Leaving Room for Hashem

By Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah (www.bircas.org)

In the first of this week’s Parshiot, Parshas Behar teaches us the mitzvah of shmita. Every seventh year, a person must stop working his field. He does not plow, plant, or harvest as an owner. Whatever grows must be left hefker — ownerless — for everyone. Anyone may enter and take. For an entire year, the farmer has no normal income from his field. The Midrash calls such a person a gibbor koach — a person of mighty strength. To watch your field grow wild, to see others taking what grows there, and to remain silent takes tremendous inner strength.

What is Hashem teaching us through such a difficult mitzvah? Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz explains that shmita trains a person in bitachon — complete reliance on Hashem. A person naturally thinks, “If I work, I will have parnassah. If I do not work, what will be?” That is the feeling of kochi ve’otzem yadi — my own strength brings me success. Shmita teaches the opposite. Even when I do not plant and do not harvest, Hashem can sustain me. Once I learn that, I can also understand that even in the years when I do work, the money is still coming only from Hashem.

Most people today are not farmers, and do not need to keep shmita in this way. The Gemara in Brachos (35B) discusses whether a person should only learn Torah and serve Hashem, or whether he should also work. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says that a person should devote himself fully to Torah, while Rabbi Yishmael says that Torah must be together with normal work. For most people, we follow Rabbi Yishmael. A person does need to make some hishtadlus — practical effort. He must remember however that the hishtadlus is not what gives him parnassah. Hashem gives the parnassah. Sometimes He sends it through the work, and sometimes He sends it in other ways.

How do we train ourselves to live this way? The first way is through tefillah. The Ramchal (2:4,5) writes that the main hishtadlus is tefillah. When a person says asks Hashem in Shemona Esrei for parnassah, this should not be taken lightly. That should be looked at his main effort for parnassah. Also, before a major meeting, a business decision, or any important event, a person should turn to Hashem and say, “Hashem, please help me.” That reminds him that success is not in his hands.

Another way is by not overworking. A person should do the work he needs to do, but not more than that. If he has extra time, he should not automatically look for another job or another way to make more money. He should use that time for Torah, for avodas Hashem, and for what really matters. Too much hishtadlus trains a person in the wrong direction. It teaches him to feel that work produces success. Proper hishtadlus says, “I am doing what I need to do, but I know the result is from Hashem.”

The pasuk raises a question (Vayikra 25:20–21). “If you will say: What will we eat in the seventh year, since we will not plant and not gather our produce?” Hashem answers, “I will command My brachah for you in the sixth year and it will make enough produce for three years.” The Saba MiNovardok, in Madregas HaAdam, explains that this question is not only being asked in the sixth year. Already in the first year, a person may begin worrying: “What will be in the seventh year?” So he makes a plan. He will save a little extra each year, cut back from his normal needs, and build up money for shmita. But the Torah is teaching that even this can come from a lack of bitachon. Of course, a person should not waste money, but if he deprives himself of normal needs because he is afraid that Hashem will not take care of him, this is too much hishtadlus. Hashem says: live normally, do not overspend, rely on Me.

We must leave room for Hashem. Even with the things we do, there should be space where we show that we are relying on HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Someone once came to Rav Shteinman and said that he wanted to open a kollel, but he only had funding for ten months. He did not yet have money for the last two months. Should he open it, or wait? Rav Shteinman told him to open it. “You have ten months,” he said. “That is very good. For the other two months, rely on HaKadosh Baruch Hu.” A person sometimes has to do an action that shows he is leaving room for Hashem.

The Brisker Rav had a similar practice with his kollel. He would not take money at the beginning of the month since he only had to pay the avreichim, at the end of the month. If someone offered to arrange support for years in advance, he was not interested. He wanted to rely on Hashem each month. This was not carelessness. It was training in bitachon.

The haftarah of this parsha teaches the same idea. Yirmiyahu HaNavi told the people, as they were going towards galus – exile, to buy fields. Why buy fields when they were about to be exiled? Because Hashem had promised that they would return. Buying a field at that moment was an action of bitachon. It showed, “I believe Hashem will bring us back.”

Bitachon is not only for money and physical needs. A person must also rely on Hashem for Torah. We cannot learn Torah properly on our own. For example, a person can think he is understanding the halacha or hashkafa that he is getting from his learning but he might be mistaken. Only with Hashem’s help will he reach the true depth of Torah.

The Gemara in Niddah (70b) asks what a person should do to become a chacham. The Gemara says that he should do less business and learn more. It adds that this alone may not be enough. He must also ask for mercy from the One to Whom wisdom belongs. The Gemara brings the pasuk, “For from the mouth of Hashem comes understanding and wisdom” (Mishlei 2:6). Torah comes from Hashem’s mouth, so we must ask Him for it.

Rav Chaim Shmulevitz once shared that when he first came to the Mir and was learning with his chavrusa, he could not understand the pshat. He went to the side and said, “Tatte, Father, help me understand. I cannot get the pshat.” Then he returned to learn. A few minutes later, when he understood, he again turned to Hashem and said, “Tatte, thank You for helping me.” That is how a person should learn — together with Hashem.

Rav Gershon Edelstein would say that when a person davens Shemonei Esrei and says “p’sach libeinu beTorasecha” – open our hearts to Your Torah – he should say it like someone who truly needs help. When saying “Atah Chonen”, asking Hashem for wisdom, he should feel, “Hashem, I need You to help me understand.” We need to daven for wisdom just as much as a person davens when he needs money. The Chovos Halevovos (Cheshbon HaNefesh 21) says that if a person davens for chochma wholeheartedly time after time he will reach levels that he could not reach by himself.

We also ask Hashem, in Birchas HaTorah, “v’haarev na” – please make the Torah sweet. Even if a person already enjoys learning, the more sweetness he feels, the more he can learn, and the more Torah can become part of him. Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel told about his uncle, Rav Elazar Finkel, that when he said “v’haarev na”, he would cry. He loved Torah deeply, but he still begged Hashem to make it sweeter. And when he said that the Torah should be sweet to our children and descendants, he cried even more. We need Hashem’s help for ourselves, and we need His help that Torah should continue through our children.

May Hashem help us strengthen our bitachon, both in all our physical needs and in our Torah and may He give us from His mouth, true understanding and wisdom.