Parshas Eikev: Parnasah Without Worries

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The Lesson of the Mann is Forever

In this week’s parshah, we have the Parshas HaMann. Most people have heard about the mann, but they think that the mann only fell when the Yidden were in the desert and that really doesn’t have any shaychus to us today. Because of that, they miss tremendous lessons. They miss a tremendous wellspring, a ma’ayan, that could serve a person’s parnasah. You have to know that the mann is an eternal lesson. How do you know that? Because Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu to take a flask of mann and safeguard it. Keep it for safekeeping. What is the purpose of doing that? We were going to live in Eretz Yisrael, in a regular normal land where אִישׁ תַּחַת גַּפְנוֹ, “every man under his vine,” tending to his field (Melachim I, 5:5). What was the purpose of the zecher, the remembrance of the mann?

All Parnasah Comes From Hashem

Now everybody has to know that the more you remember the mann, the more brachah you will have. The Shulchan Aruch writes right in the beginning (סימן א סעיף ה) that it’s good for a person to say the Parshas HaMann.^[i] What do you gain from that? I talk to people every single day, frum people who have heard about the mann and know about the mann. Bnei Torah, yeshivahleit. And everybody is of the mindset that if you make the right hishtadlus, you’re going to be more successful. In the Mishnah Berurah (1:13), the Chafetz Chaim says that the purpose of reading the parshah of the mann is for a person to develop emunah that all of his parnasah comes behashgachah pratis min hashamayim.^[ii] And like it says in the passuk לא העדיף המרבה, the one who took extra did not end up with any bit more, והממעיט לא החסיר (Shemos 16:18). Could you imagine that? I’m trying to picture being out there in the field, and I have a pot. I have to feed twelve kids. It’s an omer per head. That’s what they get per day. One, two, three, four, five, and the guy says after ten portions, “I’m too lazy to collect more.” The neighbor tells you, “Are you out of your mind? You just got rid of two kids?” “No. Ah, does it make a difference if I put ten portions or twelve portions?” The guy says, “Yeah. It’s one portion per person.” You would think Hashem says you’ve got to do what’s called minimal hishtadlus. Hashem wanted you to go get the pail, right? He told you to bring a container. He didn’t say, “Walk over to the mann and look at it and hope the mann falls into your lap. You’ve got to bring some kind of a keili to pick up the mann.” The guy is going to just take less than he’s supposed to get. When he came home, he had exactly what he was supposed to get.

Then there’s the guy who tries to get the extra scoop. He looks around. He tells himself, “No one’s looking, let me take some extra.” You ever see these guys who fill up their coffees from their machines, or they fill up their shakes? The shakes never go to the top of the cup. If it goes to the top, it spills over, so the machine stops maybe an inch from the top. The guy says: it’s not fair. He sticks his cup under again and presses the machine and it ends up spilling all over the place. You don’t get two shakes. You just waste the store’s chocolate milk or milkshakes. That’s how people are. They want to get the extra spoonful.

The extra effort didn’t help anyone in the Midbar. You came home, and you had the exact amount of mann you were supposed to get. The Chafetz Chaim says: lehoros, this is to instruct us, שאין ריבוי ההשתדלות מועיל מאומה, more hishtadlus is not going to help whatsoever.

Professional Jobs Don’t Equal Big Salaries

Here is a person who decides that he needs to get a job. He’s leaving kollel. Right now, I’m involved with a young man who’s leaving kollel. He sees how kollel people live. He grew up in a family like that, where they struggled. He’s a chashuve ben Torah. He decided: “I think I’m going to become a lawyer.” Why? “I want a better paycheck.” That’s called ribuy hishtadlus. He’s going to go out not just to get a job, but he’s going to try to do extra hishtadlus. Law school. You have to take a lot of tests. It’s not easy to go through. And then he’s going to make a better parnasah. Who told you they make a better parnasah? “Because most lawyers make a better parnasah than a rebbi,” he says.

