the God of knowledge who supervises every intricate detail. A Historical "Wrong Turn" To understand how God brings about massive shifts through tiny events, we can look at the trigger for World War I: the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The "great event" was a global catastrophe: 20 million deaths and the collapse of four empires (German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian). But the "small cause" was a series of improbable coincidences: Earlier that day, a bomb bounced off the Archduke's car, failing to kill him. The Archduke made an impulsive decision to visit the men injured by that bomb in the hospital. Because the regular route was closed for investigation, his chauffeur took a wrong turn . Realizing the mistake, the driver pulled to a halt directly in front of a diner where one of the original assassins happened to be standing. Without even aiming, the assassin fired two shots. Once Austria declared war on Serbia (July 28, 1914), the gears of the Great Power alliances began to turn: Russia mobilized its massive army to scare Austria into backing down. Germany saw Russian mobilization as a threat and declared war on Russia. France , being Russia's ally, was now pulled in. Germany declared war on France and launched an invasion through neutral Belgium . Britain had a treaty to protect Belgium. When German boots touched Belgian soil, Britain declared war on Germany. . The Spiritual Lesson What brought about World War I? From a human perspective, it was one wrong turn. From a Torah perspective, it was Hakadosh Baruch Hu using a minute event to fulfill a massive decree. This is the "wisdom of the seeds." Just as a massive tree is hidden within a tiny seed, the great salvations we pray for are planted in the small, seemingly insignificant events of our daily lives. This is why we pray every day, et tzemach David avdecha mehera tatzmiach —"Let the sprout of David Your servant sprout speedily." God is Zoreia Tzedakot (He plants acts of righteousness) and Matzmiach Yeshuot (He causes salvations to sprout). Everything we experience today—the small turns, the "coincidences," and the minor causes—are the seeds of a much greater Divine plan. Tue, 19 May 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/bc5445f9-6b6b-4522-b280-38f9fb1f850d.mp3 Welcome to our daily Bitachon series in Sha'ar Habechina . Today, the Chovos Halevavos introduces us to another wonder of the world: the concept of seeds. He explains that one single seed can bring about thousands of plants and contains an endless amount of resources. Enormous trees originate from one tiny seed. Regarding this, the Chovos Halevavos writes a powerful line: "Yishtabach HeChacham HeChonen" —Praised is the wise and gracious One, "hamisavev lihavyas hadevarim hagedolim" —who brings about great outcomes, "min haktana vehachalasha shebasibos" —from the smallest and weakest of causes. This mirrors the words of Chana in Shmuel Aleph (2:3): "V'lo nitkenu alilot" —to Him, all causes are set up. The Science of the Seed Let's first discuss the specific concept of seeds before moving to the broader point of praising the Creator. A seed is not merely "dead" matter; it is essentially a living organism in a state of suspended animation. It contains a miniature plant called an embryo and enough fuel, known as endosperm, to jumpstart its life. Some seeds can remain "asleep" for decades or even centuries, waiting for the perfect combination of temperature, moisture, and light to wake up. This is a proven fact. The Arava Institute, an Israeli-based institute for environmental studies, successfully grew a date palm from a 2,000-year-old seed found during the excavations of Masada. They named the tree "Methuselah," after the oldest human being in history. This project was featured in the journal Science in 2008 and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. The "software" inside that seed remained intact and functional for two millennia without a power source. It is like a USB drive waiting to be plugged in—but even more advanced, because it contains its own energy. A Living Soul Seeds are not passive objects; they "feel" their environment. They possess specialized proteins that act as sensors to measure soil temperature and moisture levels. They won't sprout if it is too cold (which would kill the seedling) or too dry. In our tradition, we recognize four levels of existence: Domem: Inanimate Tzomeach: Growing Chai: Alive Medaber: Speaking Plants possess a Nefesh Hatzomachat —a growing soul. They are alive; the seed is simply sleeping until the right moment. When it begins to grow, it starts a process called imbibition . It absorbs water with such intensity