Over the next four days we'll prepare for Shavuot by connecting Shavuot to the trait of Bitachon. Every single day in our Shaharit prayers, before Keriat Shema, we say Ahavat Olam, where we talk about God's tremendous love and compassion for us. We pray that He should grant us Torah, וּבַעֲבוּר אֲבוֹתֵינוּ שֶׁבָּטְחוּ בָךְ B’Avur Avotenu/in the merit of our forefathers, SheBat’chu Ba/ that relied on You. We continue and ask God to enlighten our eyes in Torah, to have our hearts cleave to His Mitzvot, to unify our hearts, to love and fear Him. And then we say, Why should we get all this? כִּי בְשֵׁם קָדְשְׁךָ הַגָּדוֹל הַגִּבּוֹר וְהַנּוֹרָא בָטָחְנוּ Because in Your holy great name, awesome and fearful , we relied . So, every single day, we ask from Hashem that in the merit of our reliance on Him, we should receive the Torah. We see, clearly from this, that a person needs to have the trait of bitachon/reliance on God in order to receive the Torah. Over the next few days, we’ll delve into why this is so. What exactly is the connection? The most simple explanation, offered by Rav Aharon Kotler in his sefer Mishnat Aharon (Vol 1 page 18) explains that the Midrash Tanhuma in Beshalach, 20 says, לא נתנה התורה לדרוש אלא לאוכלי המן The Torah is only properly understood by those that ate the manna. Rav Aharon asks, Does this mean that we can't learn Torah because we don't have the manna? He explains that the manna, the bread that came from heaven, symbolizes constant reliance on God. When you have no food in your cabinet, and you can't store anything, and the next day is a new day, you rely on God for that day's sustenance. So this means that only people who have the ultimate reliance on God are capable of learning properly. He says the simple reason for this is because through bitachon, your mind is clear and you can learn with Menuchat HaNefesh . You can only learn Torah and serve God properly if you have Menuchat HaNefesh. When the Hovot Halevavot talks about the advantages of Bitachon, he says that when one relies on God, he's able to empty his heart from worldly matters, to focus his heart on serving God. So we need to have bitachon in order to have a clear mind to serve God. This is actually fairly clear in the pasuk in Shemot 16,4, when the Torah talks about Why we were given the manna. It says, " למען אנסנו הילך בתורתי אם לא" I want to test them There, the Kli Yakar explains that the test of whether you’ll be able to learn Torah, is whether you're able to pass the manna test. You're able to pass the bitachon test, if you're not hoarding or going to collect on Shabbat, and if you realize that regardless the amount of hishtadlut you do, when you come home, you’ll have the exact same amount of manna. Once you’ve passed that manna test, which means you’ve passed the bitachon test, you're ready to commit yourself to a life of Torah and Mitzvot, because without bitachon, how are you closing your store on Shabbat? How are you taking time out of your busy schedule to learn? A person needs to have bitachon in order to serve properly. We’ll end with one more point, to help explain a little bit of our siddur, to help us properly pray. We quoted above, in the tefilah of Ahavat Olam, that it says, Ba’Avur Avotenu In the merit of our forefathers… Who are these forefathers ? Normally, when we say forefathers , our first thought is Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov, but that’s not always the case. In this case, the Avudarham., one of the Rishonim (in his commentary on the siddur) says that it's referring to the generation of the desert- as referenced when discussing the manna. What was their original bitachon? In Yirmiyah 2,2 it says that Hashem says, זכרתי לך חסד נעוריך אהבת כלולותיך לכתך אחרי במדבר בארץ לא זרועה I always remember the kindness of your youth, the love of our wedding canopy ( when ) you followed Me in the desert to a land that was never planted. The fact the Jewish people went into the desert without enough provisions to last them for such a period of time- that reliance was the reliance of our forefathers. The Shem Mishemuel, on Parashat Miketz, explains that it refers to Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov- their greatness was their reliance on God in all situations. To recap, Bitachon-lesson one for Shavuot is that we need bitachon in order to have a clear mind, in order to dedicate ourselves to Torah and Mitzvot. The 40 years in the desert got us ready to receive the Torah then, and we need it today as well. Have a wonderful day.