Now, have you ever asked lawyers: How many lawyers are there who start off law and end up with more parnasah than rebbi‘im? I used to work with and teach a lot of lawyers. I used to teach a lot of doctors. I also thought that same nonsense, that every time a guy is a lawyer the guy was mamash wealthy. Okay, maybe not a millionaire, but it must be that the guy had a fat parnasah. I remember being shocked. Not stam shocked. First of all, they came out of law school, and they were mortgaged for the next who knows how many years. They had to pay back their college and law school loans, which were often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then when they got a job, it was a job that made Pharaoh’s avdus in Mitzrayimlook easy. If you work for a law firm, you are meshubad to the firm, your guf, your nefesh. You’d better be there at 7 in the morning. You want to leave at 5? Do you have a family? Get rid of the family! You don’t have a family. You’ll never get a job. They hound you and they pound you. You have no life. It’s mavhil al hara’ayon. And you’re a little peon. Maybe after twenty years, you become somebody, and by then you’re already so broken down. You know how few people are on top? And it’s such a dog-eat-dog world! I’ve been involved with so many partners in different law firms. It’s pashut a nightmare to listen to each one talk! They have to pay out their lawyers who work under them. They want to end up with a big fat parnasah. They invested their blood and sweat.

I’ve also dealt with doctors who are brilliant doctors. I used to say to my wife, “What’s the pshat? How come I meet every shlepper doctor and every shlepper lawyer? Not one guy I see has a lot of dollars.” I couldn’t imagine what this is about. Of course, I heard about some guy in New York, with a fancy Manhattan office. But even if a guy gets a big chunk of change, you know how many years you have to wait to get a chunk of change? The lawyer is paying his mortgage and his law school loans, and – let me tell you – that lawyer is not driving a Camry. He buys a car kemo shekasuv baTorah. He’s paying a $1,000 monthly mortgage for his car. He’s paying for a lot more than a regular guy is. It’s incredible what’s going on.

The Chafetz Chaim says להורות שאין ריבוי השתדלות מועיל מאומה, and almost every day I get this kasha about parnassah. But you say: “Look around.” I say: “I don’t see it, I don’t see that working harder brings more parnassah at all.”

Now, here’s a guy who is learning, let’s say, in Lakewood. He had to get a shtickel job. He was a yungerman, a fine yungerman. Hetook a course and became a financial advisor which basically means gornisht. Now he’s doing business investment banking. They call it these fancy names. He’s a shlepper deluxe. Nach an Eved Cana’ani. It’s nothing. And he’s traveling four hours a day, two hours there and two hours back. The guy never stands for shemoneh esrei. I’m just trying to picture myself being on one of those minyan buses. I would feel mamash like a Mexican, and get the herd mentality on a bus. They try to make it fancy, so what do they do? They have a minyan on the bus. They daven a flat 21 minutes. You can’t stand up. I asked him, “What kind of krias haTorah do you have there?” They have krias haTorah while the bus is shukling back and forth. Then you have a chavrusa. You hope you sit next to the guy, and he’s in the mood. I can’t tell you how many people I told this to. I told them, “You’re a victim of your own folly. You believed in the last guy who did that kind of job!”

Now, I know a guy who works in a counseling service in Lakewood. That guy’s smart. He stays in Lakewood, and he counsels everybody else who goes to Manhattan. He’s a smart guy. “I’m not going to be a meshugene. I want to stay in Lakewood. I don’t want to travel four hours a day. I want to come when I want. I want to come late. I want to come early. I want to leave early. I’ll send you to Manhattan.” And you’re stuck now. You can’t move out of the seder. I always think about how the yungeleit, who now go to Manhattan, when they were in yeshivah used to be the kind of guys who would come late and leave early. They walked out in the middle for a nap. They had to talk on the phone. Over here you can’t come one minute late. The bus is not waiting for anybody. If you leave your office five minutes late, you’re done! You ain’t getting on that bus. There’s no first-class service over here. You become such a timely fellow, such a ba’al zman. Kochos you never dreamed you had!

