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Translator's Introduction

Part A: Letters

Part B: Talks

   78.
Why was Yosef punished for placing his trust in the royal butler,
for preparing a natural means through which he could be released from the dungeon?

79.
Regardless of everything, Yaakov Avinu went on his way
with a light heart and in high spirits, because he had trust in the One Above.

80.
Even if until that moment such a person was tainted by idolatry,
or perhaps a tinge of it, when Pesach eve arrives he can have complete trust that "now
the Omnipresent has brought us near to His service."

81.
So long as the Yeshivah is their home, students should immerse themselves in their Torah studies
and not be concerned with questions as to how they will eventually earn a living.

82.
The Rebbe Maharash answers his own question:
"People are not lacking a livelihood; they are lacking trust.
Every individual is indeed provided with a livelihood. It's only that by lacking trust,
a person sometimes turns off the tap...."

83.
"Even a little guy like me gave tzedakah to a bedraggled stranger!"

84.
The first time Adam saw nightfall,
he discovered that a man is able to diffuse light even when the world around him is dark.

85.
Before the Sea Splits: Four Responses to the Crises of This World

86.
Faith and Trust

87.
A Jewish farmer "believes in Him Who is the Life
of all the worlds - and sows."

88.
From the Mouths of Babes: Three Modes of Trust

89.
When one has trust in the One on High,
he also has trust in his fellow Jews.

90.
Once the beleaguered King Chizkiyahu heard the words of Yeshayahu,
he placed his trust so completely in the Hands of G-d that he lay down in bed...
for a sweet and tranquil slumber.

91.
Even Bread from the Earth comes from Heaven.

92.
G-d will provide him with all his needs even if he has not yet
tackled his task for the month of Elul - repentance.
Indeed, it applies because he is in that state.

93.
G-d's army - and in our context, the Israel Defense Forces,
whose privilege it is to defend Jewish towns with actual self-sacrifice...

94.
Yosef turned to the Chief Butler
as if his whole salvation depended on him - and this constituted his sin.

95.
This arousal included a heightened trust that Divine Providence
supervises the particulars of every individual's life,
and this in turn empowered the chassid to decide what to do and how to act.

96.
"In G-d we trust" means that one regards G-d as his trustee:
one hands everything over into His Hands and relies on Him in all one's affairs.

97.
When a child is born, his sustenance is born together with him.
Indeed, the birth of an additional child increases the sustenance of the entire household.

98.
The commandment to "be fruitful and multiply" should be fulfilled in a spirit in which G-d's blessings
of sons and daughters are received "with joy and a gladsome heart."

99.
Trusting in G-d does Not Contradict the Belief that Everything is for the Good.

100.
Exactly What is Meant by the Obligation to Trust in G-d?

"A Weighty Task Indeed"
A Thought from the Rebbe Rashab

"When there is still a straw to hang on to"
A Thought from the Rebbe Rayatz

In Good Hands
100 Letters and Talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
on Bitachon: Trusting in G-d
Part B: Talks
82.
The Rebbe Maharash answers his own question:
"People are not lacking a livelihood; they are lacking trust.
Every individual is indeed provided with a livelihood. It's only that by lacking trust,
a person sometimes turns off the tap...."
Compiled and Translated by Uri Kaploun

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  81.
So long as the Yeshivah is their home, students should immerse themselves in their Torah studies
and not be concerned with questions as to how they will eventually earn a living.
Search this book:
83.
"Even a little guy like me gave tzedakah to a bedraggled stranger!"  

It[469] is written that "your people are all righteous."[470] To whom does this refer? The Zohar[471] explains that "whoever is circumcised is called a tzaddik."

"Accordingly," states the Rebbe Maharash in a maamar,[472] "the promise that 'He will not let a tzaddik collapse'[473] applies to all Jews, who are called tzaddikim because they are circumcised. [...] Why, then, do we see that so many Jews are in dire financial straits? Why are they not all provided for liberally?"

And the Rebbe Maharash answers his own question: "People are not lacking a livelihood; they are lacking trust. Every individual is indeed provided with a livelihood, for 'He will not let a tzaddik collapse.' It's only that by lacking trust, a person sometimes turns off the tap.... If instead he were to place his trust in G-d, he would earn far more. He would then see the fulfillment of the beginning of the above verse: 'Cast your burden on G-d and He will sustain you.' "[474] [...]

The blessings that flow down to this world via my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe [Rayatz] are forthcoming not only when he was present as a soul vested in a body and could be seen with fleshly eyes. They are forthcoming now, too, when he cannot be seen with fleshly eyes. Indeed, after his passing[475] the flow of blessings is more sublime, because corporeal limitations have ceased to exist. Moreover, those blessings are not only spiritual but also material.

To consider this concept from close up:

An institution of the Rebbe should be conducted with an open hand, as in the verse,[476] "I will walk about at ease." In this spirit, the Sages speak of how G-d reassures a person who is contemplating his forthcoming expenses for Shabbos and Yom-Tov: "Borrow on My account..., and I will repay the debt."[477] The same principle applies to one's anticipated expenses for his children's Torah tuition - and also, by extension, for one's students, who are also called his children.[478] (The source for the application of this principle to tuition fees is a statement in Sifri by R. Shimon bar Yochai, who is the source for the innermost, mystical dimension of the Torah[479] - but [in addition] Rambam states it as a halachic ruling in the revealed dimension of the Torah.[480]) This, then, should be the guiding principle for the Yeshivah administration - to "walk about at ease," spending generously according to need. As the Sages express the Divine reassurance, "Borrow on My account..., and I will repay the debt."

