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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
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."
Compiled and Translated by Uri Kaploun

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

There[682] is a commandment to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it." This commandment should be fulfilled in a spirit in which G-d's blessings of sons and daughters are received "with joy and a gladsome heart" and without the intervention of calculations - with a joy arising from a perfect trust that G-d will bestow His blessing in the best way possible, both for the baby and for the father and mother.

On this subject we may learn a lesson from "the righteous women... in whose merit the Children of Israel were redeemed from Egypt."[683] These women bore and raised sons and daughters without taking Pharaoh's decree into consideration. In response, G-d Himself helped them by providing sustenance for their children. Thus the Gemara relates that the Holy One, blessed be He, "would provide each one with two circular servings, one of olive oil and one of honey, in the spirit of the verse,[684] 'He fed him honey from the crag, and oil from the flinty rock.' " In this manner they raised the sons and daughters of whom it is written,[685] "I increased you like the plants of the field, and you multiplied and grew...." And [soon after], "when the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself at [the Splitting of] the Sea, it was these children," born in the Egyptian exile, "who were the first to recognize Him."

It goes without saying that the same thinking should apply today. One should not take into consideration the decrees of "Mitzrayim" - the decrees of meitzarim u'gvulim, the restraints of a bounded and constricted mindset.[686] For example: being concerned about how future children will be supported, about whether one's apartment will be spacious enough, and so on, and on the strength of such estimates deciding between "every son that is born,"[687] or (May Heaven save us![688]) "shall be cast into the Nile,"[689] or from the outset refraining from the matter. Rather, the Divine command to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it" should be observed without any such calculations, but with a certain trust that G-d will provide the vessels that are required to enable one to receive His blessings.

Now, it is true that when our forefathers were in Egypt, G-d nourished the newborn children miraculously, as described above, whereas nowadays one does not witness manifest miracles in the area of one's income and the like. Nevertheless, it is utterly certain that the birth of each additional infant elicits an increased financial blessing that is garbed in the veils of the natural order. (As people say, "With every baby comes his loaf.") Moreover, through the arrival of this additional infant, supplementary blessings are elicited for the livelihood of the entire household. And all this comes over and above the great pleasure and delight that are aroused by the presence of an additional child in the home.

On a broader scale: When Jews conduct themselves in this way, we will be privileged to a downward current of G-d's blessings to a degree that breaks through barriers - until ultimately we will be privileged to see the barriers of exile breached. For "the son of David[690] will come," the Gemara teaches,[691] "when the Heavenly Treasury[692] is emptied of all its souls."[693]

   

Notes:

  1. (Back to text) From a sichah delivered on the Last Day of Pesach, 5744 (1984), and published in Toras Menachem - Hisvaaduyos, 5744 (1984), Vol. 3, pp. 1549-1550.

    See also Items 21, 70 and 97 above.

  2. (Back to text) Sotah 11b.

  3. (Back to text) Devarim 32:13.

  4. (Back to text) Yechezkel 16:7.

  5. (Back to text) An instance of the non-literal level of interpretation known as derush. Here the additional connotation of the word for "Egypt" is arrived at by a change in the vowel points only (Mitzrayim - Egypt; meitzarim - straits).

  6. (Back to text) Shmos 1:22; i.e., deciding to have children.

  7. (Back to text) In the original Aram., Rachmana litzlan!

  8. (Back to text) Shmos, loc. cit.; i.e., a euphemism for abortion.

  9. (Back to text) I.e., Mashiach, a descendant of David.

  10. (Back to text) Yevamos 62a.

  11. (Back to text) In the original, guf.

  12. (Back to text) The original Talmudic quotation is as follows: "The son of David will not come until the Heavenly Treasury is emptied of all its souls." Characteristically, the Rebbe puts the two clauses of this quotation in reverse order when paraphrasing it - thereby replacing a negative warning by a message of optimism.


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