Hashem Can Take Care of Us Anywhere

But if you would learn the Chovos Halevavos, it says that there was an incident where a fellow, a Yid, went to travel to another country. He needed parnasah. He meets a fellow from the other country and they start to talk. This Yid says to the goy, “I’m surprised you worship such nonsense. You believe in rocks. You believe in stones. You believe in pieces of wood. How do you believe in such nonsense?” So the guy says, “Who do you worship?” He says, “I worship Hashem, Who made the entire shamayim va’aretz.” “Really? Where is He?” “He’s all over the world! כל מקום ומקום. And He takes care of every single human being.” He says, “How come He couldn’t take care of you?” He says, “What do you mean?” He says, “Why did you have to leave your family? You left your country. You left your mishpachah and your beis avicha and moladetecha. You came to this foreign land where you’re a stranger. Couldn’t your G-d provide for you where you were?” All of a sudden, the guy starts scratching his head. He says, “You know, that’s a good message.” He packed up his bags and went back home. People forget this Chovos Halevavos.

So what does a person say? “Lema’aseh,that’s the mehalech. You go to Manhattan.” They always tell me this. I say, “Why don’t you work in Lakewood?” They tell me, “Because in Lakewood, there’s no business.” I tell them, “Let me ask you. There are no lawyers in Lakewood?” They tell me, “Lakewood has no lawyers.” I persist, “Have you ever opened a phonebook? Every second guy is trying to help people with their tickets.” You know, yeshivah guys are ticket ‘collectors.’ Frumme Yidden love receiving tickets. They need somebody to help them get out of paying it. The buses to Manhattan are not free. There are no free buses. “So why don’t you get a job in Lakewood?” He says, “I tried.” They all tell me this. “I tried.” The same nusach. I tell him, “You never trusted you were going to get one, right? You were hopeful. You’re like the guy who bought the lottery ticket. He hoped he was going to win. But he didn’t have the bitachon that he was going to win. You never were boteach that Hashem is giving you that job in Lakewood. And that’s why you messed yourself over big time, my friend. Hashem didn’t give it to you because you didn’t have the bitachon.”

I then ask, “Isn’t there a city called Howell? Aren’t there cities near Lakewood and that side of Lakewood that have banking, law, all these shtoty jobs? What do you have to be one of these little robots in Manhattan for?” As if New Jersey is pashut a midbar. A midbar. I had a couple of people listen to me, and they got jobs in New Jersey. One of them told me, “I’m not getting paid as much.” I told him, “Tipesh. Figure out the difference. How much is the bus? It’s not free. How much is four hours a day worth to you? So you’re working 15 minutes from your house. If you’re getting a few thousand dollars less that means you make more money over there? You’re crazy. You’re paying less taxes, less hassle, more relaxation. What’s the big deal? You want to know how to get your parnasah up? You need to have some more bitachon. You daven to the Ribono Shel Olam. Maybe you’ll be zocheh. But you’re not getting it.” If people would make a cheshbon at the end of the year they would discover they’re not making one penny more than they could possibly have gotten.

Then the Chafetz Chaim quotes the Yerushalmi and he says, כל האומר פרשת המן מובטח לו שלא יתמעטו מזונותיו, if someone says Parshas Hamann, it’s מובטח לו שלא יתמעטו מזונותיו, he’s guaranteed that his parnassah will not be diminished. Next time you meet somebody who’s complaining, ask him how often he actually says the Parshas Hamann. Now if you understood this was a havtachah, you’d take it more seriously. Let’s say for example you heard that on a certain day Rav Chaim Kanievsky was going to give out brachos to yungeleit who needed parnasah. People have families. They have to pay mortgages. They have to pay the bills. Can you imagine the line of people who would be at his door that day? Do you think anybody would tell Rav Chaim, “Could you hurry up please? Just give me a buhah. Just give me a buhah and I’m getting out of here.” (בו”ה – is the pronunciation of the abbreviation for brachah v’hatzlachah.) No, no. You want a brachah vehatzlachah bechol inyanecha. Nach brocha. Ashirus, parnasah berevach. Shalom bayis. And here the guy does say Parshas Hamann at the speed of light! Maybe he says the word mamtir and then “goodbye.” It says over here מובטח לו שלא יתמעט מזונותיו. Do you know what that means? It’s an amazing havtachah. To live with the mann. Hashem says, “Read the parshah of the mann and you’ll live with it and you’re not going to have any problems.” The Chafetz Chaim told you this! Talmud Yerushalmi tells it to you! “No. I want to go to Manhattan.” And even after he’s in Manhattan, the guy tells me he can’t pay his bills.

