In a reflective dream, the author learns about the profound difference between faith in God and trust in Him, emphasizing that trust involves believing in God's personal guidance and goodness. This distinction is illustrated through the Israelites' struggles in the desert, where their lack of trust despite witnessing miracles led to complaints. The author also highlights the decline of trust in various leaders today, contrasting it with the unwavering trust one can have in God, who ultimately aims for our growth and good.

1. THE BLOGS
Andy Blumenthal
A Trust Beyond Faith
Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal
Last night I had a scary dream. In the dream, I was on a mountain, near the edge
of a cliff. A voice told me to dig and throw the dirt over the cliff. As I looked out
over the ledge, it was a complete and endless abyss! And like Sisyphus rolling
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2. the rock uphill only to have it roll back down and have to start all over again, I
understood that the digging and throwing the dirt was a Sisyphean task. But
then the voice said encouragingly to me as that vision rolled away:
And I understood that G-d was telling me not focus on my mistakes or failures
in life, but rather on what my mission is now and ahead of me in serving Him,
and that this was meaningful, beautiful, and that I should trust in Him for the
good!
This reminded me of what Rabbi Nachman of Breslov said:
As I sought to understand my dream even more, I became aware of an incredible
difference between faith in G-d and trust in Him, and that the latter is even
greater than the former.
When we have faith in G-d, it generally means that we believe that He created
us and that He is the Master of the Universe. However, faith does not necessarily
imply trust. Trust in G-d means that we believe that He not only created us, but
that He sustains us and that there is Divine Providence in this world. When we
trust in G-d, we believe that G-d is close to us and has a personal relationship
with each and every one of us, and actually to everything in the world. For
example, I remember learning in yeshiva that as Jews, we trust that:
Hence, we can believe in G-d, but if we don’t trust in Him then we may question
why bad things happen as opposed to the Jewish dictum that:
Don’t look back; look forward!”
“
If you are not a better person tomorrow than you are today, what need have
you for a tomorrow?”
“
Not a leaf falls from a tree unless G-d wants it to.”
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3. As Jews, we trust that G-d is guiding the course of events in our lives and
moreover, that everything He does is ultimately for our good. Certainly, trust is
not easy, especially when we face challenges and trying times in our lives and of
those we love deeply. It takes incredible trust in Hashem to say even in those
times that G-d must have His reasons, a plan for us, and that even this is for our
good.
Interestingly, in the Torah portion of this week, Beshalach, we see that the
Israelites were freed by Hashem with many great miracles from Egyptian
servitude, even with G-d splitting the Red Sea for them to cross and then
drowning the great pursuing Egyptian army. Yet, despite the faith that the
Israelites had in Hashem after this, they still did not have the proper trust in
Him, such that when they didn’t have the food or water they sought in the
desert, they complained to Moshe, such that Hashem caused him to bring water
from the rock and brought Manna and quails from the heavens. This was a real
lesson for the Israelites in building up their trust in Hashem.
Today, at Shabbat lunch, a Chabad Rebbetzin from Crown Heights told us that
she runs a group for Jewish women on meditation and trust in Hashem. She
said:
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This too is for the good. (Gam zu l’tovah)”
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4. Moreover, she explained that years ago perhaps things were simpler and more
straightforward in that people trusted more. For example, people trusted when
the President or other political, corporate, or even religious leaders said
something. However, unfortunately, now we’ve lost a lot of that basic trust in
them, and we don’t readily trust, first of all, that what they say is the truth and
secondly, that what they do is for our good. In essence, we are a lot more
skeptical and rightfully so given our personal and collective experiences with
others manipulating us, misleading us, outright lying to us, and doing things for
their good, as opposed to ours.
The difference though is that this is not the case with G-d and we can most
certainly trust Him fully, because He is all good, and He created us in the
ultimate act of good, which is to altruistically give us the opportunity to live,
learn, and grow in our goodness and thereby become closer to Him!
There is an interesting example of belief in G-d and trust in Him that I’d like to
share. A number of months ago, the Rabbi in our community and his family lost
their home to a terrible fire on Simchat Torah. The good news though was that
the family was in Shul at the time, and no one was hurt, thank G-d. So, there
were two ways to look at it:
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All Jews have it (trust in Hashem), but we just have to nurture it within
ourselves!”
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5. One was from the perspective of faith in G-d but didn’t have the high-level of
trust in Him, and questioned:
The other perspective of faith and trust in G-d said the following:
In simplistic terms, in these trying circumstances, you could say the first type of
person saw the glass negatively as half empty, while the second type of person
saw it instead for the good as half full! Again, it’s not easy to have the faith and
trust, but this is something as the Rebbetzin said, we each innately have within
us!
As we look at having faith and trust in Hashem, I think about a quote from a
martial arts movie that I watched recently, and the teacher of the main
character tells him:
In other words, we all need to leave our egos at the door! No matter how strong
or smart that we think we are, even the little grass above us (or above our
graves) is greater than us. Certainly, G-d Almighty who is our creator and our
sustainer, all-knowing and all-powerful, He is over us and watches over us in
better times as well as those that are perhaps more challenging, but always we
trust, for the good!
How could the house burn down on Simchat Torah while the family was in
synagogue davening (praying)?”
“
Thank G-d that the house burned down while the family was in shul, and no
one was hurt!”
“
A high and powerful mountain is still lower than the small grass that grows on
top of it.”
“

6. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andy Blumenthal is a business and technology leader who writes frequently about Jewish life,
culture, and security. All opinions are his own.