that it creates massive internal pressure—strong enough to crack its hard outer shell, split through rocks, and lift heavy soil. It is a tiny, silent explosion of life. The Miracle of Information The Chovos Halevavos notes that these tiny specks produce giant trees. Consider the Giant Sequoia, one of the largest living things on earth, weighing millions of pounds. Its journey begins with a seed no larger than a flake of oatmeal. The information required to build a 300-foot tree—including the vascular system to pump water against gravity and the chemistry to create wood—is all packed into a speck of biological matter that weighs less than a grain of salt. Furthermore, seeds possess "transportation technology." Maple seeds are shaped like helicopters to autorotate away from the parent tree's shade. Dandelion seeds utilize parachute structures to create an aerodynamic vortex to stay aloft. Engineers actually copy these designs for modern efficiency. The Wisdom of Design All of this stems from the pasuk in Bereishis (1:11) where Hashem says: "Tadshe ha'aretz deshe" —the land should give forth grass and trees that produce seeds and fruit. Rabbi Avigdor Miller was famous for his fascination with seeds. He noted that while the fruit is bright and sweet to attract you to eat it, the seeds are often bitter so that you will spit them out, allowing them to be planted for the next generation. Consider the watermelon: its seeds are coated with a natural grease to make them slippery so they shoot out of your mouth into the soil rather than being crushed by your teeth. In his book The Universe Testifies , Rabbi Miller discusses the peach pit. The pit is cement-hard so that no animal can harm the seed inside. How does it ever grow? Specific microorganisms in the soil excrete a unique solvent—the only thing that can dissolve the "glue" holding the two halves of the pit together—releasing the seed at exactly the right time. Conclusion Rabbi Miller compared planting a seed to watching a toy car grow into a full-sized SUV. Because we see this every day, we often lose our sense of wonder. But the transition from a dry speck to a towering oak is a "miracle of miracles" produced by the smallest of causes. Rabbi Miller famously carried seeds in his pocket at all times as a reminder. He didn't need a microscope or a telescope to see the Creator; he saw Him in the everyday seed, and that realization sparked his entire service of Hashem. Mon, 18 May 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/ab0569e9-adb9-430c-b008-66fbe1f70e7d.mp3 Welcome to Daily Bitachon, our special Erev Shabbat series. Today, we are exploring the depth behind Retzei , the addition to Birkat Hamazon so vital that if we forget it on Friday night or Shabbat day (excluding Seuda Shlishit ), we must repeat the entire Grace After Meals. Let's walk through it word by word: The Essence of Rest Retzei Vehachalitzenu: "May it please You, Hashem our God, and strengthen us through Your commandments, specifically the commandment of the seventh day." HaShabbat HaGadol VeHaKadosh HaZeh: "This great and holy Shabbat." Keep those two words— Great ( Gadol ) and Holy ( Kadosh ) —in mind, as they are the recurring theme of this prayer. Ki Yom Zeh Gadol VeKadosh Lefanecha: "For this day is great and holy before You." We ask God for three things: Nishbot Bo: Let us rest. Nanuach Bo: Let us be content. Venit'aneg Bo: Let us find joy. How do we achieve this? Not through physical hobbies like tennis or lounging by the pool, but Kemitzvat Chukei Retzonecha —as ordained by Your will. God defines true Menucha (rest) through the observance of the thirty-nine Melachot . The Ultimate Consolation We then transition to a heartfelt request: Ve'al Tehi Tzara VeYagon... "May there be no distress or grief on our day of rest." Suddenly, we pivot to Jerusalem: VeHareinu BeNechamat Tziyon... "Show us the consolation of Zion speedily in our days." Why the shift to the Beit Hamikdash ? Because God is the Ba'al Nechamot , the Master of Consolation. The ultimate comfort is seeing the Temple rebuilt. We say: Vegam She'achalnu Veshatinu... "Even though we have eaten and drunk, we have not forgotten the destruction of Your Great and Holy house ( Beit'cha HaGadol VeHaKadosh )." The Four Dimensions of Greatness and Holiness Notice the pattern. We have now seen "Great and Holy" applied to: Shabbat (Holy Time) The Beit Hamikdash (Holy Place) Then we plead: "Do not forget us forever... for You are a Great and Holy King ( El Melech Gadol VeKadosh )." 