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Daily Bitachon

Rabbi David Sutton

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The Ladder of Ramban and Humility

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/26

We continue with our series on humility. Rav Wolbe, his sefer Aleh Shor (vol 1 page 134) talks about the concept of ladders of self-improvement. We find this, he says, in sefer Mesilat Yesharim , where Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzato cites a Gemara in Avoda Zara 20B that says, Torah brings to one being careful and being careful brings you to alacrity and so on. The Hovot Halevavot has ten gates which are also a ladder of sorts. Another of the ladders Rav Wolbe cites is the letter of the Ramban, the famous

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You are an Intern

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/24

Welcome to our class on humility. When it comes to working on and thinking about a specific Middah , there is always a possible danger that something could ruin the Middah or ruin the effort. In the third gate of the Hovot Halevavot, the Gate of Serving Hashem (fourth chapter), he talks about the ten levels of service of Hashem. The ninth level (which is pretty close to the top) is people who serve Hashem for the right reasons, yet lack an important piece of information. שלא נשמרו ממפסידי העבודות,

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Humility for Redemption

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/21

Welcome to our Anava series. A while back we said that the goal of Yetziat Mitzrayim was to make us humble. Somebody recently shared with me a sefer Tiferet Shlomo , on Parashat Beshalach , that says, Anytime a person wants to merit any level of greatness, he has to start off with the understanding that, 'I am not fit for this.' It's not my merit, but rather than merit of my forefathers that opened the path for me, and set me on the road. The Gemara in Berachot 10B says, כל התולה בזכות עצמו תולין לו

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Beggars Can’t Be Choosy

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/20

Welcome to our class on Anava . We've been talking a lot about working on humility. Rabbi Chaim Friedlander's sefer Siftei Chaim , on the topic of Middot (page 133) asks a powerful question. He points out that the Mesilat Yesharim bases his sefer on the ladder of levels that are described by Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, starting with Torah. Learning Torah brings to Zehirut/being careful, which brings one to Zerizut/being fast, which brings to Nekiut/being pure and goes on to Prishut/separating oneself

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Loftiness of the Soul vs Arrogance

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/19

Welcome to our humility series. Today we are going to explore the contrast of arrogance and the proper outlook. We know we should not be arrogant, showy, boastful people who take credit for our accomplishments and feel that we're special. That is Gaava , which should not be confused with something called the Rommemut HaNefesh/an uplifted soul, a feeling of how special I am. I come from good stock. I have Tzelem Elokim, I'm not an animal. I'm a human being. I have a certain royalty to me. That's not

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Exaltedness Part 2

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/18

Welcome to our series on humility. Yesterday we spoke about the concept of Rommemut HaNefesh/ an exalted uplifted soul . Today we'll continue with that topic, starting with a quote from Rabbenu Yonah in Shaare HaAvoda. It's worthwhile to read every word. He says, " The first opening of serving Hashem is that the person who's serving Hashem should know his value and realize his qualities, and the qualities of his forefathers; how great they were, how important they were, how dear they were to Hashem

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Sweeten the Justice

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/17

Welcome to our class on humility. We continue with the topic of accepting suffering with humility. David Hamelech, in chapter 23 of Tehilim says the famous pasuk גַּ֤ם כִּֽי־אֵלֵ֨ךְ בְּגֵ֪יא צַלְמָ֡וֶת לֹא־אִ֘ירָ֤א רָ֗ע כִּי־אַתָּ֥ה עִמָּדִ֑י שִׁבְטְךָ֥ וּ֝מִשְׁעַנְתֶּ֗ךָ הֵ֣מָּה יְנַֽחֲמֻֽנִי׃ / Even though I go in the valley of death, I do not fear evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they will give me comfort. The word shevet / rod is something to hit with. Like the pasuk says,

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Accepting Suffering with Love

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/14

Welcome to our class on humility. One aspect of humility is that when things don't go right, we see it as coming from Hashem, Who is in charge. We accept it with humility, without demands or complaints. We humbly accept the will of God. There is a Mishna that says, A person has a responsibility to say a blessing on the evil, the same as he says a blessing on the good. The Gemara in Berachot 60B, comments on that and says, Does that mean you say the exact same blessing? That's not true. When

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Humility not Lowliness

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/13

Welcome to our series on Anava . Chacham Bentzion Abba Shaul, in his sefer Or LeTzion Chochma UMussar (page 242) brings up the following point: On one hand, our rabbis tell us in Sanhedrin 37A, that everyone has an obligation to say, " The world was created for me. " That means you're supposed to look at the sun, the moon, the stars and know that everything in the world is there for me . That might sound like arrogance. But Chacham Bentzion says we see from here that humility does not mean that a

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Advise with People Below You

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/12

Welcome to our series on Anava . All of our good Middot come from emulating Hashem. In Bereshit 1:26 before man is even there, Hashem says, וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ /Let us make man in our image. Rashi tells us, we learn from here the humility of Hashem. When it came to the time to make man, which would be in an image similar to angels, they might be jealous of him. So He first asked them their opinion. Imagine you have a company and you want to bring on a new