Just last night I was speaking to a yungerman. He told me he’s struggling. He has a very small family, two kids. He told me he’s struggling. What are you struggling with? His bills are around $9,000 a month. I said, “What do you live in? A castle?” “No, but I have an $1,800 mortgage.” That’s gornisht. And for that you’re struggling? מובטח לו שלא יתמעט מזונותיו, Rabosai. Live with the Parshas Hamann like you live with nothing else. People say how do you get bitachon? How do you get bitachon? Live with the Parshas Hamann. Here’s an eitzah that you should really try out.

Throw Your Burden on Hashem

Today, we’re going to learn a little piece of the Mesillas Yesharim (Ch 21) about how a person could save himself from troubles and worries. His mind will not have to be preoccupied with fears and feelings of turbulence and restlessness. He writes: Mah sheyuchal, what a person could do to protect himself and save himself from all of these problems, is habitachon, reliance on Hashem. וְהוּא שֶׁיַּשְׁלִיךְ יְהָבוֹ עַל ה’ לְגַמְרֵי, he should throw his burden entirely on Hashem.^[iii]

You know what that means to throw your burden on Hashem? A very simple thing. But no one wants to do it. People love their burdens. People love to hang on to their problems. Now you have to decide as follows: “I, Yisroel Brog, have no problem with your burdens. Your burdens don’t make me restless. They are your problems. They’re not my problems. Now if I, Israel Brog, complain to You, Hashem, and I krich to You all day long, it becomes my problem, not Your problem.” But if I just put my burdens on Hashem and have Hashem carry my burdens, now it becomes His burden, and not my burden anymore. So that’s why Hashem says, “Put your burden on Me. Place your burden on Me. Make believe it’s not your burden anymore. It’s My burden now.”

And do you know how to do that, he says? כַּאֲשֶׁר יֵדַע, that means you have to acquire da’as. You have to acquire a kesher. You have to acquire a chibur. You have to feel כִּי וַדַּאי אִי אֶפְשָׁר שֶׁיֶּחְסַר לָאָדָם מָה שֶׁנִּקְצַב לוֹ, that it’s impossible for a person to lack that which was allotted to him, וּכְמוֹ שֶׁאָמְרוּ זַ”ל בְּמַאַמְרֵיהֶם כָּל מְזוֹנוֹתָיו שֶׁל אָדָם קְצוּבִים לוֹ מֵרֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, the entire sustenance of a person is fixed for him for the year (Beitzah 16a). And it says another thing, אֵין אָדָם נוֹגֵעַ בַּמּוּכָן לַחֲבֵרוֹ אֲפִלּוּ כִּמְלֹא נִימָא – a person cannot encroach upon what is set aside for his friend, even by a hairsbreadth (Yoma 38b). And I’ll tell you an interesting chiddush,he says, that a person could even sit around idle and his allotted portion would still be provided for him.

