Bilvavi Part 5 - 224 Trusting Your Spiritual Mentor

It is written, “And they believed in Hashem, and in Moshe his servant.”[1] From this verse, we learn the concept of emunas chachamim, trusting in our sages. The Gemara explains that the Torah does not mention the names of any of the elders who received the Torah in a tradition from Moshe, to show us that a beis din comprised of three elders was equal to the beis din of Moshe.[2] In this statement, Chazal are teaching us that we must believe in the wise sages that are in every generation.

Let’s reflect on the following. Chazal state, “Do not rely on yourself, until your day of death.”[3] The classic example for this, Chazal bring, was Yochanan the High Priest, who was a leader of the generation, who made a fatal spiritual error on his last day on earth, becoming a heretic. We learn from this that just because someone is a servant Hashem today, it doesn’t mean that he will be serving Hashem tomorrow.

There is also a verse, “In his holy ones, He does not trust”[4], which says explicitly that Hashem does not even trust that His holiest tzaddikim will always be loyal to Him. If even Hashem doesn’t trust His greatest tzaddikim, then why should we trust them? And there have been times where even the holiest people made grave errors. Hashem Himself testifies that He does not trust them completely. So why is there a concept of emunas chachamim? Why should we trust them more than Hashem does?

The answer lies in the verse that we first quoted: “And they believed in Hashem, and in Moshe His servant”. These are not two “separate” beliefs, to have emunah in Hashem and emunah in Moshe. Rather, emunah in Hashem directly results in emunah in the sages. From believing in Hashem, the people were able to believe that Moshe was His faithful servant who was transmitting His word to them. The emunah we must have in Moshe and in all the sages who came after him is therefore not a requirement of emunah in and of itself, but a result of emunah in the Creator.

Let’s elaborate upon this. If a person has emunah in a wise sage simply because he trusts him, this is an erroneous attitude, which can lead him to grave errors. This is because the wise sage himself cannot be completely confident that he won’t make any mistakes and that he won’t fall from his level. After all, Yochanan the High Priest and Acher [Elisha ben Avuya] were both great sages who became heretics. If a person believes in the sage with complete confidence, and the sage is mistaken about something, he will follow the same mistakes as his teacher, chas v’shalom, and fall together with him.

So what should a person do? Must a person always have suspicions about his rebbi, chas v’shalom, and assume that maybe his rebbi is mistaken about something? If so, what does it mean to have emunas chachamim, if the student always has to have his antenna up about the behaviors of his rebbi?

The answer to this is that emunas chachamim must stem from emunah in the Creator. This means that one must believe in the Creator and trust in Him, that He will surely send him a true rebbi (spiritual mentor), who can guide him to the truth. (This is all on condition that he is really searching for a true rebbi, with all his heart, and without a personal agenda; the lack of following this condition has led to much woe). One must not suspect that perhaps his rebbi is making mistakes, chas v’shalom. Instead, he must trust in Hashem, that Hashem will not cause him to stumble with a teacher who is unbefitting.

For this reason, a person must always be concerned that he is truly searching for a genuine rebbi.

In summary, if emunas chachamim does not stem from having pure emunah in the Creator, such emunas chachamim is mistaken, and it can lead to errors, chas v’shalom. Only when one first believes in the Creator and relies upon Him, can he believe in “Moshe, His servant” afterwards – and in the “Moshe” that is in every generation.