[Avodah] RSRH Digest

[Yitzchok Levine]

Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:38:34 -0500
Subject: The value of working hard while relying on the blessing of
         Providence in seeking a livelihood

The following is from RSRH's commentary on Shemos 16: 16 - 18. BTW, RSRH
writes a good deal about earning a parnasa in Parshas Shalach. However,
I did not come across one reference to a segula in his writings on this
topic in this parsha, and I am pretty sure that there is no reference
to relying on segulos for anything in any of his writings! YL

	16 This is what God has commanded: Let each man gather of it
	according to the need of his nourishment; one omer a head,
	according to the number of your souls let each one take for the
	members of his tent.

	17 The Children of Israel did so; they gathered, some more and
	some less.

	18 But when they measured it with the omer he who had gathered
	much had nothing left over, and he who had gathered little did
	not have too little; each one had gathered according to the need
	of his nourishment.

    16-18 They were to gather it, each man according to the needs of
    his household, according to the number of souls, one omer for each
    person. If, at the time when the manna melted away (below, v. 21),
    some had gathered more than the correct amount, and some had gathered
    less, nevertheless, when they came to measure it, it was found that
    he who had gathered much had no excess, and he who had gathered little
    had no deficiency: they had gathered as much as they needed to eat.

    However, the intention to gather the appropriate quantity was
    apparently an essential, indispensable condition; otherwise, after
    the first experience, they need not have bothered to gather more
    than a minimal amount, since, in any case, everyone would receive
    what he needed, and certainly no more than his share.

    In this lay the important lesson on the value of working hard while
    relying on the blessing of Providence in seeking a livelihood for
    oneself and ones family.

[Email #2. -mi]

Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:32:33 -0500
Subject: How to Regard the Obligation to Earn a Livelihood

The following is from RSRH's commentary on Shemos 16. In my opinion it
gives fundamental insights into how we are to regard the obligation of
earning a living. It is a long selection, but well worth reading, IMO.
When I read it to my wife, she asked, "Why don't they teach this in
the yeshivas?" Indeed, why don't they? YL

	2 And the whole community of the Children of Israel complained
	against Moshe and Aharon in the wilderness.

    2 First we learn of the vital need for the institution of
    Shabbos. They had just come from Eilim, a place of plenty, to the
    wilderness, when kol adas benei Yisroel the whole community which
    bore within it the seeds of its noble destiny immediately began to
    murmur against Moshe and Aharon.

    The memory of the miracles of deliverance and salvation in Egypt
    and at the sea, along with the basic instructive experience at
    Marah all these vanish before the specter of starvation that now
    threatens their wives and children. This, too, may be the point
    of the Rabbinic dictum: kashin mezonasov shel adom yoser m'krias
    Yam Sof, The provision of ones daily bread is more difficult than
    the splitting of the Red Sea (Yalkut Shimoni, Yeshayahu, 474). The
    threat of hunger real or imagined undermines all principles and
    rescinds all noble resolves. As long as a man cannot disengage
    himself, not from the responsibility to provide for his family, but
    from the overwhelming anxiety resulting from this responsibility,
    he is unable to fully realize Gods Torah.

    Freedom from this overwhelming anxiety comes only with the deep
    awareness that concern about ones livelihood, the foremost among
    all human concerns, does not rest not even primarily on man alone.
    He must realize that toward this end, too, man can and should do
    only his part namely, what God expects him to contribute toward the
    achievement of this objective. As for the success of his efforts, he
    must leave that to God, Who watches over every household and every
    single human soul and extends His mercy to all His creatures. Man
    must realize that his work for his livelihood is not a privilege
    [with which one is endowed], but a duty [with which one is charged].

    As long as man is not instilled with this awareness; as long as he
    feels that it is he and he alone who, with his limited powers, is
    bound to the yoke of earning his livelihood, there is no end to his
    anxiety. This anxiety is likely to turn his world into a wilderness,
    even if he dwells in the midst of civilization, where there is much
    wealth but also much competition. His anxiety can make him believe
    that he must secure not only the morrow, but his whole future, and
    even that of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This
    belief goads him into an endless and ruthless pursuit of greater
    wealth, leaving him no time for the pursuit of other aims and goals.

    For this reason God led the future people of His Torah into an actual
    wilderness, where there were no means for a livelihood. There they
    would face the anxiety of present needs that cannot be met and a
    future that seems hopeless. There they would see for themselves and
    for all their future descendants the thoughtlessness to which such
    a situation, even if it is only temporary, can bring a person. As
    can be deduced from the next verse, the entire generation that left
    Egypt had been unaccustomed to worrying about their sustenance. While
    they were slaves, it was in their masters interest to keep them alive
    and strong, just as one cares for his working animals and beasts of
    burden. Bamidbar, in the wilderness, the whole community of Israel
    began to murmur against Moshe and Aharon.

[Email #3. -mi]

Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:57:18 -0500
Subject: No intermediary or intercessor is necessary for God to take
         note of a man's needs

The following are some selections from RSRH's commentary on Shemos 16

	8 And Moshe said: If God gives you meat to eat in the evening,
	and bread in the morning to satiate [you], if God has heard your
	complaints that you are stirring up against Him what, then,
	are we? Your complaints are not against us, but against God.

    Indeed, the entire success of Moshes mission hinges on the people
    recognizing that the mission is wholly the work of God Himself,
    and not at all the work of man.

    However, if commanded by God; if required by God as a sign of our
    unreserved recognition and trust, then what otherwise would be folly
    becomes the deepest wisdom, what otherwise would be considered a crime
    becomes the highest virtue befitting of man, and its nonfulfillment
    is considered a denial of God and a dishonor to man.

    The foregoing points are especially significant for the institution
    of Shabbos, whose foundation was laid through the fall of the manna,
    which was witnessed by the people of Israel for forty years. More
    than any other mitzvah, Shabbos requires the unshakable conviction
    that God watches over the individual and over all the little but
    indispensable requirements of his daily livelihood and that of his
    family. Man can whisper all his little wishes and worries directly
    to God; no intermediary or intercessor is necessary for God to take
    note of a mans needs, be they great or small.

    Shabbos, as well as the Torah in its entirety, were destined to
    outlive Moshe. Hence the anxious concern of this man Moshe: His whole
    desire was to diminish his own personality in the eyes of the people,
    to dispel the notion that he stood between the people and God. Moshe
    wished to be a man and no more. This was his supreme greatness.