Don’t Hand Over the Reins
BS'D
We are asked to make an effort in life—not because Hashem needs our effort, but because it’s part of our rectification since Adam HaRishon. Yet, the danger begins when we start believing the success is ours. The Midrash in Parshat Pinchas warns that the yetzer hara feeds off our effort, making us think we earned the outcome by our “might and wisdom.”
But true emuna isn’t about sitting back—it’s about stepping forward without attachment to our power. The Maggid of Mezritch teaches that when we put our trust in anything but Hashem, we sever the flow of Divine intervention. We become entangled in false dependencies and outcomes shaped by concealment, not clarity.
Rav Dessler ztk”l brings clarity to this: the real purpose of human effort is to reveal Hashem in this world. Even what looks like nature is just Hashem in costume. There is no such thing as “natural causes”—only the illusion of them.
The highest level of trust is when we see no difference between a miracle and an ordinary event. All of it is Hashem’s doing. But most of us still react differently to a “miracle” than to a “coincidence.” The more our emuna deepens, the less we feel the need to hustle. The lighter our hand in this world, the heavier Hashem’s presence becomes.
Let your emuna do the heavy lifting. Results were never your job to begin with.