(True, one of the administrators of the Yeshivah in fact "walks about at ease" and spares no expense. The only trouble is that he thinks that the possibility to be generous is his own doing, whereas one should know that in fact it is a blessing elicited by the Rebbe.)

Accordingly, when a prospective student arrives he should be accepted without any thought as to where one is going to find the money to pay for another mattress. Even the accountant's warning that the balance is negative is no cause for alarm. Instead, one should "walk about at ease," sparing no expense. And then the Holy One, blessed be He, says: "I will repay the debt." [...]

As to buying an additional building, let them write out a check of four or five digits, or let it even be six, and the Rebbe will cover it. Such things have in fact already happened. People have seen that when they followed this path, they have met with success. [...] And I do not mean that the Rebbe will cover the checks in a spiritual sense, but actually and materially. As has already been said, one cannot discharge one's [charitable] obligations with spiritual silver and gold, with the kind of silver and gold that serve respectively as mystical allusions to the love and fear of G-d. The silver and gold that are needed are real and material. And not in the fullness of time, but within these two days - before the bank reopens on Monday morning.

In one's personal affairs, too, one should conduct oneself according to this principle, and cultivate the attribute of trust. One's conduct will then accord with the above-quoted verse,[481] "I will walk about at ease." Or, in the words of another verse,[482] "Open wide your mouth" [i.e., state all your desires] "and [then] I shall grant them."

What concept underlies this approach?

Jews use material things in a way that utilizes them for holy ends and transforms them into vessels for Divinity.[483] Rambam expresses this as follows:[484] "A Torah scholar is recognizable... by the way he eats [and drinks and conducts his marital life]," and so on. Rambam proceeds to enumerate ten subjects in all, which correspond to the Ten Sefiros, and hence they also correspond to the ten faculties of the soul[485] "that descend from them."[486] And some of these subjects are related to one's material livelihood.

As was said above, with regard to spiritual matters such as one's expenses for Shabbos and Yom-Tov and for Torah tuition fees, G-d says: "Borrow on My account..., and I will repay the debt."[487] Accordingly, a Jew can conduct himself in this way with regard to his material livelihood as well, because his material affairs, too, become vessels for Divinity. In other words, every Jew is capable of transforming anything into an echo of Shabbos or (even more certainly) of Yom-Tov.

It is indeed conceivable that at an individual's present level, his desire for material things in order to utilize them for spiritual ends is not utterly truthful, and that his desire for material things derives also from their material aspect. Yet the above capability remains.

This we see in a well-known Midrashic debate.[488] ["When the Holy One, blessed be He, was about to create Adam..., the Attribute of Chessed said, 'Let man be created, for man will do kindly deeds!' The Attribute of Truth said, 'Let him not be created, for man is all lies!' "] And in the Letter Concerning a Lowly Soul,[489] the Alter Rebbe points out that even though man is prone to a certain lack of truthfulness, to the extent that Truth argued that he should not be created, Chessed nevertheless declared, "Let him be created!"

As I heard from one of the chassidim, in Lubavitch they used to say that this letter was written in response to a certain situation. In an earlier pastoral letter that appears in Iggeres HaKodesh in Tanya,[490] the Alter Rebbe had admonished his chassidim for their "custom [...] to ask for advice in mundane matters, as to what one ought to do in matters of the physical world." Despite this rebuke, his chassidim had continued to consult him on mundane matters. And this was the situation to which the Letter Concerning a Lowly Soul responds: Since, in the case of a lowly soul, the links of hiskashrus that bind him to his Rebbe are material, the blessings[491] that flow to him [through the Rebbe] must also be material.

   

Notes:

  1. (Back to text) From the farbrengen of Shabbos, Parshas Eikev, Chaf Menachem Av, 5713 (1953); see Toras Menachem - Hisvaaduyos, Vol. 9, p. 125ff.

  2. (Back to text) Yeshayahu 60:21.

  3. (Back to text) II, 23a; see also I, 93a and 95b.

  4. (Back to text) Sefer HaMaamarim 5626 (1866), pp. 168-170.

  5. (Back to text) Tehillim 55:23.

  6. (Back to text) Or, in a broader sense, "and He will bear it" (Rashi).

  7. (Back to text) In the original, "after the histalkus."

  8. (Back to text) Tehillim 119:45.

  9. (Back to text) Beitzah 15b.

  10. (Back to text) Yoma 19b.

  11. (Back to text) In the original, "the pnimiyus of the Torah."

  12. (Back to text) In the original, "the nigleh of the Torah."

  13. (Back to text) Tehillim 119:45.

  14. (Back to text) Op. cit. 81:11.

  15. (Back to text) In the original, Elokus.

  16. (Back to text) Hilchos Deos 5:1.

  17. (Back to text) In the original, kochos hanefesh.

  18. (Back to text) Likkutei Amarim - Tanya, ch. 3.

  19. (Back to text) See footnote 455 above.

  20. (Back to text) Bereishis Rabbah 8:5.

  21. (Back to text) In the original, Iggeres DeNefesh HaShefalah, a mystical letter written by the Alter Rebbe shortly before his passing, and appearing in his Igros Kodesh (Kehot, N.Y., 5747/1987), p. 151.

  22. (Back to text) See Epistle 22 in Lessons In Tanya (Kehot, N.Y., 5753/1993), Vol. 5, pp. 21ff.

  23. (Back to text) In the original, "the hashpaah."


  81.
So long as the Yeshivah is their home, students should immerse themselves in their Torah studies
and not be concerned with questions as to how they will eventually earn a living.
Search this book:
83.
"Even a little guy like me gave tzedakah to a bedraggled stranger!"  
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