A No-Stress Income
Financial difficulties often stem from needless spending. People without emuna fill their houses with things they don't need.
Translated by Rabbi Lazer Brody
Hashem promises us our bread and water, but he doesn’t promise us chocolate éclairs and pizza, which do damage to the body and to our wallet. We can’t live without bread, but we certainly can live without frills. Many people do irreparable damage to themselves by overeating, and by eating things that aren’t good for them. Others waste a fortune on restaurants and prepared foods and fill their bodies full of chemicals. Greedy manufacturers don’t care how they poison people. If we’d eat at home, eat naturally, and eat what we need, we’d see how adequately the money we have suffices.
Probably the most common question is how much effort, hishtadlut – we need to invest in working for a living. The Midrash tells us that the tzaddikim would receive their daily manna on their front doorstep. Why? A tzaddik is so busy serving Hashem, that Hashem doesn’t want to disturb him.
The average people would receive their manna within the confines of the camp, a 6-mile radius.
The evil would have to go outside the camp for their daily portion. To make a living they had to trek in the desert all day long – hard work from sunup until sundown.
Even if a person isn’t yet a tzaddik, but he’s doing his best to serve Hashem, he’ll have an easy income. The tough income comes from chasing things we don’t need – the new car, the house in the prestige neighborhood, or the country club membership.
I once rode in a cab where the cabby complained that he couldn’t pray in a minyan, because he had to work from 6 AM to 9 PM. I asked him why he works so hard. He said “I have to live, don’t I?” Is that living? It’s slavery!
Another lesson of the manna is “each man according to his needs”. No matter what a person gathered, he’d come home and be left only with the daily portion. The Gemara says that we’ll receive our stipend from Rosh Hashanah to Rosh Hashanah. What’s ordained is what we’ll get, so why work harder? I hear so many questions from people looking to work harder: one person asked me if he should open up another store. I asked him, “Why increase the curse of hard work? Invest your extra time and energy in Torah and praying, rather than in expanding and perpetuating the curse.”
Rebbe Nachman of Breslev teaches that worry ruins an income. Inversely, bitachon – trust – is the main spiritual vessel whereby a person receives his or her livelihood. With emuna and bitachon, we smile, and we don’t worry about where tomorrow’s bread is coming from Parshat HaMan (Exodus 16:3-36) tells about those that worried, that didn’t believe in Hashem, and that gathered more manna than what they needed for the day. What happened to their extra manna? It became wormy. Likewise, people without emuna fill their houses with things they don’t need – those needless possessions all become spiritually wormy.
Some people ask why Hashem had to give manna every morning early – this is a tremendous lesson. A lazy person doesn’t have an income, or success in anything. Therefore, every person should pray for diligence. The manna would come down at daybreak, but as soon as the sun shone fully in midmorning, it would evaporate. Therefore, everybody had to wake up early, to pray in the first minyan, so they could have time to gather the manna.
A person came to me complaining that he didn’t have a job. I told him to wake up early, go to the mikva, and then put on tefillin in the first minyan. He should then go home, eat a quick breakfast, and be out of the house by 7:30 AM. He asked where to go, with no job? I told him that if he shows initiative, agility, and diligence –in other words, if he’s not lazy – Hashem will get him a job. And so it was – on the first day, he got a job at a local supermarket.
We were put on this earth to serve Hashem. People say they can’t serve Hashem because they need to make a living. Nothing could be more silly! Most people that have trouble making a living have trouble waking up in the morning. Oftentimes, they waste hours every day in front of the TV or the internet – I’ve never seen a person that utilizes time that lacks an easy income.
The Children of Israel would receive a double portion of manna on Friday, to teach that one doesn’t have to worry about Shabbat. It’s not part of our annual stipend, for the money we spend to honor the Shabbat is above and beyond our annual stipend. By investing in Shabbat, we expand our pleasure and our income. Shabbat is the time to feel like a millionaire. Moses says, “Bake what you wish today, and put the rest away for tomorrow” – not only do you not need to work on Shabbat, but working on Shabbat is a curse. Datan and Aviram went to work on Shabbat, looking for the manna. They didn’t believe that Hashem created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th, and He wants us to do the same. Anything that a person makes on Shabbat turns to a curse.
Moses also tells Aaron to put a portion of manna in a jar. The jar was then kept for hundreds of years in the Tabernacle of the Holy Temple, alongside the tablets of the Ten Commandments. The same manna that would spoil overnight, miraculously remained fresh for hundreds of years until the destruction of the first temple.
The prophet Jeremiah once chastised the Children of Israel for not learning Torah. They asked, “How do you expect us to make a living?” He held up the jar with the manna and said, “This is how Hashem sent a living to 600,000 families in the desert for 40 years. Millions of people ate and drank out of Hashem’s hand in the barren wilderness, not in a place of mountain streams and wild fruit – in desolate Sinai – so they could learn Torah!
Jeremiah said, “Look how your ancestors made a living!”
It’s Hashem’s job to give us a living. It’s not our concern how He does it, for He has many messengers. We have to do our job of praying and observing the Torah and Hashem will do His. Hashem wants us to build emuna and trust.
A giraffe doesn’t have to work in an office to get its daily sustenance, neither does a cat. Undoubtedly, Hashem will certainly send those who seek Him an easy income. This is a promise from Moses, Jeremiah, and Rebbe Nachman. May all of Israel have abundance, so we can devote our lives to Torah and emuna, amen.
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