You are all sons of God through faith in Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus), for all of you who were baptized into Messiah have clothed yourselves with Messiah. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua. If you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. -Galatians 3:26-29
As believers in Yeshua, we attach ourselves to him and to the Father; the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. We have “faith” in the Father through the Son, but what is faith? Sometime ago, I wrote an article for this blog called What is Bitachon?. Bitachon is a Hebrew word that describes in amazing detail, all of the components that make up having true faith and trust in God. When we use the word “faith” in English, we tend to miss the full meaning of what God is asking of us.
Emunah is a component of Bitachon, defined as an “awareness of Hashem (The Lord; Hebrew: “The Name”) as all-powerful and in absolute control.” According to Dr. Menachem Kellner in his article for My Jewish Learning, “In the Torah, faith in God means trust, not belief in particular propositions”. I’ve already included the link to Dr. Kellner’s article, so you can read it in full. However, in short, Dr. Kellner gives Abraham as an example of emunah, when Abraham, at the Word of God, uprooted his entire family, and travelled to the Land he did not know (see Genesis 12:1-6).
The world is full of hardships and difficulties. No doubt, each of you reading this blog has crises, grief, worry, or lament in your lives. I know there are many of those experiences in my life and my heart as well. There are times when I can’t sleep. There are times when I weep, and pour out my very spirit at the feet of God, begging him for mercy and compassion. There are many, many things in my life; and in all our lives that we have no direct control over, yet those things seem to land on us like an avalanche of granite. Where is our hope?
From the straits did I call upon God; God answered me with expansiveness. Hashem is with me, I have no fear; how can man affect me? Hashem is with me through my helpers; therefore I can face my foes. It is better to take refuge in Hashem than to rely on nobles. -Psalm 118:5-9
There are circumstances in all our lives where no person can help us. There are times in our lives, when we can do nothing in our own strength or wisdom to help ourselves. There are troubles against which we are powerless and, all by ourselves, we would never be able to endure. Without our trust; our emunah in God, we would be crushed.
Trust in God doesn’t mean a worry-free life or that we won’t have problems. Trust in God means that, no matter what we may face, God will be there with us, supporting and guiding us. God is our strength to endure, even under the most difficult of hardships. The Rabbis say it this way:
The Chofetz Chaim, zt”l, was a paradigm of living emunah (faith and trust). He would often say that even if one is beset with difficulties he must never say that things are bad, since such statements contradict the truth that everything Hashem does is for our good. Instead, one should say that things are very bitter, since medicines are also bitter but they are certainly good for a person since they heal him. In addition, one who complains that things are bad has lied, since he says that what is ultimately for his good is bad, simply because he does not see how it is for the good.
It is not surprising that when Rav Michel Shurkin, shlit”a, asked Rav Yisrael Portnoy, shlit”a, what he learned in Radin, his simple reply comprised a single word: “Emunah.”
The Chofetz Echaim would say over a vort that he enjoyed in the name of the bathhouse attendant in Radin. “The verses states, — And we are the people of His shepherding and the flock of his hand.” The intention of the Righteous One, is that He always guards us without a moment’s break. This parallels the teaching in Bava Basra 36, that the people of Nehardea would not leave their sheep to find their own way to the shepherds’ houses unsupervised for fear of thieves. Instead, the owners would go to the shepherds’ shacks and hand over the sheep from hand to hand.
“This is the meaning of the verse. Divine providence does not leave the Jewish people for even an instant. This is similar to the Gemara in Kidushin 72. There we find that before Eli left the world, Shmuel’s light had already begun to shine, since Hashem does not leave the world bereft of tzaddikim (righteous people) to protect and guide us.”
From Daf Digest
Stories off the Daf
Constant Supervision
Bava Basra 36
We especially have our hope in the Word of God and the teachings of our Master, the good shepherd:
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” -John 10:14-18
The shepherd does not abandon his sheep or leave them alone, even for an instant. Our hearts and spirits are under the constant supervision of the lover of our souls. The Lord is with me, even in bitterness, I shall not fear.