Investing in the King’s Table

אִישׁ כְּמַתְּנַת יָדוֹ כְּבִרְכַּת ה׳ אֱלֹקֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר נָתַן לָךְ 

“Each man according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of Hashem your Elokim that He has given you.” (Devarim 16:17) 

“If You Want to Know What Bitachon Is” 

R’ Shlomo of Zhvil zt”l once turned to his assistant, R’ Eliyahu Roth z”l of Yerushalayim, and said: “If you want to know what bitachon (trust) is, let me tell you a story. 

“In Zhvil the custom was, that girls would get engaged at twelve years old, and the wedding would be held three years later, when the girl was fifteen. During those three years, the family would save money to pay for the wedding expenses.   

“I knew a Yid in Zhvil, whose daughter got engaged. Over the next three years he saved up a substantial sum. As the wedding date drew closer, he thought: Chazal teach (Beitzah 16a) that all of a person’s sustenance is determined on Rosh Hashanah except for what he spends on Shabbat and Yom Tov expenses. And surely money spent on other people’s Shabbat is outside that accounting as well.   

“Now, Zhvil was full of poor and needy families who needed help with Shabbat expenses. So this man figured that the right thing to do was, to take the money he had saved, and distribute it to those who could not afford Shabbat. Since that money would fall outside the amount fixed for him on Rosh Hashanah, the poor would gain, and he would lose nothing on the deal.   

“And that is exactly what he did. He gave the whole sum away for the Shabbat needs of the town’s poor. From then on, every Wednesday, he distributed a substantial amount to the poor. Heaven helped him: the money for the approaching wedding was there when he needed it, and everything fell into place.   

“From then on it became the custom in Zhvil that every erev Shabbat, wagons loaded with food went out to the families who needed it for Shabbat — and the ones receiving it never knew where the food was coming from.”   

R’ Shlomo finished the story and said: “That is bitachon.” 

Whose Story Was It? 

After his passing, R’ Eliyahu was once speaking with his son and successor, R’ Gedaliah Moshe of Zhvil zt”l, and asked whether he knew who the Yid in that story had been.   

R’ Gedaliah Moshe answered: “That Yid was my father!”   

R’ Shlomo did indeed merit remarkable siyata dishmaya, help from Heaven, in the merit of his own bitachon that his Shabbat expenses would be provided.   

There was a Yid in Yerushalayim named R’ Ben Tzion Krinfus. One erev Shabbat he fell asleep and dreamed that he should bring candles to the Rebbe of Zhvil. He woke up, took packages of candles, and carried them to the Rebbe’s house. Standing at the door, he heard the Rebbe say to the Rebbetzin: “In Heaven they know that every Yid needs Shabbat candles. So they will certainly provide them for us.” 

What Is Fixed on Rosh Hashanah 

Every Yid should always keep these words of Chazal in mind. Every Rosh Hashanah, a sum is fixed for each person — the money he will receive over the coming year, to cover his own material needs and his family’s.   

Some are allotted generously from Heaven, more than they need. Others are decreed to undergo financial stresses, and to finish the year in the red, carrying debt.   

So when a person sees that his income is below average, he has to cut back on his spending and give up even things most people take for granted. When a person needs to struggle to earn a livelihood, that is the will of Hashem, and it will ultimately serve his good. 

The One Expense That Comes Back 

Spiritual needs, though, are a different matter, and Shabbat expenses among them.   

Even if a Yid does not have a comfortable parnassah, he should lay out whatever it takes to have oneg Shabbat in a fine way, because this money comes back to him.   

We have been promised: whoever adds, Heaven adds for him. And if he does finish the year in the red, he should know that this was decreed for him on Rosh Hashanah. Had he not spent it on Shabbat, he would have lost that money some other way.   

The sefer Tiferes Shlomo explains it (Rosh Hashanah, s.v. Mezonosav). All six days of the week draw their flow from Shabbat, as the Zohar teaches (II 86a). So however much a person adds in honoring Shabbat, that much more is added to his flow for the six working days — beyond what was fixed for him at the outset, on Rosh Hashanah. 

Two That Are Four 

Some have written, that a Yid should spend on Shabbat at least double what he spends on a weekday. Then the promise of Chazal takes hold: whoever adds, they add for him. Measure for measure, Heaven pays him back double what he laid out for the honor of Shabbat.   

They found the hint in the opening words of Maseches Shabbat: “yetzi’os haShabbat shtayim” — “the goings-out of Shabbat are two.” Read yetzi’os as expenses: what a Yid spends for Shabbat is twice what he spends on a weekday. “Shehen arba” — “which are four”: his reward is doubled again, four times the weekday amount.   

And there is the well-known Gemara (Shabbat 119a) about Yosef Mokir Shabbat, Yosef who honored Shabbat. He spent constantly to honor Shabbat with fish — and in the end he found a precious stone inside one. 

The Hint in the Word Ish (Man) 

Perhaps all of this is hinted in our pasuk:  

אִישׁ כְּמַתְּנַת יָדוֹ כְּבִרְכַּת ה׳ אֱלֹקֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר נָתַן לָךְ 

“Each man according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of Hashem your Elokim that He has given you.” (Devarim 16:17) 

אִיש — Ish, “a man,” hints to Shabbat, for its letters are the roshei teivot (head letters) of yishmeru et Shabtotai — “they keep My Shabbatot” (Yeshayahu 56:4).  

כְּמַתְּנַת יָדוֹ — K’matnat yado, “according to the gift of his hand”: according to the sum a Yid gives out of his own hand for Shabbat expenses, his own and other people’s.  

כְּבִרְכַּת ה׳אֲשֶׁר נָתַן לָךְ — K’birkat Hashem Elokecha asher nasan lach, “according to the blessing of Hashem your Elokim that He has given you”: that will be the measure of blessing Hashem adds and gives him, beyond what was fixed for him on Rosh Hashanah. 

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The Kalever Rebbe is the seventh Rebbe of the Kaalov Chasidic dynasty, begun by his ancestor who was born to his previously childless parents after receiving a blessing from the Baal Shem Tov zy”a, and later learned under the Maggid of Mezeritch zt”l. The Rebbe has been involved in outreach for more than 30 years and writes weekly emails on understanding current issues through the Torah. Sign up at www.kaalov.org.