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Humility in Prayer

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/11

Welcome to our series on humility . Some people like practical advice. They say, What can I actually do to work on myself to become humble? It's nice to have the thoughts that we mentioned, but is there anything I can do? Rav Wolbe in his sefer Aleh Shor ( vol 2, page 310) says, " In a person's day-to-day life, there are two fundamental areas that help us work on our arrogance. One of them is prayer, and the second one is learning." We'll talk about prayer first. Prayer in its essence is humbling

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What Force is Moving You

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/10

Welcome to our humility series. We're talking about thoughts that cause one to become humble. The Hovot Halevavot in the second gate, Shaar HaBechina, which looks into creation (chapter 5), says, " There's something that you should look into in creation. It applies to the greatest and smallest of creatures. It's something that's hidden, that you don't see with your regular senses. It's the constant of movement . Everything that's happening is happening because of movement. He says, without movement,

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The Humility Movement

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/07

People sometimes think, " Do I really have to work on humility? Is that an obligation? I've heard of Yirat Shamayim, But where is humility on the list of things that I have to work on?" At the beginning of the Bet Halevi's essay on arrogance and humility, he points out that arrogance is a sin. So of course you have to work on it. But there are a lot of things that are sins. Is this something that has to be at the top of my radar? Is it a priority? We hear about movements of Ahavat Yisrael/love your

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I Wouldn’t Change a Thing

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/06

Welcome to our special Shovavim series on Humility. We are continuing with lessons from Rabbi Ades on humility: Rabbi Yehezkiel Abramsky was exiled to Siberia for a year and a half. All he did all day was chop wood in the forest in frigid weather. His hands were cracked and bleeding. One morning after saying Modeh Ani , which is a Thank You to Hashem for getting up, he asked himself, " Why am I saying thank you for getting up? What am I getting up for? I don't pray. I don't learn. I can't serve

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Challenge is in the Eyes of the Beholder

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/05

Welcome to our special Shovavim series on humility. We've been talking about how when things happen, it's up to the person how to receive it. We discussed how this applies in a general way, like the Galut of Jewish people that changed over the 400 years. They initially started off as sojourners in Eretz Yisrael and they switched to going to Mitzrayim in a calm way, then there was hard work and then there was torture because the lesson is to become humbled and it's up to the receiver to be humbled by

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Teshuva Needs Humility

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/04

Welcome back to our special series on humility for Shovavim . The Rambam, in the laws of Teshuva, when delineating what one needs to do for Teshuva ( Shovavim is all about doing Teshuva ) lists the following criteria: 1- צועק תמיד לפני השם בבכי ובתחנונים He cries out constantly to God with tears and with with crying and with supplication. So the first thing is prayer. He's a Baal Teshuva so of course, he repented and regretted and did what he had to do. Teshuva is always about really reconnecting

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They Left the Ghetto

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/02/03

Welcome to our Shovavim Humility series. We've been going through the progression of the Galut . We started off that when the Jewish people came into Mitzrayim, Yaakov Avinu was only a Ger, as ut says, לגור שם ,and the brothers came as Gerim . Then, as is quoted in the Hagaddah Shel Pesach, from Ki Tavo, וַיְהִי שָׁם לְגוֹי. / They were a nation, which means שֶׁהָיוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל מְצֻיָּנִים שָׁם. גָּדוֹל עָצוּם כְּמָה They were outstanding, they were gadol . They were great . And it quotes from the

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The Sojourner

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/01/31

Welcome to our special Shovavim series on Anava . We're going to go through pesukim that show how the Galut was accepted by the various beholders (for, as we said yesterday, Galut is in the eye of the beholder). וַיֵּשֶׁב יַעֲקֹב בְּאֶרֶץ מְגוּרֵי אָבִיו בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן: / Yaakov dwelled in the land that his father's sojourned in . Rashi famously says ביקש יעקב לישב בשלוה קפץ עליו רוגזו של יוסף : Yaakov Avinu wanted to sit in serenity, and the anger and disturbance and turmoil of Yosef jumped upon

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Galut in the Eyes of the Beholder

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/01/30

Welcome back to our special Shovavim series on humility. Yesterday we mentioned that the purpose of Galut Mitzrayim was to bring us to humility. The Rambam, in the laws of Teshuva , chapter 2, tells us that the Gemara says one way to do Teshuva for Rosh Hashana is to exile yourself because שגלות מכפרת עון / Galut is an atonement for sins. The Rambam adds a few words: מפני שגורמת לו להכנע ולהיות עניו ושפל רוח: / because it causes one to become humble and low of spirits. So Galut is defined as the

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Purpose of Galut is Humilty

Daily Bitachon ·

2025/01/29

Welcome to our special Shovavim mini-series, on the topic of humility . If you ask people what the purpose of Yetziat Mitzrayim was, you'd probably get a few different answers. Most people would say that it was a Gezera /decree. God told Abraham at Brit Ben HaBetarim that we'd be in Galut . What was the reason? Was it due to a sin? The Abarbanel in Bereshit chapter 15 tells us in the name of the Ran that this Galut was not due to any sin. Rather, it was in order to humble the hearts of the Jewish

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