[Avodah] bitachon

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Apr 11, 2025 at 02:53:08PM +0300, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
> I was listening to an interesting shiur discussing the Chazon Ish's many
> nisyonot (physical health, childlessness, wife) and how he met them all
> with the bitachon that he was in good hands. Not that all would necessarily
> be good in the way most people would think. The speaker saw this as
> superhuman belief.

This is one of the central themes in his Emunah uBitachon. He pushes
back against the Bitachon he identifies with the Mussar movement,
but I personally think of as more associated with Novhardok Mussar in
particular, and Chassidus in general.

So one difference is what one has bitachon in: is it trust that everything
will work out good for me in happy-making ways in the end, if I just
hold out long enough? Or trust that everything is working out according
to plan, and any pain I experience along the way is tolerable because
it has purpose and value?

Another difference is that the Norhardok and Chassidish model is
prescriptive; that good and happy-making ending is the reward for trusting
in Him. The model the CI describes is descriptive. It is the trust that
this Divine Plan exists and everything that happens to me is Planned
and Purposeful. Having that content in my head may or may not impact the
outcome, but the Plan I am believing in is in action equally either way.

I found the Chovos haLvavos's depiction could be read either way or a
third way in between. I really wanted to look closely at his word usage
to see exactly what he is saying. It was still shiv'ah for RSM when
this question hit me, and when I missed my personal expert in Medieval
Judeo-Arabic. I miss my rebbe who insisted on being a chaver.

One last note, the CI wrote EuB in the late 1940s, early 1950s. I wonder
if a motive of writing this sefer was historical, reflecting where the
Jewish community was that soon after the Holocaust, and while Medinat
Yisrael was a new exciting idea. But my theory revolves more about the
Holocaust. Novhardoker Bitachon raises huge unanswerable questions,
implying all the victims, even gedolim and qedoshim bechayeihem uvemosam
lo nifrodu failed to tap the yeshu'os that come from sufficient Bitachon.

The CI publicized a classical understanding of Bitachon that may have
been more credible to his audience in those years.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Today is the 9th day, which is
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   1 week and 2 days in/toward the omer.
Author: Widen Your Tent      Gevurah sheb'Gevurah: When is strict justice
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                          most appropriate?