A Little Hishtadlus Is Enough

You hear what the Mesillas Yesharim says?! That logically there’s no tanai, there’s no such condition that you have to work in order to get your portion! So why do we work? He says it’s a kenas (a fine). He says there was a kenas for human beings, as it says בזעת אפך תאכל לחם. So because of that decree, he says, it doesn’t mean that a person has to work for every dollar. No, it doesn’t say that. That’s where many people make mistakes. Listen carefully to this. They think now that there is such a curse you have to work for every last cent and if you don’t work for that last cent you’re not going to get it. Says the Ramchal (ibid.) it’s a mistake! Because even after this decree, all you have to do is put forth some effort for the sake of your parnasah. He’s revealing a gevaldige chiddush. The gezeirah was not that nothing is going to be allotted to you unless you work for every last dollar. And he says it’s like a tax. You have to pay the tax and you can’t escape the tax.

The Mesilas Yesharim continues: that’s why the Chazalsay, יכול אפילו יושב בטל. I would have thought that even if a person sits idly he will receive what has been alloted for him. So, therefore, the Torah (Devarim 14:29) teaches us otherwise and states, בכל מעשה ידך אשר תעשה. But he says it’s any מעשה ידך. Anything! Anything you do, can work.^[iv]

So people tell you, “But you see, the rebbi’im don’t have money! You see, the kollel yungeleit don’t have money!” So first I want to tell you that that’s sheker. You know why? Because if you go to Lakewood the people who are living in the houses are not all working people in Manhattan. You seeentire developments. Development after development, street after street is occupied by people who are sitting in kollel. Now are there some who don’t have houses? Sure. No question about it. There are some balebatim who don’t have houses either. That’s number one.

Number two, you have to realize that the whole concept that people who have less money are not able to afford anything, is a folly. How do these people pay for their kids’ tuition?! How do these people live?! Most of them are not very skinny. They all look healthy to me. The people who go to Manhattan look skinnier to me. They look a shtickel malnourished. They never have time to sit and eat breakfast. If anything, they have a brown bag with some food they can’t wash on because they can’t bentch. You have shaylos with mezuman. Where do you wash? Where do you bentch? Nebach the poor guy can never sit down for a shtickel gute breakfast. A yungerman comes home to eat something. If he doesn’t have anything in his kitchen, he goes to Lakewood Yeshivah. You can get a breakfast over there better than what you can find in any restaurant in the whole Lakewood. Mamash! Whole wheat bread, rye bread, white bread, brown bread, what you fancy, toast. There’s not just one toaster there, but toasters! Orange juice, chocolate milk, hot cereal, cold cereal, yogurts, this flavor, that flavor. I’m telling you it’s like a 5-star hotel! Every time I’m nispael from it. Honey, jelly. Moradige zachen. A guy could sit there and eat breakfast until lunchtime. He just has to stop long before, because lunch is coming soon. What’s going to be by lunch?

But the yetzer hara baffles and befuddles your mind. You always worry. You’re maleh da’agos. You’re maleh tirdos. You have no menuchas nefesh.

The worst part is, let’s say, a person taka went to college and he doesn’t have a job. That’s the worst klalah. Now that guy is cursing everybody. He’s cursing all those people who gave him the eitzos. “Go to college. That’s how you’re going to get wealth. Get a degree! You’re going to make a lot of money,” they told him. But it didn’t work out.He can’t find parnassah now. And then there’s a guy who gets a degree and he has a good job then he gets sick and he can’t work. It’s like Hashem is getting them on all sides. You know what Hashem is telling you? It doesn’t make a difference. If you can’t work, you’re patur from working. Then you can rely on Hashem. The kenas is an ones,andHashem doesn’t hold someone who’s ones responsible. The Mesilas Yesharim says that you pay a form of a minimum tax.