3. God (The Source of Holiness) 4. The Jewish People (The Holy Nation) Finally, on holidays or Rosh Chodesh that falls on Shabbat, we add: V'shimcha HaGadol VeHaKadosh Aleinu Karata —"Your Great and Holy Name is called upon us." The Sanctuary in Time Shabbat and the Beit Hamikdash are intrinsically linked; Shabbat is effectively a "Temple in time." We see this in Lecha Dodi , where we pivot from greeting the Shabbat Queen to praying for Jerusalem ( Mikdash Melech Ir Melucha ). We do the same in Hashkivenu on Friday night. The parallels are everywhere: The Candles mirror the Menorah. The Two Loaves mirror the Lechem Hapanim (Showbread). The Wine mirrors the libations. The Zemirot mirror the songs of the Levites. Activating the Connection Holiness ( Kedusha ) means separation and uplifting. On Shabbat, we are no longer tied to the mundane. As the Iyun Tefillah explains, while "the holy ones" who praise God " וקדושים בכל יום יהללוך סלה "are often cited as angels, Abudarham explains they are also the Jewish people who separate themselves from worldly matters. When you embrace this holiness, you achieve greatness ( Gedulah ). Every Shabbat is an opportunity to enter this "sanctuary in time" and elevate ourselves. And as the Pele Yoetz says, bad enough that we don't think about the Beis HaMikdash while we eat. When we're saying the words even though we're eating, we didn't forget about the Beis HaMikdash . At least when you're saying that line, think about the Beis HaMikdash . And the truth is, Retzei is put in between the requests about Rachem and Boneh Yerushalayim . We're sticking this Shabbat prayer in the middle of building Jerusalem, because that's what you're supposed to be thinking about on Shabbat . And when we remember God, God remembers us. We tell God, we didn't forget about You. Don't forget about us. You want your name to be remembered by people of power. When I was looking for my house that I currently live in, I asked a real estate agent and she put my name down and I didn't get a call from her. Obviously, I wasn't on the top of the list. I was walking into an event and she was walking out and she says, "Oh, I think I have an idea for you." I wasn't on her mind and then when I was, she took care of me. You're walking out of shul and you meet the Shadhan . "Oh, I have a good idea for your daughter." You weren't on their mind. Of course God knows everything, but there's a concept of Zichronot . יעלה ויבא ויגיע ויפקד ויזכר זכרוננו . On Rosh Hashanah we talk about Zichronot . In order to activate God, that's called Zichronot . We have to activate our connection to Him. And that's what's supposed to be happening every Shabbat . The time of connection, the time that we activate our feelings for the Beis HaMikdash and we plead with God. We're not forgetting about You and Your house. You're not sitting at Your table surrounded by Your family. I'm sitting at my table surrounded by my family. I think of God that's, so to say, all alone. Like the Gemara in Berachot 3a says that God says, "Woe to a father that his children have been exiled from his table." God is all alone. He's a father without His children around His table. And that's what we think about on Shabbat . Fri, 15 May 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon https://learntorah.com/content/967895f9-94ec-4153-b93c-2da357ba20f8.mp3 Welcome to our daily dose of Bitachon in our Shaar Bitachon series. Chovot haLevavot describes different things to contemplate. One of the greatest things he says, which is the crowning gift of man to living creatures and to growing things, is the rain coming at the right time. And he quotes a Pasuk in Yirmiyahu that the prophet is chastising the Jewish people and he says, "Can idols bring about rain?" Now this is something to really think about. One of those things we just take for granted: it's raining. And as we've said in the past, we've been raised with "rain, rain, go away." Let's look into appreciating the rain. So we start off with most of the world's evaporation happens over the oceans, because that's where most of the rain comes from, not from freshwater lakes. Oceans, as we know, are salty and toxic to most land plants. If the salt rose with the water, the rain would destroy the earth rather than nourish it. The wonder is that the process of evaporation acts as a massive natural desalination plant. It separates the pure H2O molecules from the salt and impurities, ensuring that every drop that falls from the sky is fresh, life-giving water. But that's still not enough. Water vapor in the air doesn't just turn into liquid on its own. It needs a platform to grab onto. And these are the microscopic bits of dust, sea salt, or even bacteria floating in the atmosphere. These tiny seeds that Hashem provides causes that it grabs onto something and creates this cloud. And with that, the vapor gives birth