Davening as Hishtadlus II

Since the chabura's original discussion on whether tefila is another form of hishtadlus, there has been some thinking (offline) and the question arose from what we learned last year, as to whether the Chazon Ish might agree with Rav Leib Mintzberg (or at least with what understood Rav Mintzberg to have said), that tefila is another form of hishtadlus on its own. The Chazon Ish wrote in the last paragraph of the first chapter of his essay on bitachon:

גם עילות של ההצלה שטבעת בני האדם להשתדל בהן משתנות אצל הבוטח, כי תחת לרדוף אחר נדיבים ושרים ולבקש תחבולות שוא, יפשפש הבוטח במעשיו ויפנה את לבו לתשובה תפלה וצדקה להעביר רוע הגזירה.

which can be read as implying that the Chazon Ish is advocating that where a person is in dire need of help in a pressing situation, instead of undertaking any extreme hishtadlus, he should do hishtadlus of a ruchniyus fashion.

But a closer reading shows that this is not what the Chazon Ish meant. What the Chazon Ish is saying, is that instead of chasing after all kinds of futile hishtadlus stratagems to find the [self-serving, pompous high ranking or powerful person] who could possibly help (but in all likelihood won't), the person should turn to HaShem to be delivered from his predicament.

While looking for the exact words of the Chazon Ish, I stumbled across something that Rav Mintzberg has on page 25, which sheds light on what he wrote on what we had difficulty with on page 109. To top it off, Rav Mintzberg says that what he is saying (below) is the same idea as the Chazon Ish just quoted.

כמו כן יש הבדל בגישתו ובפעולותיו של הבוטח, כאשר מתרגש ובא מצב של סכנה ח״ו. שמאחר שרואה את הדברים במבט הנכון, הרי אף שמקדם את פני הרעה בהשתדלות הראויה, אך עיקר ההשתדלות שלו הוא בעניין התפילה והתחנונים, וימהר ויחיש לחזור בתשובה ולבקש סליחה ומחילה כדי לבטל את החטא שהוא הגורם כל הסכנה, ומוסיף ומרבה זכויות למצוא חן בעיני ה', וכן מתחזק בתפילה ובקשה מאת ה׳ שיושיעו מצרתו. ואינו רואה את תקוותו בהשתדלות ובסיבות שהכין להצלה, אלא סברו ותקוותו הוא על ה׳ שיחיש לו ישועה.

The key phrase is ikar ha-hishtadlus, which I take to as meaning: the pivotal hishtadlus. Davening is part and parcel of the entire package of hishtadlus that is being employed, it is not being used as an alternate form of hishtadlus on its own. Rather, it is being used as way of finding favor with HaShem, so that HaShem will decide that the person's hishtadlus should be successful. Because as we have said many times, at the end of the day, it isn't the hishtadlus that determines success. Rather, if HKBH determines that the person should meet with success, it will be materialized through hishtadlus. So we see that Rav Mintzberg is suggesting the use of tefila much the same way that we felt that tefila related to hishtadlus.