Parnasa, Part 1: Two-Fold Obligation

Away from the anonymous Tikkun Middot, which we spoke about until now, not sure that we necessarily reached the stage of idach zil gemar in Torah's Tikkun Middot, but that notwithstanding, and we'll try together to explore what the hashkafa of the ben Torah should be towards different topics. And tonight, again briefly, what the hashkafa of the ben Torah should be towards parnassa, earning a livelihood, making a living. And not just for oneself as an individual, but what approach or attitude, what hashkafa one should have on a Torah society as a whole when it comes to parnassa. So on the one hand, certainly, it must be deeply, deeply ingrained, deeply embedded within us, and this is a throwback to what we have been discussing the past few weeks, that the Gemara says at the beginning of the second perek in Beitzah that

כל מזונותיו של אדם קצובים לו מראש השנה ועד יום הכיפורים,

that what parnassa is forthcoming to a person is also part of the comprehensive hashkafa process. And this is developed at great length by Rabbeinu Bachaye in Chovos HaLevavos. So a person should never delude himself, should never fall prey to the illusion of kochi ve'otzem yadi, and we should recognize that it's not omanus which results in osher, it's not omanus which results in onus as the Mishnah says at the end of Kiddushin, but rather it comes from the Ribbono Shel Olam. And this notwithstanding, the fact that כל מזונותיו של אדם קצובים לו, nevertheless Chazal certainly emphasized unequivocally and very much the role of hishtadlus, the role of initiative, effort, even exertion for making parnassa. Now just parenthetically, want to indicate what we're not discussing and what we are discussing. So we're all familiar with the Rambam at the end of Hilchos Shemittah VeYovel, presumably based on רבי שמעון בר יוחאי of the Gemara in Berachos, דף ל"ה עמוד ב, but we're not focusing on that, primarily because it seems quite clear, even more so from the Gemara, that that's not a path for rabbim, that that's a path for yechidin, for yechidei segula.

הרבה עשו כרבי ישמעאל ועלתה בידם והרבה עשו כרבי שמעון בר יוחאי ולא עלתה בידם.

So it's not that we're ignoring that, but again, I think that probably most of us, if not all of us, certainly fall into the class of the harbe rather than the muat, the yechidin. Moreover, even that path described by רבי שמעון בר יוחאי and by the Rambam doesn't exhaust itself in not having a job for earning parnassa. What it means is that a person is totally, totally immersed in Talmud Torah and makes no hishtadlus whatsoever, and relies that somehow or other, because of that... Total devotion and commitment that Hakadosh Baruch Hu will channel the parnassah without the hishtadlus. But the very minute one makes any kind of hishtadlus to collect money or anything of the sort, so that already forfeits the derech of Shimon bar Yochai and the Rambam at the end of Hilchos Shemittah V'Yovel. So let's rather discuss again what seems to be clear from Chazal is the path that's intended for the rov minyan u'vinyan, for the overwhelming majority. So despite the fact again that clearly a person has to not only believe but know and realize that what we have is from hashgacha pratis. But yet Chazal couldn't have emphasized more clearly or more strongly the critical role of hishtadlus.

גדול הנהנה מיגיע כפו. יגיע כפיך כי תאכל אשריך וטוב לך.

Mishna at the end of Kiddushin, Rabbi Meir omer לעולם ילמד אדם לבנו אומנות קלה ונקיא. And perhaps even more striking and more sobering the Gemara earlier in Kiddushin,

כל מי שאינו מלמד את בנו תורה כאילו מלמדו ליסטות.

The Mishna in Avos, כל תורה שאין עמה מלאכה סופה בטלה וגוררת עון. What one can't outsmart or outwit Chazal. Chazal certainly again in no uncertain terms alerted us to the dangers and the nisayon of being poor, of not having enough parnassah, of not making the requisite hishtadlus for adequate parnassah. Moreover, the reality of the world we live in and to make hishtadlus means to take into account the reality of the world we live in. Is that it doesn't seem possible for a society as a whole, for yechidim yes, but for a society as a whole to remain totally insular and totally isolated and yet pay heed to the mandate which Chazal gave us of melameid b'no umnus, of not being in the class of תורה שאין עמה מלאכה, doesn't seem possible to remain totally isolated and totally insular. Perhaps a little bit al derech drush, maybe even close pshat, the Gemara has at the beginning of the first perek in Berachos, that נכנסו חכמי ישראל אצלו to Dovid HaMelech ואמרו לו אדונינו המלך עמך ישראל צריכין פרנסה. So אמר להם לכו והתפרנסו זה מזה. Rashi says it means let the rich give tzedakah to the poor. I guess again perhaps a little bit al derech drush, maybe even al derech pshat, one could add also, so one person will open a grocery store, one person will be an electrician, one person will be a shoemaker. So amru lo, the chachmei yisrael said to Dovid HaMelech, it doesn't work, it's not viable. אין הקומץ משביע את הארי ואין הבור מתמלא מחולייתו. It just doesn't work. There's not enough economic opportunity in a totally insular and isolated community to provide adequate parnassah for everyone. It's not an adequate hishtadlus. And Dovid HaMelech, as the hemshech ha'Gemara indicates, conceded that point. He accepts. that objection that אין הקומץ משביע את הארי ואין הבור מתמלא מחולייתו. And here is basically where we come to the crux of the issue and the basic dilemma which confronts a ben Torah. On the one hand, it's very easy to understand and there's a lot of truth to an approach, again, which says that one has to be totally insular, even economically, because there's no question, and it's really very, very important to maintain sight of this and keep it in very sharp focus, contemporary society in which we live is so thoroughly immoral and again, morally corrupt. There's no question, in terms of what's accepted as normal and what's criticized, condemned as reactionary and extreme. So it's certainly a society which has totally, totally lost any kind of religious or moral direction. So there's no question, there's no question that contemporary society certainly does pose tremendous nisyonos for a ben Torah. Whether it's the lack of business ethics in the workplace, the kind of false advertising, gneivas da'as, which is almost built into the system, which is obviously halachically unacceptable. Whether it's just the difficulty of any kind of shmiras einayim in contemporary society, there's no question that the challenges and the dangers of involvement in contemporary society are very real. And we shouldn't for a minute ignore it and not even minimize it. But me'idach gisa, to be concerned with those dangers and challenges at the expense of the yeitzer hara which a person has for gezel is not right either. That's not being any more loyal or faithful to Torah. Chazal say, the Rambam quotes it at the end of Hilchos Issurei Biah, that

