We're now in a pasuk in Alshech 16,20 מַשְׂכִּ֣יל עַל־דָּ֭בָר יִמְצָא־ט֑וֹב וּבוֹטֵ֖חַ בַּיהֹוָ֣ה אַשְׁרָֽיו׃ Someone who uses his intelligence on something will find good, And the one that relies on Hashem, he's fortunate. Rashi tells us this means that someone who is Maskil/pays attention and weighs his actions, will find good. That is, someone who weighs, Should I do it? Shouldn’t I do it ? Is it a Mitzvah? Is it a sin… He's on the right path. But there's a slight danger to this. If it’s a little cold outside, he might think, I'll catch a cold. I shouldn't go to shul. Or, If I stay in shul until the end, I might not make as much money, so I should leave early . This pasuk is teaching us that once you finally make the right decision, losses from the right decision might creep in. That’s when we have to add the second ingredient. After I use my intelligence and decide what the right thing is, וּבוֹטֵ֖חַ בַּיהֹוָ֣ה אַשְׁרָֽיו׃ I have to add the ingredient of bitachon, and then I will have the fortune of doing what I want to do, because I have the reliance on Hashem to allow me to do it. So again, מַשְׂכִּ֣יל עַל־דָּ֭בָר יִמְצָא־ט֑וֹב You might think- I think this girl's the right girl , but then doubt creeps in…. I always thought I’d marry a girl whose father would take me into his business and that would be my life. Now I found this wonderful girl with great qualities, but her father doesn't have business for me to take me into. Choose her anyway. And use your bitachon…. and so on in such kind of cases. Rabbenu Yonah says this is a general tool for life -before you make a decision, think it through. What makes sense? (This is not regarding a mitzvah vs sin) Once you decide what makes sense to do using your sechel, you then have to say Hashem, I'm relying on You that it should happen. He says, don't just think, I have Bitachon, everything's fine. No, first you have to think about it. You have to use your sechel , you have to use your intellect . Then, after you use your intellect and prepare everything according to your intellect, that’s when bitachon kicks in. Bitachon is not a recipe for carelessness or being haphazard or not having a plan. Bitachon comes in after Maskil Al Davar. First you use your sechel , then you use your bitachon . I'll give a personal example. I lived in Israel for over 10 years, and in those days we took buses. Sometimes you would have to run to catch the bus. Otherwise, you'd miss the bus and have to wait until the next bus came, and you didn't know when the bus next bus was coming. So I once asked Rav Wolbe, What is the right thing to do? Should I walk to the bus at a regular, slow pace and miss the bus or should I run for the bus and then get to the bus huffing and puffing in the street? Which one is Min Hashamayim? Do I use my bitachon to say that huffing and puffing is the hishtadlut , Or do I use my bitachon and say, “ So, I'll miss the bus and get there later? His answer was that we always use our sechel first and bitachon second. This might not be the accepted thing in our world today, but he said Sechel says you don't run in the street, you walk ( We're not talking about running for exercise, we're just talking about running to run). Sechel says you walk at a regular normal pace. Then, after you’ve used your sechel and said, I'm going to go at my regular, normal pace, but then you miss the bus, that's where the bitachon kicks in. This is an important rule- Always use your sechel first. And even when everything seems to be great with your sechel, you still need to have Hashem’s mercy and bitachon to bring the success. That is how Rabbenu Yona explains this Mishleh. There's a sefer written by Rabbi Yitzhak Kanpanton known as the Gaon of Castille. He lived from 1360 to 1463 and headed a Yeshiva in Zamora, in West Spain. He had many great students, such as Rav Yitzhak Abuhav, who the Shulchan Aruch refers to as a Gedoleh HaDor . He wrote a sefer called Darchei Gemara/The Ways of the Gemara , deta