Trust & Faith

You get a phone call. A good friend you’ve known for a long time. Somebody really successful and smart. He tells you a valuable piece of information. He knows that in a few months, a particular public company is going to be acquired and the stock is going to triple. He explains to you in great detail how to legally acquire as much as you can of this stock in order to triple your assets. This is a really good friend, someone that you know is trustworthy. He loves you. Wouldn’t you gather all of your resources together and do whatever you can to not lose this opportunity and invest, as your good friend advises you?

This is just a parable to reflect the holy words of Rebbe Nosson in Likutei Halachos, in the laws of the prohibition of shaving, Number 4, where he explains that the whole entire world is founded on the great foundation of trust. Kol ma’asecha emunah, the whole world stands on emunah. He explains that our quest as human beings is for truth, the face of Hashem. Bakshu panai tamid, for truth is the face of Hashem. To know Hashem clearly, that’s truth, that’s da’as. To know that Hashem created the whole world from nothing, and He gives life to this world and keeps this world going all according to His will, and He watches over the world with great Divine Providence, on every single person and every single part of the creation. This knowledge is da’as. This is the truth. This is the aspect of the shining of Hashem’s face.

As we say in Birkas Kohanim, “ya’eir Hashem panav eilecha,” may Hashem shine His face to you. Nevertheless, because this light of truth is so great, it’s impossible to receive without the aspect of emunah. For if the truth was revealed to all, the world would cease to exist. For even the light of the sun, it’s impossible for a person to look at because of the great light. In His great mercy, Hashem contracted and hid the great light of truth, and it’s through these tzimtzumim, these constrictions, in a wondrous way, that Hashem created the character trait of emunah. Faith. In his wondrous wisdom, He shines into a person the holy faith, into the soul of a person, in order that they can perceive the truth of Gd.

As we say when we wrap the straps of tefillin, v’eirastich li b’emunah, I will betroth you with faith, veyada’at et Hashem, and you shall know Hashem. Only through emunah can a person come to da’as, to know Hashem.

Now, Rebbe Nosson proves this in the world of business. The only way that a person can get clarity on any given business deal is through trust, and without it the world can’t function. For the business world only works through trust. He gives an example. When a person wants to know the price of wheat in distance places, like Odessa, or Istanbul, or even further. For if a person doesn’t want to trust someone to know the actual price of wheat, even though he’s very wise and he did extensive research that the price of wheat should be, according to his calculations, such and such, this knowledge, even though it’s based on knowledge, is not knowledge at all. For haven’t we seen countless times where it would make sense that wheat should be very expensive and nevertheless, now it’s cheap?

So too with all business. That all knowledge that’s based on speculation is not real knowledge. Somebody that really wants to know, it’s imperative that he takes the advice of a trustworthy person. He has to choose for himself an ish ne’eman, that it’s fit to do business through him. That he knows that he loves him in truth, and he knows he’s trustworthy, and he’s willing to sign on the dotted line. That’s clarity without any doubt. Therefore, whether it’s in the business world or the social world, it’s impossible for the world to work without trust.

Now, Rebbe Nosson gets to the point. All trust between people is drawn down from the power of emunah kedoshah, holy trust to believe in Hashem, in the Torah, and in tzaddikim. That Hashem created man with the power to choose to believe in the truth. It’s from here that it spirals down the character trait of faith in the world that keeps the world going. Therefore, Chazal say if a person goes back on his words, it’s as if he worshipped idols. He blemished the character trait of trustworthiness, which is the foundation of not only the business world, but also the world of spirituality.

The verse says, and all of his deeds are with faithfulness, kol ma’aseihu emunah. Meaning that all the forces of nature are reliable and consistent, but on a deeper level, that the foundation of our world is faith. So too, the spiritual world. Hashem’s Divine directives are absolute and eternal, enduring for all times. As the verse says, kol mitzvosecha emunah. All of Your statutes are trustworthy.

Now, it’s possible to understand this parable about the business world. Says Rebbe Nosson, thank You, Hashem. Baruch Hashem, we have Someone to trust. An ish ne’eman, a really trustworthy person, that’s worthy for us to put our faith in, and we know what stocks to buy, what merchandise to acquire in this world that we know that will bring us eternal success. Hashem had great mercy on us and He sent us a faithful shepherd, Moshe, our teacher, about which is said in this week’s parashah, in My entire house, He is trustworthy. It’s through him that we can succeed.

He shines into us da’as, Torah mitzvos, from the mouth of Hashem. The mitzvah of Shabbos, shofar, matzos, charity. What fool would use his own speculation and question such a trustworthy Person? Therefore, all of the prophets, the Tannaim, Amoraim, and tzaddikim of each generation charge us to go in the ways of our teacher, Moshe.

Kabbalistically, emunah, even though faith is below wisdom, below knowledge, for faith is only in areas that one doesn’t understand. Nevertheless, its root is drawn down from an exalted, high place that’s above all wisdom. For emunah is the aspect of ani rishon, I am the beginning, v’ani acharon, and I am the end, an aspect of the end of creation, but the initial Divine thought. Shabbos is also the aspect of the original Divine thought. I was sharing these words with my grandson, Sholom Meir, and I felt such a high, such a joy, sharing Chassidus with my grandson.

Shabbos, we just finished praising Hashem. We’re sitting around the table eating herring and making L’chaims and I said, you know, Sholom Meir, Rebbe Nosson is talking about Olam Haba, the World to Come. I want to tell you, in many places, all the tzaddikim talk about, feeling Olam Haba in this world when a person lives according to the ish ne’eman, the faithful shepherd, Moshe Rabbeinu, whose face shined like the sun. His face was so bright that the Chazal likened it to the son. People couldn’t look at it. His student, Yehoshua, reflected the light, his face was like the moon.

That’s our job in this world. If you want to be successful in business, you have to attach yourself to successful people. So too, in the spiritual world, look for somebody whose face is shiny. Align your face with the face of Moshe, like Yehoshua.

Baruch Hashem, we know what do when we wake up in the morning. We know how to live. We know how to be successful. Not just in the World to Come, but in this world too. Happy is our portion, for the ways of the Torah are pleasant and peaceful. Thank You, Hashem, we don’t have to figure it out. Baruch Hashem, we have someone to trust. Moshe, our teacher, the faithful shepherd.