Does Trust in God Mean Working Less? Rabbi Lazer Brody

[music and singing] my Lord. Amuna, it's [music] from you my Lord. [singing] It's [music] all good, my Lord. [singing] [music] Oh Lord, >> good evening from the south of Israel. This is Laser Brody with lesson 217 in Amuna Hour. We have a very special lesson tonight and it's all about trust in Hashem and all about hishadas. The amount of effort we put in before we the name of tonight's lesson is bread from heaven. Like I said, it's a lesson all about and the amount of effort we need to devote in making a living. First of all, we want to thank our very good friend Richard Goldstein. Hi, Richard. He's with us tonight. B Hashem from the USA. Richard is sponsoring tonight's lesson and it's dedicated to the good health and success of his family Rahm Benel feasu Benel and Ben Israel and their families. So, Hashem should all blessing all the blessings of our Amuna learning together. It goes to to their credit and you can't imagine just can't can't begin to imagine that the benefits that person gets from sponsoring Amuna and helping other people get close to Hashem. So, thank you so much Richard and every blessing to you and the whole family. So, today's lesson addresses the question of hishadas. that every just like everybody knows what imuna is and everybody learned is effort the effort the amount of effort that a person is required to make a living uh the rule of thumb there's a spiritual rule of thumb when it comes to that the greater a person has ben the greater a person has trust in hem then the lessad the less effort he needs to do the less he needs to break his head against the wall in other The more person trusts in Hashem and truly believes that Hashem is the provider, the less he or she will need to work. And the opposite is even more obvious that the more a person goes to great lengths and attempts to make money, the less he or she trusts in Hashem, for they believe that were it not for their efforts, they starve. The Torah says this. It when they say it when a person believes that the might of his right hand that his own cunning, his own ability, that's what uh earns him his living is far away. He's going to have to really work really hard. And as you see people working the 16-hour days, the 17-our days, Hashem doesn't demand that of see what Hashem demands, what we do, our obligations and and learning and prayer and performing the Hashem wants us to take that time to to serve him. Shem doesn't want us to to run it to work in the coal mine for for 18 hours a day. Certainly not. So some people they make a mistake. They don't properly estimate themselves. Some people consider themselves uh they above what they think they are and they say oh no Hashem just like the the man and the bread from heaven they'll send it down to me and then they starve their families people that theat sadikim the imitation sadikim sometimes their families starve because the person said no he's going to sit and he'll learn all day long and not worry about an income yes we have to worry about income if people read what's on their tuba what's on their marital commitment to their wives that we commit ourselves to make an Olympia to make a living make to do what we do. Now some people earn an income by learning Torah. Some people earn income by prayer that when they believe that it's a spiritual effort then then uh that it works. It really does. It's a question that's where amuna is the basis for bhen because bhan is built on a person's level of amuna. So other people work too much that they don't have enough bhun and they work much much longer than they have. I'll give you the classic example. Let's take two real estate salesmen. Okay? One has ben. One doesn't. One guy is going to show a hundred houses. He's going to knock himself out. He's going to spend money his own money. Works on commission. The boss doesn't give him gas and mileage. He has to invest himself. He'll get back with commission. But he spends his time and has spent a lot of money in gas and spend all time showing pals and nothing seems to happen. Nothing seems to happen. Why? And these are the high pressure salesman. High pressure salesman think it's because of their effort. So they pressure people. They pressure people to buy. People don't like that. They back off. You don't want to be pressured. You want to see something. They say they all and they often break. They don't give the honest information about the car they're selling. The classic used car salesman. We used to remember when I was in university and there was tricky dick, President Nixon that couldn't really talk dick and there was a poster that the Democrats made of Nixon, Republican president, and they showed him with his tricky dick image and they said, "Would you buy a used car from this individual?" Okay, that's the thing. Do you trust somebody that you buy a used car from him if he's going to tell you the truth? Now, take a person that has behen take the same real estate salesman. Okay, he shows five houses. Shows makes five house and out of the five houses he makes a sale and he makes a sale. So he works maybe a tenth of the amount that the other person works that without behan and because he knows that things comes from so he doesn't pressure his client. He gives a true a true opinion of this is this is the advantages of this property and this is the disadvantage of this property. Uh yes it's inexpensive but you're going to have to fix the basement. Basement's a little bit leaky. have to seal it and and do things. But people go away with such a good feeling. They feel confident. They say, "This guy is giving us this. He's giving us the real deal." And about the other person, they're not confident because they say, "What what kind of lies? What kind of bill of goods is he selling us?" So, the fact that they feel confident with the first person and they maybe don't like that house, but you know something, they're going to go back to that same that same salesman for the next house, whether it's a