I remember speaking to a doctor who was a workaholic. He was mamash a sus gamur. He had his own private practice. He was building up his practice. He worked crazy hours. I told him, “You’re not learning anything. You’re out of your mind. You’re going to come to the next world and you’re going to have empty pockets.” He started to take off a few minutes, five minutes a day, to leave the office five minutes early. Those five minutes were dedicated to learning. Then he went to 10 minutes and to 15 minutes. After a number of years, I met him in a yeshivah and I said to him, “Nu, how many minutes are you holding by?” He said, “I’m holding by 16 hours a week.” I said, “That’s not bad.” I said, “I’ll give you brachah that it should be 40 hours a week,” and today he’s learning 40 hours a week, baruch Hashem. I just met him recently. I said, “Where are you holding?” He said, “I’m retired. I sit and learn. That’s all I do.” And his kids are Bnei Torah. I remember when I made him frum way back in the day, fighting with him cats and dogs, for hours. “How are my kids going to eat?” he used to ask me. I said, “They’re going to eat better than you because Hashem is going to take care of them. You don’t believe in Hashem.” All his kids baruch Hashem are shteiging. That’s what people have to realize.

The Mesillas Yesharim says that hishtadlus is like some form of tax you need to pay, a minimal tax. But, he says, לא ההשתדלות הוא המועיל, hishtadlus does not have any effect on the results. So what do people come back to me and say? “But what about teva?!” I say, “It’s true. Do you know why it looks like that? Let’s say Hashem decides that certain people should make $500,000 a year. So Hashem guides those people to certain professions, if they don’t have so much bitachon. Hashem gets them into a profession that produces money. He may make one guy skip college, not to go to college for even one day, and instead, have him go into real estate. He takes a short real estate course and the next thing you know the guy owns apartments all over the place. I know shleppers deluxes, yeshivaleit who couldn’t read an English book straight, but in real estate, they got plenty. Another guy hears about it. “Oh, I should do the same thing.” It’s not for everybody. If you’re not supposed to make money, it’s not going to work for you. If Hashem didn’t decide you should make a penny, you’re not going to make a penny. A person has to understand it’s not the hishtadlus that’s mo’il.  The hishtadlus is muchrach. And once you made some form of hishtadlus הרי יצא ידי חובותו. And then there’s a place for Hashem’s brachos to rest on you and you do not have to waste your days in exertion and toil and all types of hishtadlus.

Hishtadlus Minimizes Enjoyment of Life

It’s sad because I believe this drive to parnassah is the biggest challenge of mankind that impedes people from enjoying their lives. Everybody’s told you that you have to start on the bottom. You look around. Here you have a guy who heard you can sell something on Amazon. So now one guy makes a diamond on Amazon, and everybody else is jumping on that bandwagon. One guy makes a lot of money, the other guy loses his hoisen. He gets wiped out and cleaned out. It doesn’t make a difference. And it’s not necessarily such an easy job. It takes a long time. I know a very chashuve yungerman who went into the Amazon business. He said, “I’m a slave of slaves.” I said, “What do you have to do? You push a button on your computer?” He said, “You know what it takes me to get the product? I have to travel from New York, from Brooklyn, to Monsey, to buy a few machines that I sell.” I said, “Why?” He says, “Because they don’t allow me to buy in New York anymore. I went over the limit, I bought too many times. They said, ‘You’re blacklisted. You can’t buy it here.’ I have to travel to Monsey.” He travels to Monsey. He travels out of New York, Long Island, to Staten Island. It’s crazy. And the worst thing, at the end, after all his tzaros of it taking over his life, finally the guy gets a letter from Amazon. Somebody robbed him. Somebody went into his account somehow and they robbed him. They cleaned out his account. So he sued Amazon. Amazon won’t pay. He said, “You’re responsible. You released the funds without my knowledge.” He sued them and he won. But do you know what they did? He gets a letter from Amazon. “We’re throwing you out of Amazon now. We don’t want to do business with you anymore.” Nebach. Baruch Hashem I think he found something else.

With Emunah, Less Worries

You have to understand: just work on Parshas Hamann. That’s all you have to work on, Rabosai. This is the best muvtach. People ask me: “I’m thinking of going to work.” I say, “Great. I know one thing. You don’t learn mussar. You have a few kids. Your wife is working. Mussar,you have no time for. I’m going to tell you what you do. Take out 10 minutes a day and learn the parshah of mann and know the parshah of mann very well.”

