See Through the Camoflauge

Living Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear

One of the consequences of Adam HaRishon's sin was בזיעת אפיך תאכל לחם , which the Kuntrus Minchat Ezra explains to mean that from then on all of mankind had to live in the falsehood of what we call hishtadlut . Why is it a falsehood? If we were asked the following question, "A person takes medication and he gets healed. Did Hashem heal the person through the medication or did Hashem heal him without the medication?" The standard answer would be that Hashem used the medication to heal him. That is the falsehood of hishtadlut . It seems to us that there is some type of difficulty involved in removing a sickness and it's easier for Hashem to use medication to do it than to do it without medication. But in truth, in order for the sickness to even be there in the first place, Hashem has to actively decide to put it there. And the moment He decides it shouldn't be there, it's gone. The medication is only a camouflage for us to be tested with. It is up to us to see through the camouflage and believe אין עוד מלבדו . The more we recognize Hashem's involvement in the world and in our lives, the closer we'll feel towards Him. Every time we have to make a hishtadlut in any area, we first have to remind ourselves that it's a curse that we have to put in effort to accomplish what we need. Hashem doesn't need our help to give us anything. It is incumbent upon us to make a hishtadlut , but we should feel that by doing it, we are just fulfilling our obligation and the effort we make is not at all affecting the results of what Hashem wants to give us. The closer we get to that belief, the better we're doing with this very difficult test. Every time a person needs to make a hishtadlut , he should say the words, be'ezrat Hashem , or אם ירצה ה ' , to remind him that what he is trying to accomplish will only happen if Hashem wants it to happen. Many times Hashem shows a person clearly that his hishtadlut is not what brought about the results he desired. We need to use those instances to remind us that that's always the way it is. A man, who will call Reuven, told that he was in great need of funds to marry off his son. He traveled abroad to see if others would help him in the cause. In a particular city, he made a connection with a driver who knew where all the wealthy people lived. The driver had others with him. Reuven was sitting in the back seat, and he made small talk with another collector. They discussed how difficult it was to travel and ask people for money. They arrived at a very wealthy man's home, and the driver told Reuven he had to go in last. He also told Reuven that this wealthy man does not like people coming with a driver. He had to wait to go in and under no circumstances was he allowed to tell the man that a driver brought him. Eventually, each person came out with a nice sum of money. When Reuven finally went in, the first question he was asked was how he got there. Reuven did not want to lie, nor did he want to break his word that he gave the driver, so he just ignored the question. He said that he came to collect for his son's wedding. The wealthy man was not happy with that response, and Reuven left the home empty handed. When Reuven got back to the house he was staying at, he saw the man that he made small talk with in the car. That man said he went on his own for a couple of hours to a friend and mentioned to the friend how difficult it was for him to collect. The friend gave him a very large donation and then told him he wanted to help someone else who was in need as well and he gave him the exact same amount of money to give to another person. The man told Reuven, "The first person I thought of was you because we spoke about how difficult it was for us to go collecting." He then handed Reuven that very large amount of money. Reuven felt like Hashem was telling him, "You don't need any particular wealthy man to help you. You don't need to be intimidated by anyone because I'm the One giving you your money." Yes, we have to make a hishtadlut, but we must know the hishtadlut is a test and we must believe that the results are only in the hands of Hashem.