house or a car or whatever he's selling. So you can see that just how much a person's confidence being big gives him or her the confidence the confidence they trust that is going to help them that's going to help them do whatever they want to do and this is we're going to now learn about these different levels of ben. So once we're familiar with the different levels of of bhan, we could better discover our individual happy medium between andadas. I'm going to put something parathetical in here. This is the important of having your spiritual guide that knows you because people make mistakes and they make mistakes about themselves. They can't see themselves clearly and they end up either doing too much or too little. When you have a spiritual guide knows you and you ask you ask your spiritual guide uh can I get away with learning Torah for half a day whatnot and he knows who you are and he knows what your ability is and they can he could tell you and then from out of out of experience. I know many people many people people come to me they want to learn all day long and want to learn half a day and they have all kinds of uh goals that the goals are way above their head. So I said, "How many hours are you learn working today? So I'm working 10 hours a day." I said, "Okay, I'll tell you what. You cut a half hour a month." He says, "That's all, Rabbi." He said, "Yeah, work nine and a half hours, but with that half hour, take it to Torah learning. Take it to some do something for his gem. Add it to your prayer. And then after 3 months, we'll see where you are." So if after 3 months, he's making the same money that he made when he was working 10 hours. Okay, now we cut back another half hour. do it gradually and while the person is building himself up spiritually or herself up spiritually and building their building their okay so that is the importance of having a spiritual guide if you're not super objective about yourself and and you need help that someone should know you and help you assess yourself candidly so every person no matter this is a the curse from the the curse of Adam and Eve when they ate the the forbidden fruit by you're going to have to learn earn a living by the sweat of your brow. Uh this is from the beginning of time. But we learn in parish in the book of Exodus about the mana that we also learn about here that when a person clings to a muna and he we can really literally get heaven-scent bread and we have a precedent to this. This is 40 years in the desert where the children of Israel, they didn't have anything. They weren't in the desert. They weren't in the the wilderness in in North Carolina. If they were they were in Sinai, nothing but mountains and desert. Okay, though they they had they still had food. This is the lesson of the mana. The mana was the miraculous food substance. We call it bread from heaven. But the matter that fell every day from heaven during the 40-year period that the Israelites wandered the desert. and to sustain them from the time they left Egypt to the time the day they entered land of Israel. Tells all about that in Exodus chapter 16. Well, the first time the mana descended from the sky, the Israelites looked they didn't know what it was. What what's coming out? They see this crystals like crystals of honeycake dropping from heaven and they could mold it together and they could shape it into anything they wanted. If they wanted to make, they talk about uh laboratory meat. They could mold it into meat. They could make it into a steak. They could make it into bread. They could make it into a chocolate ice cream. They could do whatever they wanted. Whatever a person wanted to taste in the mana, he could taste. Whatever you wanted the mana to look like, it it looked like it. They they in their jargon. It's not the Hebrew we speak today. It's like an Aramaic type Hebrew. And so they asked the Torah says manhoo. Manu. Manu mean it's in today's Hebrew means maz. What? What? What's that? What's this? What's this? If we take the words in the original Torah, manho, and play scrabble with them, they come out the words amuna. So wearing this, they didn't know this is the bread of amuna. They didn't know what the bread of amuna was. And this is what the Torah is conveying the message that the substance this the mana the substance comes from Hashem by virtue of our amuna and not by virtue of our toil. Not by virtue they toil. They toiled in Egypt. They worked on the rock piles in Egypt. But the mana teaches us a great lesson in Bhen. Every person. Now here's where we learned different levels. The mana showed that every person received his or her daily allotment. And this this portion was called an Omr. The Torah calls it an Omar. That's the word that counting the Omar. The Omr comes from. Okay. This Omr was sufficient to uh satiate a person for an entire day. Now, if a guy was a 6'5 weightlifter, maybe his portion would be 3,000 calories. And he was a 5-year-old little girl, maybe her portion would be 1,200 calories. That was magically spiritually oriented to every person. The mono would adjust itself, the daily portion to what each person needed and just what they needed. It was their their daily consumption. Now there were wicked people with no belief that they wanted to stockpile the mana and they thought they could get more than their daily allotment. They looked they had big eyes. They were greedy. Don't more than their daily aotment. So they tried stockpiling which the Torah forbids. Moses told them don't stockpile. Don't take more than what you need. But the excess of what they needed turned into worms. It became wormy. It became wormy. What does the Torah teach from this? When we work more than what we need to do, there is no blessing in the excess. Person think he's making a lot of money, but then he has a breakdown of the car and then said how many rich people they think they're rich people, but then they're playing alimony to the four different women they divorced. It's all a mirage. It's all a mirage. When it's enough