By chassidim the Tuesday of the week of parshas Beshalach is a big day because Rav Menachem Mendel of Rimanov (1745-1815) said that reading Parshas HaMann on that day is a segulah for parnassah. It helps if you’re buying a house in Boro Park. You can be sure a lot of Boro Park Yidden are doing this. There’s no mekor for it but it became the zach. I told somebody, “I’ll give you a better segulah. You have the Riminover’s segulah. He made it easier for you; say it only once a year. But you can say it every day, tov lomar, the Shulchan Aruch says, and it’s going to bring you parnassah, מובטח לו שלא יתמעט מזונותיו.”

Rabosai, that’s what you have to work on. Don’t create these glass ceilings that people create. You can’t make money. It’s not al pi teva. You don’t make money in those ways. You can’t. And then the worst part people told me is, “But I went to rabanim. No rav tells me what you tell me.” I told him, “What should I do? Maybe the rav saw that you had no emunah, you had no shaychus to emunah so he didn’t tell you to have emunah. Maybe the rav forgot,Hashem blocked it out of his mind and he didn’t tell you what it says in Shulchan Aruch and what the Chafetz Chaim says. Maybe the rav himself forgot it.” Just because you’re a rav and a tzaddik doesn’t mean you can’t be weak in emunah. The gemara says at the end of Sotah, it’s very possible that you can be a big tzaddik and have weak emunah. That’s how it is. I can’t tell you why people didn’t tell you this. You weren’t zocheh for it to be told to you. You never heard of the zach that from Rosh Hashanah to Rosh Hashanah is ketzuvim lecha? What didn’t you hear? The teretz is you didn’t want to hear that! You wanted to hear lema’aseh bepoel of “what should I do”?

Hakadosh Baruch Hu should help us all reach that madreigah. Work on this Rabosai. I’m begging you. I’m telling you, you’ll be happy. You’ll have less worries. Less tirdos. Less exertion.

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^[i] טוב לומר פ’ העקדה ופ’ המן ועשרת הדברות ופרשת עולה ומנחה ושלמים וחטאת ואשם (ביאור הגר”א על פ’ המן: בפ’ בתרא דיומא שאלו את רשב”י כו’ ובסוטה מ”ח ב’ דתניא ר”א הגדול אומר כו’ ובמכילתא ל”ד ב’ שבשעה שאמר ירמיה לישראל מפני מה אין אתם עוסקים בתורה א”ל במה נתפרנס הוציא להם צלוחית של מן א”ל הדור אתם ראו דבר ה’ אבותיכם שהיו עוסקים בתורה ראו במה נתפרנסו אף אתם אם תעסקו בתורה הקב”ה מפרנסכם מזה)

^[ii] ופרשת המן, כדי שיאמין שכל מזונותיו באין בהשגחה פרטית, וכדכתיב: “המרבה לא העדיף והממעיט לא החסיר”, להורות שאין ריבוי ההשתדלות מועיל מאומה. ואיתא בירושלמי ברכות: כל האומר פרשת המן, מובטח לו שלא יתמעטו מזונותיו.

^[iii] אָמְנָם מָה שֶׁיּוּכַל לִשְׁמוֹר אֶת הָאָדָם וּלְהַצִּילוֹ מִן הַמַּפְסִידִים הָאֵלֶּה הוּא הַבִּטָּחוֹן, וְהוּא שֶׁיַּשְׁלִיךְ יְהָבוֹ עַל ה’ לְגַמְרֵי, כַּאֲשֶׁר יֵדַע כִּי וַדַּאי אִי אֶפְשָׁר שֶׁיֶּחְסַר לָאָדָם מָה שֶׁנִּקְצַב לוֹ, וּכְמוֹ שֶׁאָמְרוּ זַ”ל בְּמַאַמְרֵיהֶם (ביצה ט”ז א): כָּל מְזוֹנוֹתָיו שֶׁל אָדָם קְצוּבִים לוֹ מֵרֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה וְגוֹ’, וְכֵן אָמְרוּ (יומא ל”ח ב): אֵין אָדָם נוֹגֵעַ בַּמּוּכָן לַחֲבֵרוֹ אֲפִלּוּ כִּמְלֹא נִימָא.