to the raindrop. Another challenge: rain clouds are usually thousands of feet in the air. If a raindrop just fell through a vacuum, gravity would cause it to accelerate to such a high speed it would hit the ground like a bullet, destroying the crops and harming animals. It'd be like hail coming down. But because of the density of our atmosphere and the aerodynamic shape of a raindrop, the drop comes through in a nice 15 to 20 mile an hour speed, and it falls gently enough to water a delicate flower without crushing it. Another important factor: plants need nitrogen to grow. But they don't breathe nitrogen that makes up 75% of our air. They can only take it in through their roots in a liquid form. When lightning strikes, the intense heat breaks apart the nitrogen molecules in the air and they then bond with oxygen and dissolve into the falling raindrops. So rain isn't just water, it's pre-mixed liquid fertilizer that feeds the plant at the exact moment they're being hydrated, similar to vitamin water or any other type of energy drink. Now further, the Chovot haLevavot stresses the words that the rain comes in the right time, the term Yoreh u'Malkosh, early rain and late rain. Rain patterns are dictated by massive global currents and the tilt of the earth. If the rain came at the wrong temperature or the wrong month, it would rot the seeds in the ground or ruin a harvest before it's picked. And this is another wonder of rain coming at the right time. The Radak on Tehillim chapter 147 points out that this chapter starts off that it's nice to praise God. Boneh Yerushalayim Hashem, God is building Jerusalem, Nidchei Yisrael yekanes, bringing in the exiles. And then we switch to Enu l'Hashem b'todah, let us sing to God songs of praise. Hamachaseh shamayim b'avim, Hamachin la'aretz matar. God covers the heavens with clouds and gets the rain ready for the ground. What's going on over here? We're talking about ingathering of exiles and suddenly we turn to the rain? It's actually the Gemara in Masechet Taanit that tells us, sorry, it's a Pasuk in Michah chapter 5 Pasuk 6 that the Radak quotes: והיה שארית יעקב בקרב עמים רבים , the leftovers of Yaakov amongst the nations will be k'tal me'et Hashem, similar to dew, k'revivim alei esev, and like rain. So the comparison between rain and the ingathering... and the exiles. On both of them it says אשר לא יקוה לאיש , you can't hope to people. People don't bring rain and people don't bring in the exiles. The rain symbolizes that direct connection that God has in a supernatural way to creation. With all the predictors of the weather, they're never right. Rain is something that is specifically God-controlled. The Sforno says that specifically on rain we have to be thankful because these are the constants in the world, but they're really wondrous. There's a beautiful Tzror Hamor, Vayikra 26:19, written by Rav Avraham Saba, 1440 to 1510, one of the exiles from Spain and fled Portugal in the 1490s. He tells us on אם בחקתי תלכו ונתתי גשמיכם בעתם , I will give rain at the right time. That's the keyword: the right time. And he says our mitzvot bring rain because rain is something that is directly connected to what we do. And he says גאוננו ותפארתנו ועוזנו ביד שובינו , what was our glory and our greatness and our power when we were taken captive? He's talking about the Inquisition. That we had the power to bring rain at its time when we prayed and it was well known that they accepted us into their lands because they knew that we had the power to bring rain. He tells a story of Rav Chasdai Crescas, 1340 to 1410, with the King of Aragon, who was which is part of modern day Spain, where this Rav Chasdai Crescas lived. He was the leader of Spanish Jewry. And the Jewish community was physically expelled from the safety of the city walls and barred from returning. The ultimatum was clear. Unless the Jews through their prayer could end the drought and bring water, they would be left exposed to the elements, starvation and so on. And Rav Chasdai gathered everyone in prayer and he opened his drasha with the following words, lanu hamayim, the water is ours, referring to a discussion in Bereishit 26:20 with the argument between the shepherds of Gerar and Yitzchak's shepherds. And the point is lanu hamayim, the water belongs to us. We have the power to bring rain. And sure enough it rained. The power of rain is something directly connected to our tefillot and it is because ultimately Hashem is the one behind the rain. And that's another important thing to concentrate on. Thu, 14 May 2026 00:01:11 GMT Rabbi David Sutton Rabbi David Sutton No Learn Bitachon daily Learn Bitachon daily with Rabbi David Sutton Daily, Bitachon