אמרו חכמים גזל ועריות נפשו של אדם מתאווה להן ומחמדתן.

That a person, it's homei, he covets, not only arayos, but gezel also. ועוד אמרו חכמים רוב בגזל. Majority of people are nichshal in gezel. So as real as the challenges and dangers of involvement in contemporary society are, the dangers of withdrawal and the economic isolation which that creates are no less real. This issur is not inferior to any other din or any other issur in the Torah. And certainly the resultant chillul Hashem only compounds things even more. So it's just not an answer לכו והתפרנסו זה מזה. And we see it, we see it, eineinu ro'os, it doesn't work, it doesn't seem to work, and it And it feeds the yetzer hara of gezel נפשו של אדם חומדת and it certainly is conducive, again, to, it heightens and magnifies that nisayon and that yetzer hara. So somehow or other, again, some of us as yechidim won't necessarily be affected as much, but certainly in what one's hashkafa should be, what one's vision should be for Toras society as a whole, so one can't ignore the dangers of involvement in contemporary society, but it's as much of a mistake and it's as much of a danger to ignore the problems with total economic withdrawal from contemporary society as well. And again, if that's not feasible economically, so again, so obviously whatever training is needed also then becomes, again, not just part of one's hishtadlus for parnassa, but it's again a religious obligation in two senses of the term. Number one, again, if the Torah tells us that we should make hishtadlus, it's a religious obligation in that sense, and number two, if Chazal warn us that without that hishtadlus, a person is prone to having his Torah become betela vegores avon, but a person is prone to listus, so then clearly whatever measures a person takes to prevent that is also a religious obligation. So we have to try to strike a balance, and it's not an easy one. Not easy at all. But again for society as a whole I don't know, don't know how many alternatives there are. Again for yechidim there are alternatives. But for society as a whole we have to try to strike a balance between on the one hand guarding ourselves against being influenced by contemporary society, never for a moment forgetting that the standards by which we have to measure ourselves cannot be adopted from society. The danger again of involvement is this, it's a very subtle one sometimes. It's not necessarily that we're going to be attracted to the most crude and extreme forms of immorality or pritzus. The problem is that one begins to measure oneself against that standard. So instead of measuring oneself against the standard of hasmadas haTorah and dikduk b'mitzvah, so then one measures one's piety by the excesses of society. And then it becomes very easy to think that if a person doesn't, is not involved in outright gezel, he's not involved in outright gneivah, so then obviously he's doing everything kedas u'kedin and that he's following every halacha down to a kotzo shel yud. We have a tendency, a susceptibility to measure ourselves by those around us and yet that can never be the standard for a ben Torah in today's society. A person can never measure himself by the business ethics of contemporary society and say, well, I'm not doing what they're doing, so that's never the, that's not enough. That's never the, again, that's never the question which we put to ourselves and that's never the standard to which we have to answer. And that's the most, one of the most important perspectives, again, that needs to be maintained, it needs to be constantly reinforced, is that a person has to always measure himself against the exacting standards of Torah and not relative to the immoral and unethical excesses of modern society. But that having been said, so then a person also, again, in terms of what the vision should be for a Torah society, can never ever, again, underestimate the dangers which not having adequate hishtadlus for parnassah pose. And even if one lives at a time when for whatever reason there's not as much clarity in certain areas of hashkafa as there once was and there ought to be, it's very important that we try to maintain this balance and this clarity. In particular, I think we have a very great obligation when it comes to representing this kind of hashkafa or the hashkafos, again, which we'll discuss in coming weeks. Our level of dikduk b'mitzvos and our hasmadah in Torah has to be so high and so great that we shouldn't help generate the misconception that somehow or other hishtadlus for parnassah in the way we've been describing automatically entails some compromise or laxity in terms of one's devotion to Torah and one's shmiras hamitzvos. And that's true, again, in terms of any hashkafa, and we will discuss others bli neder in coming weeks as well. Any position which a person takes which advocates for or recognizes the need for a degree, a measure of involvement with the world has to be complemented by infusing more yiras shamayim, greater dikduk b'mitzvos, greater hasmadah b'Torah, again, lest we rachmana litzlan feed the misconception that that automatically has to result in, again, some laxity in shmiras hamitzvos.