And so it is written, “Fear Hashem, His holy ones, for there is no lack for those who fear Him. Young lions are in want and go hungry, but those who seek Hashem will not lack any good” (Tehillim 34:10–11). The meaning of the pasuk is this: He, may He be exalted, sustains and gives food to all weak things, such as the unborn child in its mother’s womb, and the chick inside the egg, where there is no opening through which food could pass; He sustains the bird in the air and the fish in the sea, and the ant, the lowliest and weakest of the creeping things; and He is the One who withholds prey from the lion, the strongest of all the beasts. This is what is written, “Young lions are in want and go hungry, but those who seek Hashem will not lack any good.” And so it is written, “Hashem will not let the soul of the tzaddik go hungry” (Mishlei 10:3).

And so David, alav hashalom, said, “Cast your burden upon Hashem, and He will sustain you” (Tehillim 55:23); and it is written [there], “He will never let the tzaddik falter.” And Chazal said on the matter of bitachon: Whoever has bread in his basket and says, “What will I eat tomorrow?” is one of those of little faith (Sotah 48b).

For this reason the manna came down to Yisrael each day’s portion on its day, not for one month and not for two, so that they would find themselves without food and always lift their eyes to their Father in Heaven, and so that the middah of bitachon would grow strong in their hearts. None of them could leave any of it over until the next day; and you already know that those who left some of it over were of little faith, of whom the pasuk says, “And it bred worms and became foul” (Shemos 16:20).

In the merit of bitachon Yisrael were redeemed from Egypt. So they said in Midrash Tehillim (22): “To You they cried out and were rescued” (Tehillim 22:6). And why all this? “In You they trusted, and were not put to shame”: all in the merit of bitachon. And because the middah of bitachon is a great foundation among the foundations of the Torah, we find that the Torah is founded upon it, and is called bitachon, after the middah of bitachon; as it is written, “A wise man went up to the city of the mighty, and brought down the strength of its trust” (Mishlei 21:22).