^[iv] וּכְבָר הָיָה אָדָם יָכוֹל לִהְיוֹת יוֹשֵׁב וּבָטֵל וְהַגְּזֵרָה הָיְתָה מִתְקַיֶּמֶת, אִם לֹא שֶׁקָּדַם הַקְּנָס לְכָל בְּנֵי אָדָם, (בראשית ג:יט): בְּזֵעַת אַפֶּךָ תֹּאכַל לֶחֶם, אֲשֶׁר עַל כֵּן חַיָּב אָדָם לְהִשְׁתַּדֵּל אֵיזֶה הִשְׁתַּדְּלוּת לְצֹרֶךְ פַּרְנָסָתוֹ, שֶׁכֵּן גָּזַר הַמֶּלֶךְ הָעֶלְיוֹן. וַהֲרֵי זֶה כְּמַס שֶׁפּוֹרֵעַ כָּל הַמִּין הָאֱנוֹשִׁי אֲשֶׁר אֵין לְהִמָּלֵט מִמֶּנּוּ. עַל כֵּן אָמְרוּ (ספרי): יָכוֹל אֲפִלּוּ יוֹשֵׁב וּבָטֵל (יראה סימן ברכה) תַּלְמוּד לוֹמַר: בְּכָל מִשְׁלַח יָדְךָ אֲשֶׁר תַּעֲשֶׂה (דברים כח:כ). אַךְ לֹא שֶׁהַהִשְׁתַּדְּלוּת הוּא הַמּוֹעִיל, אֶלָּא שֶׁהַהִשְׁתַּדְּלוּת מֻכְרָח, וְכֵיוָן שֶׁהִשְׁתַּדֵּל הֲרֵי יָצָא יְדֵי חוֹבָתוֹ, וּכְבָר יֵשׁ מָקוֹם לְבִרְכַּת שָׁמַיִם שֶׁתִּשְׁרֶה עָלָיו וְאֵינוֹ צָרִיךְ לְבַלּוֹת יָמָיו בַּחֲרִיצוּת וְהִשְׁתַּדְּלוּת, הוּא מָה שֶׁאָמַר דָּוִד הַמֶּלֶךְ עָלָיו הַשָּׁלוֹם (תהלים עה:ז-ח): כִּי לֹא מִמּוֹצָא וּמִמַּעֲרָב וְלֹא וְגוֹ’, כִּי אֱלֹהִים שׁוֹפֵט וְגוֹ’ וּשְׁלֹמֹה הַמֶּלֶךְ עָלָיו הַשָּׁלוֹם אָמַר (משלי כג:ד): אַל תִּיגַע לְהַעֲשִׁיר מִבִּינָתְךָ חֲדָל. אֶלָּא הַדֶּרֶךְ הָאֲמִתִּי הוּא דַּרְכָּם שֶׁל הַחֲסִידִים הָרִאשׁוֹנִים, עוֹשִׂים תּוֹרָתָן עִקָּר וּמְלַאכְתָּן טְפֵלָה, וְזֶה וְזֶה נִתְקַיֵּם בְּיָדָם, כִּי כֵּיוָן שֶׁעָשָׂה אָדָם קְצָת מְלָאכָה, מִשָּׁם וָהָלְאָה אֵין לוֹ אֶלָּא לִבְטֹחַ בְּקוֹנוֹ וְלֹא לְהִצְטַעֵר עַל שׁוּם דָּבָר עוֹלָמִי, אָז תִּשָּׁאֵר דַּעְתּוֹ פְּנוּיָה וְלִבּוֹ מוּכָן לַחֲסִידוּת הָאֲמִתִּי וְלָעֲבוֹדָה הַתְּמִימָה.