Bitachon Part 3
In our last segment, we summarized the core principles of bitachon. A concise bullet-point review, which can be used daily to reinforce and internalize these foundations, is as follows:
I. Hashem is All-Powerful. He can do anything, anywhere, at any time.
II. “EIN OD MILVADO” — Everything in the world, and in our lives without exception, comes from Hashem.
III. His “Desire” is to shower us with His love and kindness. In fact, He continuously bestows love and kindness upon us from the day we are born and forever.
IV. Everything He does is for our ultimate and eternal benefit.
V. Given all of the above, we rely upon—and even look forward with anticipation to—His continued chesed in our lives: to His granting us success in life’s challenges, and to delivering us from pain and suffering.
VI. The result of a life of bitachon is a life of calm, inner strength, and true peace of mind.
We now move forward to present, over the course of several segments, the powerful opportunities we have to strengthen and internalize our bitachon through our daily tefilos.
We begin with a pasuk that highlights the urgency and importance of developing a deep belief in Hashem’s desire to shower us with love and kindness (Point III above), along with a heartfelt, living sense of hope and reliance on that kindness (Point V above).
Toward the end of Hodu, we recite a pasuk from Tehillim, Perek 33:
“Yehi chasdecha Hashem aleinu, ka’asher yichalnu lach” —
Hashem, may Your love and kindness be upon us, just as we place our hope in You.
Many sources explain that this pasuk teaches a profound principle: the degree of chesed we receive is directly connected to how deeply rooted our hope, reliance, and anticipation for Hashem’s chesed truly are.
In the words of HaRav Aharon Kotler zt”l, as quoted in the sefer Becoming a Baal Bitachon 2 (by Rabbi Yechezkel Abramov):
This means that the degree to which we hope for—and rely on—Hashem’s chesed determines how much chesed we will receive.
When we say this pasuk, let us pause, reflect, and allow its message to penetrate more deeply each day.
A powerful daily exercise—and a true mitzvah—that can internalize this message and uplift our spirits tremendously is to set aside a fixed time each day (even just 2–5 minutes) to thank Hashem for specific acts of love and kindness He has granted us—today and throughout our lives.
If you are reading and understanding this segment, recognize that Hashem has given you two extraordinary gifts: intellect (a properly functioning mind) along with the ability to see. These are immense gifts—yet we so often overlook them. Take a moment and thank Hashem sincerely and abundantly.
And this is only the beginning. Once a person starts, one quickly realizes that there is no end—one could spend hours upon hours expressing gratitude, if only we allowed ourselves the time and awareness.
May we merit to truly recognize and appreciate the immense abundance of love and kindness that Hashem has already showered upon us, and to live with a deep, forward-looking anticipation of His continued chesed in every area of our lives-including those in which we struggle and those that require salvation.