May 27, 2025

When God Becomes Your Only Hope: Lessons from The Netziv on Divine Trust

Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player badge
Amazon Music podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player icon Spotify podcast player icon Amazon Music podcast player icon
Season 8

Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin (1816-1893), known as the Netziv, stands among the luminaries who guided Jewish thought during challenging times in the Diaspora. From his position as Rosh Yeshiva of the famed Volozhin Yeshiva, his brilliant Torah commentary Ha'emik Davar captured not just his extraordinary knowledge of Talmud but his profound understanding of the human spiritual condition.

This teaching explores a fascinating paradox the Netziv uncovers in Torah: the seemingly redundant phrase "if he has no redeemer" when describing someone finding the means to redeem themselves from servitude. Why mention the absence of a redeemer at all? The Netziv reveals a profound truth - this absence isn't incidental but causal. When we have powerful connections, wealthy relatives, or other human resources to rescue us from difficult situations, we naturally place our trust in these people rather than in God. However, when we find ourselves without human saviors, we have no choice but to place our complete trust in the Divine.

The spiritual implication is transformative. Our moments of greatest vulnerability - when all human possibilities are exhausted - become our greatest opportunities for experiencing God's redemption. When we stop searching for human solutions and acknowledge that our situation is unsolvable through conventional means, we create the spiritual conditions for divine intervention. The Netziv's teaching reminds us that sometimes having nowhere else to turn is precisely what allows us to find our true Redeemer. Have you experienced moments where having no safety net ultimately led to unexpected blessings? This profound paradox might explain why.

Support the show


Join The Motivation Congregation WhatsApp community for daily motivational Torah content!

Elevate your impact by becoming a TMC Emerald Donor! Your much-needed backing is crucial for our mission of disseminating the wisdom of the Torah. Join today for just $18.00 per month. (Use your maaser money!) https://buy.stripe.com/00g8xl5IT8dFcKc5ky
----------------

----------------
Questions or Comments? Please email me @ michaelbrooke97@gmail.com



00:00 - Introduction to The Netziv

WEBVTT

00:00:01.461 --> 00:00:01.782
Kalal.

00:00:01.782 --> 00:00:11.003
Yisrael has had a few otherworldly Talmidei Chachamim to lead us during the Diaspora and over the last 500 years.

00:00:11.003 --> 00:00:18.035
One of those extraordinary Talmidei Chachamims was the great Nitziv Reb Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin.

00:00:18.035 --> 00:00:21.467
He was born in 1816 and he died in 1893.

00:00:21.467 --> 00:00:36.607
The Netziv, one of the Rashi Yeshivas of Valozhin, authored the famous commentary on the Torah titled Ha'emik Dovar, which is his commentary on the Torah but also contains his weekly Parsha Shiurim that he gave in Yeshivas Valozhin.

00:00:36.607 --> 00:00:59.087
These insights are foundational to what it means to be a Jew living in the diaspora and what it means to live life as a Ben-Torah and a Ben-Yashiva, notably what comes through when you learn that hey McDovar is the Nitziv's incredible knowledge of all of Shas, his remarkable B'kias, and in last week's Parsha he gives us an extraordinary insight.

00:00:59.087 --> 00:01:04.293
The Esh Ki Lo Yeh Lo Goel V'hi Stigal Yadom Matzah Kedah.

00:01:04.293 --> 00:01:07.736
Someone has become subjugated to somebody else.

00:01:07.736 --> 00:01:13.572
He becomes a worker, a part slave, a servant for somebody else and he needs to pay his way out.

00:01:13.572 --> 00:01:26.152
The verse says he doesn't have a redeemer and then he finds he prospers and he acquires enough to redeem himself with.

00:01:26.152 --> 00:01:27.564
The Netzev wants to know.

00:01:27.564 --> 00:01:31.909
The entire beginning of the verse seems to be extra.

00:01:31.909 --> 00:01:36.171
He didn't have and then, all of a sudden, he had enough money and now he can redeem his way out.

00:01:36.171 --> 00:01:38.105
What do we need the whole beginning story for?

00:01:38.105 --> 00:01:41.200
It doesn't seem to add anything, at least it would seem Comes the Netzev and explains to us.

00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:48.567
It would seem U'bala horos lanu derech moser Kamsa Netzevin explains to us Api derech moser, kizeh shaloyi elo goel.

00:01:48.567 --> 00:01:58.224
The fact that this person did not have a redeemer to rely upon, yavo yideikach shetasek yodo that led him.

00:01:58.224 --> 00:02:04.364
That was the direct cause as to how he found enough money to redeem himself.

00:02:04.364 --> 00:02:05.969
He explains what does this mean?

00:02:05.969 --> 00:02:09.445
Demi she'es lo goel v'hu boteach ha'lov.

00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:18.966
If you have someone that you trust, a wealthy father-in-law or a colleague or a grandmother or a mom and a dad, you trust in them to save you.

00:02:18.966 --> 00:02:21.665
Mesir b'tchuno mashem.

00:02:21.665 --> 00:02:26.632
You removed your trust from God and you've placed it in somebody else.

00:02:26.632 --> 00:03:13.451
However, nevertheless, in a different scenario, if you have nobody else to rely upon, no wealthy father-in-laws and no incredibly powerful politicians to turn to, you wholeheartedly trust in Hashem, because you have nowhere else to turn, then you find what you need to pay your way out, not trusting in anyone else, feeling that it's unattainable, unsolvable, unrealizable for anything to get better, unless I trust in God and God alone.

00:03:13.451 --> 00:03:19.288
That is when you find enough to actually get out of your situation, when you stop looking elsewhere.

00:03:19.288 --> 00:03:23.542
That's when Hashem seems, according to Neftali Tzvui, yehuda Berlin.

00:03:23.542 --> 00:03:30.729
Then it says that's when God kicks in and that's when incredible things happen, when you have nowhere else to turn.

00:03:30.729 --> 00:03:36.640
Then you find your Redeemer.

00:03:36.640 --> 00:03:50.844
Thank you.