In continuing to study emunah and bitachon, the focus this Fall-Winter will be on hishtadlus. Hishtadlus is a complex topic and it seems to stymie every one of us who are trying to live a life with bitachon on HaShem.
Living with a balance between bitachon and hishtadlus challenges us to apply all of what we know about bitachon and have that knowledge reflected in the daily decisions that affect our lives in very real ways. Hishtadlus, even more than bitachon needs to be applied by each us us differently to our own particular life situations. We can't just copy from someone else's experience and choices.Hishtadlus and the decisions we make in applying it, is a mirror in which we see the reflection of our own individual emunah and bitachon.
While depending upon how you study it, bitachon can be learned from a philosophical perspective (hashkafa), it is difficult to imagine doing the same when studying hishtadlus. When studying bitachon last year, every time we touched upon hishtadlus, we invariably were led to discuss the practicalities of its application in real life. Then again, this may have been because the Chazon Ish's presentation of bitachon in Emunah u-Bitachon Chazon Ish, was also very down to earth and focused on practical application of bitachon to the situations that the Chazon Ish chose to address.
Our study of the intersection of bitachon and histadlus will by its very nature also be very down to earth and practical, with real life supplying the situations that we will use to expand our understanding of the fine points of hishtadlus and explore the ramifications of what we are learning.
As with our study of bitachon, this will not be a survey of all the different approaches to hishtadlus. Rather it will focus on one approach that hopefully will stand up to scrutiny over the course of delving into the different aspects of hishtadlus. On the other hand, in order to provide perspective, we will need to contrast the approach that we are learning with other approaches and show where the differences are, in order to have a clearer view of the "sidelines" of the approach to hishtadlus that we are working through.
The chabura will start off with the goal of learning and understanding the required balance between bitachon and hishtadlus and in doing so, try to answer the following questions:
Living with a balance between bitachon and hishtadlus challenges us to apply all of what we know about bitachon and have that knowledge reflected in the daily decisions that affect our lives in very real ways. Hishtadlus, even more than bitachon needs to be applied by each us us differently to our own particular life situations. We can't just copy from someone else's experience and choices.Hishtadlus and the decisions we make in applying it, is a mirror in which we see the reflection of our own individual emunah and bitachon.
While depending upon how you study it, bitachon can be learned from a philosophical perspective (hashkafa), it is difficult to imagine doing the same when studying hishtadlus. When studying bitachon last year, every time we touched upon hishtadlus, we invariably were led to discuss the practicalities of its application in real life. Then again, this may have been because the Chazon Ish's presentation of bitachon in Emunah u-Bitachon Chazon Ish, was also very down to earth and focused on practical application of bitachon to the situations that the Chazon Ish chose to address.
Our study of the intersection of bitachon and histadlus will by its very nature also be very down to earth and practical, with real life supplying the situations that we will use to expand our understanding of the fine points of hishtadlus and explore the ramifications of what we are learning.
As with our study of bitachon, this will not be a survey of all the different approaches to hishtadlus. Rather it will focus on one approach that hopefully will stand up to scrutiny over the course of delving into the different aspects of hishtadlus. On the other hand, in order to provide perspective, we will need to contrast the approach that we are learning with other approaches and show where the differences are, in order to have a clearer view of the "sidelines" of the approach to hishtadlus that we are working through.
The chabura will start off with the goal of learning and understanding the required balance between bitachon and hishtadlus and in doing so, try to answer the following questions:
- When and where does bitachon apply in our lives?
- What place does hishtadlus have in the life and mindset of a person trying to live with bitachon?
- What happens if I don’t do the proper amount of hishtadlus?
- What are the general parameters of hishtadlus?
- What are the factors that go into weighing the amount of hishtadlus that a person with hitachon should do?
- What is the proper way to attempt to live with less hishtadlus and rely more on their bitachon?
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