Bitachon is a Hebrew term referring to trusting God. You may say to yourself that sure, you trust God and let it go at that. After all, if you’re a believer in Yeshua (Jesus), it’s assumed by everyone including you that you trust God with everything. However, does the word “trust” in English encompass the complete meaning of “Bitachon”? Let’s find out.
I became interested in investigating the concept of Bitachon in part, due to my study of Mussar, which included my exploration of Rabbi Ephraim Becker’s blog. You can go to his blog to read his complete description of Bitachon, but I want to use just some of his material to flesh out my illustration of the nature of trust in God as seen from a traditionally Jewish point of view.
Aish.com adds that Bitachon isn’t trusting that God will make our lives completely carefree and without problems or worries. In fact, their web page dedicated to this topic clearly defines what Bitachon isn’t in our lives. Trusting in God doesn’t mean we can walk out into traffic and believe that God will prevent us from being hit by a speeding truck. So then, what does trusting in God encompass?
Rabbi Becker states that Bitachon includes the following components:
- An awareness of HaShem
* as all-powerful and in absolute control (Emunah). - An awareness of HaShem as only desiring my welfare (Chesed).
- An awareness of the existence of eternity (Olam HaBah).
- An awareness that the good is not only in this world but ultimately in the next.
- An acceptance of the limitations of human understanding of what is best for me.
- An acceptance of reality as the backdrop against which one is meant to operate.
- The relationship between human effort and reliance on HaShem.
- An understanding of the concept of prayer and its role in our relationship with HaShem.
A large part of trusting God is trusting that regardless of what happens to us or to the world, God has an understanding of events and circumstances that far exceeds our own. This is why we see events that, on the surface and in the short run, seem to be horribly tragic and heartbreaking and wonder, “Why did that have to happen, God?” Yet from God’s perspective, there is a larger good to these events and circumstances. Bitachon then is trusting that God’s perspectives are much better than our own and that what we see as tragic is in fact, part of His plan to bring about a larger and more encompassing good.
I’m sure you all have experienced heartaches and tragedies in your lives that, at one time or another, have caused you to doubt God’s good intentions. Often secular people ask us, “If your God is so loving and compassionate, how come terrible things happen in the world?” The person asking that question then usually inserts their own special example of something tragic such as the death of tiny children, wars that kill millions, devastating plagues, massive earthquakes, or the murder of 6 million Jews.
We live out our lives somewhere in the middle of human history. We are born at a certain point, live out our span of years experiencing what we experience, both of God and of the world, and then at the proper time, we die to this world and are “buried with our fathers”. That is the length and breadth of our human experience of existence. God experiences the birth, existence, and death of the entire universe and the infinity beyond all of it. The universe wouldn’t exist at all if not for God. It is said that God knows “the end of the story” but in fact, He perceives all of existence in an instant and clearly understands how each event, even down to the falling of one sparrow from the sky, fits into the greater whole. More than that, He has compassion for that one small sparrow and has compassion for each of us, even in a seemingly (to us) infinite universe.
If it were possible for a person to see Creation the way God does, I suppose we could more easily achieve a complete sense of Bitachon. Then again, if we could actually see what God sees, would it be trust, or just observation?
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” -John 20:29
However, Bitachon isn’t just passively trusting that “it will all work out for the good”. As Rabbi Becker mentions in the 7th bullet point above, there is a relationship between our efforts and our relying on God. The Aish.com site relates a perfect example of this:
When I was a child, I hung around with a certain Hassidic group. On Rosh Hashana afternoon, there is a custom to go to a body of water and symbolically cast your sins into the water, and this Hassidic group always went to a fish pond in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. It was arranged ahead of time with the authorities that the gate would be left open for them on this day for this ceremony.
One Rosh Hashana, someone slipped up. Despite having received prior approval, the group, with their esteemed Rebbe in the lead, arrived at the Botanical Gardens and found the gate locked, with the gatekeeper nowhere in sight. The Hassidim were milling around, not knowing what to do. Suddenly the Rebbe climbed over the gate. At first the Hassidim were startled but then, one by one, they followed. When they caught up with him, the Rebbe said, “You have to know that you meet obstacles so that you can climb over them.”
Yanki Tauber, in his article Transcending Fear tells a story of having grown up among a number of Holocaust survivors. These were men and women who had lost virtually everything during the Nazi persecution and yet, years later, seemed to live perfectly ordinary lives. Tauber writes, “…they went about their lives with the quiet conviction that they were doing what G-d wanted them to do, that their lives were part of something greater than themselves”.
This isn’t to say that they hadn’t suffered terribly or that their suffering didn’t have a lasting impact on their lives, but even in the aftermath of the horror of the Holocaust, their Bitachon; their overriding trust in God’s mastery of the universe and everyone in it, allowed these survivors to do more than survive. Bitachon allowed them to live, still assured despite everything, that God was not only in control of all Creation, but in control of each of their individual lives and that everything was going according to His plan.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. -Romans 8:37-39
If you read Rabbi Becker’s list again, you’ll notice that the points don’t just illustrate God’s mastery of Creation, but our role in it. Just as the Hassidic Rebbe literally climbed over an unexpected obstacle, part of our trust in God is to not allow ourselves to be defeated by unexpected obstacles in our lives. Bitachon is not only an awareness of God and the universe, but a willingness to pray and to take action in the universe whenever required. Notice that God didn’t unlock the gate or knock it down. The Rebbe trusted that climbing over the gate (and after all, he knew his group had secured permission to enter) was the right thing to do.
Bitachon explains two related things that people have a hard time understanding:
- It explains that our existence isn’t just what happens to us in this world, but what happens in the world to come.
- It explains how a person devoted to God can endure unimaginable pain and suffering all of their lives and still go to their deaths with unwavering faith and trust in God.
During the inquisitions, Jews were burned alive, singing the Shema as they died. They could have saved their lives by renouncing the God of their fathers and converting to Roman Catholicism. They didn’t and accepted their end because of a complete trust in God that, regardless of circumstances, meant that all was happening according to what He willed in their lives.
Bitachon doesn’t mean that we trust in God not letting bad things happen to us. Bitachon doesn’t mean that God has to lighten up on the difficulties of our lives. It certainly doesn’t mean that God has to provide us with all of our wants, needs, or desires. However, God does provide us with everything we have because of His abundant mercy and compassion for us. During the Passover Seder, we sing a song called Dayenu or “It would be sufficient”. It is a song describing if God had only provided some of the miracles during the Exodus but not others, it would still have been “sufficient”. Of course, there’s also the following:
You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing -Psalm 145:16
Bitachon is the unrelenting trust that, regardless of what is happening in our individual lives and in the world around us, God is in command of all of it and everything else and we can proceed confidently forward knowing that, no matter what, He is the goal and the target we aim at beyond all other considerations. Paul writes of his own Bitachon.
I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. -Philippians 4:10-13
Paul demonstrated his Bitachon again and again and serves as a brilliant example of how we too can trust in God. Of course, as disciples of the Master, we have an even greater example:
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. -Luke 22:42-43
Be “strong and courageous” in all things.
#1 by Kippah - May 8th, 2009 at 01:57
Very interesting article!