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Baruch She’amar 2: I Trust You


“Another explanation: What does it mean when David said, ‘My God, I have put my trust in you.’ It happened to pass in Caesarea that there was a great man whose reputation traveled far and wide. One night, as guards of the region were making the rounds, they found a stranger and they arrested him. He said to them, ‘don’t hit me; I live in the house of that famous man. I’m a Rockefeller! I’m a Trump! When they heard this, they didn’t really believe him, but they didn’t want to take a chance.

 

They didn’t beat him up, and they guarded him until morning. At dawn, they brought him up to the house of this famous man, and said to him that they found someone from his household yesterday. So the famous man said to the stranger, ‘Do you know who I am?’ The stranger says, ‘I never saw you in my life!’ The famous man responds, ‘Well, if you don’t know what I look like, so how can you day you live in my house? You don’t even know who I am.’ The stranger says, ‘Of course I do! I am a member of your house. I put my life in your hands yesterday. I used your name to get out of trouble, so I trusted you!’”

 

So too, with David: God says to David as David is praying, “Do you know who I am?” David says, “No, not really. I don’t know who you are. It’s impossible to begin to know who You are. But one thing I do know, I can trust You.” When we begin to pray, how many of us really know who God is? We keep Mitzvot, we study Torah, but how many of us understand what and who God is? And what God’s attributes are? Here we are in shul, and the king says, “Oh, I see you want this and this from me, tell me, do you have any idea who I am? Do you recognize me?” And to that we say, “Well not really, but it doesn’t matter. And the reason it doesn’t matter is because I know You well enough to put my trust in You.” That’s Baruch She’amar. This prayer speaks about God in very broad terms. I declare certain basic attributes of God. “Do I know You?” – No! But it doesn’t matter. Since I believe in these basic truths of Your existence, I rely on You. We have some kind of relationship. That’s what this prayer means.

 

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