How we got here
Looking forward last Spring, the question was, "So where does the Emunah and Bitachon Chabura go from here? What should the chabura learn next?
We needed a sefer that talks to us! Talks to our hearts as well as our brains and is a sefer full of ideas that we intuitively feel are emes. While marveling at how few ideas were being presented in these newer sefarim, it occurred to me that perhaps the reason why the Chovos ha-Levavos is so popular, is that for the most part Rabbeinu Bachya is presenting ideas and explaining those ideas. The proof-text verses from Tanach and the quotes from Chazal are very often not crucial to understanding the points being made. They are almost secondary to what the Chovos ha-Levavos is aiming to accomplish. In fact, there is a sefer published hundreds of years later named Sefer Chovos ha-Levavos ha-Katzar, which is an abridged form of Rabbeinu Bachya's work, which abridges by leaving the ideas intact and leaving out the proof-texts.
One of the most endearing qualities of Sefer Emunah u-Bitachon Chazon Ish is exactly this point. The Chazon Ish is presenting concepts and ideas. When he cites verses from Tanach and quotes from Chazal, it is as a way of aiding the reader's comprehension of the concept, by painting a vivid picture using a reference to something that enhances the reader's understanding.
Not owning any of the digital collections of seforim available, out of sheer frustration (desperation?), I began to search online at HebewBooks.org and found more seforim than I knew existed. Almost all of which are of the type and style that don't talk to regular, real people.
The sefer that I finally stumbled upon was Sefer Ben Melech - Bitachon by Rav Leib Mintzberg the Rosh haYeshiva of Yeshivas ha-Masmidim in Yerushalayim and Rav of Kehilas Yerushalayim. Even when perusing it the first time, it was very clear that this was the sefer that I had been searching for (but wasn't sure that it existed).
The sefer was and still is fascinating, even after reading it quite a few times. The presentation of the different approaches to bitachon is masterful. Full of ideas and new ways of dividing up the different approaches to bitachon and creating a new way of grouping the Rishonim into different camps.
But what really rang the bell was his presentation on hishtadlus. He approached hishtadlus from a totally different perspective than most of the sefarim written in the last couple of hundred years. In his presentation, hishtadlus fits into avodas HaShem in a positive way, which was a switch from most other sefarim on bitachon. For people like us who spend most of our lives involved in hishtadlus, we definitely need to hear what Rav Mintzberg has to say.
Once the choice was made, another reason to learn hishtadlus became apparent. There are good reasons to assume that learning hishtadlus will help us raise (or at least enhance) our overall level of bitachon. Hishtadlus is all about doing, whereas bitachon is something that lives in your heart and we rarely put our level of bitachon to the test. Because of this, bitachon by its nature lends itself to our ability to fool ourselves into believing that we are on a level of bitachon that we are not on.
In short, we had both the topic to learn and the sefer to use.
Ben Melech contains a very long essay on hishtadlus and from the first paragraph Rav Mintzberg enthralls you. Not quite believing that I had finally found what I was looking for, I wanted to verify that I had the genuine article. I began reviewing the classical sefarim on bitachon with an eye for how they treat hishtadlus to see where Ben Melech veers off and differs from the classical approaches. The more I delved into it, the more I realized Rav Mintzberg is not coming up with any new ideas or approaches. Rather, he has done two things to make his sefer stand out. The first thing that he has done is present hishtadlus in a way that a reader audience used to dealing with concepts, could relate to. The second thing that hits you, as you learn sefer Ben Melech, is that Rav Mintzberg presents the classical approaches with an emphasis on bringing out and clarifying points that are usually not noticed. This could be very good.
Why Ben Melech?
Looking forward last Spring, the question was, "So where does the Emunah and Bitachon Chabura go from here? What should the chabura learn next?
We needed a sefer that talks to us! Talks to our hearts as well as our brains and is a sefer full of ideas that we intuitively feel are emes. While marveling at how few ideas were being presented in these newer sefarim, it occurred to me that perhaps the reason why the Chovos ha-Levavos is so popular, is that for the most part Rabbeinu Bachya is presenting ideas and explaining those ideas. The proof-text verses from Tanach and the quotes from Chazal are very often not crucial to understanding the points being made. They are almost secondary to what the Chovos ha-Levavos is aiming to accomplish. In fact, there is a sefer published hundreds of years later named Sefer Chovos ha-Levavos ha-Katzar, which is an abridged form of Rabbeinu Bachya's work, which abridges by leaving the ideas intact and leaving out the proof-texts.
One of the most endearing qualities of Sefer Emunah u-Bitachon Chazon Ish is exactly this point. The Chazon Ish is presenting concepts and ideas. When he cites verses from Tanach and quotes from Chazal, it is as a way of aiding the reader's comprehension of the concept, by painting a vivid picture using a reference to something that enhances the reader's understanding.
Not owning any of the digital collections of seforim available, out of sheer frustration (desperation?), I began to search online at HebewBooks.org and found more seforim than I knew existed. Almost all of which are of the type and style that don't talk to regular, real people.
The sefer that I finally stumbled upon was Sefer Ben Melech - Bitachon by Rav Leib Mintzberg the Rosh haYeshiva of Yeshivas ha-Masmidim in Yerushalayim and Rav of Kehilas Yerushalayim. Even when perusing it the first time, it was very clear that this was the sefer that I had been searching for (but wasn't sure that it existed).
The sefer was and still is fascinating, even after reading it quite a few times. The presentation of the different approaches to bitachon is masterful. Full of ideas and new ways of dividing up the different approaches to bitachon and creating a new way of grouping the Rishonim into different camps.
But what really rang the bell was his presentation on hishtadlus. He approached hishtadlus from a totally different perspective than most of the sefarim written in the last couple of hundred years. In his presentation, hishtadlus fits into avodas HaShem in a positive way, which was a switch from most other sefarim on bitachon. For people like us who spend most of our lives involved in hishtadlus, we definitely need to hear what Rav Mintzberg has to say.
Once the choice was made, another reason to learn hishtadlus became apparent. There are good reasons to assume that learning hishtadlus will help us raise (or at least enhance) our overall level of bitachon. Hishtadlus is all about doing, whereas bitachon is something that lives in your heart and we rarely put our level of bitachon to the test. Because of this, bitachon by its nature lends itself to our ability to fool ourselves into believing that we are on a level of bitachon that we are not on.
In short, we had both the topic to learn and the sefer to use.
Ben Melech contains a very long essay on hishtadlus and from the first paragraph Rav Mintzberg enthralls you. Not quite believing that I had finally found what I was looking for, I wanted to verify that I had the genuine article. I began reviewing the classical sefarim on bitachon with an eye for how they treat hishtadlus to see where Ben Melech veers off and differs from the classical approaches. The more I delved into it, the more I realized Rav Mintzberg is not coming up with any new ideas or approaches. Rather, he has done two things to make his sefer stand out. The first thing that he has done is present hishtadlus in a way that a reader audience used to dealing with concepts, could relate to. The second thing that hits you, as you learn sefer Ben Melech, is that Rav Mintzberg presents the classical approaches with an emphasis on bringing out and clarifying points that are usually not noticed. This could be very good.
Why Ben Melech?
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