that we earn what we need to earn, we don't need $10 million in the bank. We don't need to hold a mortgage against Hashem. The biggest blessing is when Hashem gives us what we need when we need it. How do we get what we need when we need it? We pray for it. We pray for it. I see that uh my Reb, the melat, he sits and learns all day long. He sits and learns. He doesn't do He does uh he he sees people for an hour a day and people come and then they give him money. married 11 kids and asked the rebre how did you marry off 11 kids make weddings for 11 kids he doesn't know he doesn't know says it does not make sense financially Hashem did it just Hashem did it like people ask me uh you're not abusing how did you compose this music I don't know Hashem did [laughter] it Hashem does it and then we're there so miraculously when it came to Friday the mono would not fall on Shabbat when it came to Friday, the people received the double portion on Friday to provide for their needs on Shabbat as well. And that's why we serve two kalas on Friday night and Shabbat in the morning. The two kalas are mindful, they're reminiscent of the double portion of the ma. Like during the week, we one loaf of bread, one loaf of bread put on the table, say mozzy, not on Shabbat, not on uh Shabbat the night, not at Shabbat in the morning. We put two loaves of bread. And that is because of the mana. That's remembering that Hashem gave on Friday double portion because they're today laws of Shabbat. A person's not allowed to buy bread on Shabbat. Person's not allowed to break to bake bread on Shabbat. Also has to be prepared before Shabbat. So this would enable the children of Israel to observe Shabbat in the desert without any need to go work and go for substance. Now double portion would remain entirely fresh on Shabbat. If they would take the double portion during the week, then the second portion would become wormy. If they took a double portion on Wednesday, they tried to get a double portion, it would it would be wormy. It would be ruined. Not on Shabbat. It became fresh and and well just just like as if they they gathered it, they gathered freshly. So the mana also teaches us that Hashem commands us to observe the Shabbat. But not only does Hashem command us to observe the Shabbat, he gives us the wherewithal to keep Shabbat. Now these lessons of are just as relevant today as they were 3,300 years ago. That that if we had spiritual eyesight, we would see that Hashem gives us our sustenance on a daily basis. Just like King David tells us in Psalm 145 that we say several times a day. All eyes look for you, look at you, Hashem, and you give them their food in the right time. You open your hand and satiate every living thing with favor. That's Psalm 145 and 16. So where do we learn the lessons of in the mana? that the midrash tells us that there were three levels of people in Israel that that sadikim the ones the righteous that they had strong amuna and strong they would receive their daily portion on their doorstep on the doorstep of the tent. They wouldn't have to go anywhere and [clears throat] right there they open in the morning they'd open up the door to the tent and it's like the the milkman in the old days they would deliver the bottles of milk right to your doorstep. Hashem had that mana mana delivered right to the doorstep. That was the sadikim. Then there's the benonim the middle people that uh they're not considered sadiki but they're certainly not in in the rash they're not considered wicked. They would have to go and take a walk outside the house and maybe walk anywhere up to a mile to get their to get their mana. They'd had to this was the the level of the level effort they had to do. But then there were people that lacked ben and the ones that tried to gather the double and triple portions. They had to go from one end of the encampment to the other end of the encampment which was 12 km. 12 k. They had to walk a good eight miles. A good eight miles to get there. So see they they're they were working all day long to gather their daily aotment. The medium people were working a few hours come back and the righteous live right there. It was as easy just easy as opening their front door and bring it in. They're just preparing what they needed to to what they needed. Okay. So the Nativa Nativa was Rabbi Nafali Udvi Berlin. He lived from 1816 to 1893 in Lithuania. He writes that anyone who violated the Shabbat because of income is sorely lacking in amuna. And he writes in Hambeck Davar. Okay, that's his commentary on Torah on Deuteronomy 25:17. So the zor goes even further and the zor says that the blessing of income on the six days they come from the observance of the Shabbat's sanctity on the seventh day. That's in the second second volume of the zor and chapter 88. Okay. So what we learn from here is that the divine mechanism for providing our daily substance is the same today as it was in the mana in time of the mana 3,338 years ago. The same exact today, but the same Shabbat and the same Hashem. There's no new regime up in up in the sky. There's no new It's Hashem. It's still a thing. But the difference it today is it's concealed. Why is it concealed? It's to test our amuna and because if we would see Hashem's hand revealed giving us our our income, then we'd never learn. But that's what Hashem wants us to learn to learn amuna to learn. And Hashem plays a game of hideand seek from us that and not not always easy. both sides. It's trying because like we always say, you can't learn amuna or banan by eating chocolate ice cream. Okay. So, let's summarize up to now. We get our daily substance from above, not from work. And observing the Sabbath, Shabbat does not cause a decrease in income. It generates a blessing. People think according well wait a second. If I work a day less, then I'm going to get less income. It doesn't work like that. This is spirituality. It's a spiritual. Some people that are having financial difficulty, they often ask me, "Rabbi, what do I do financial difficulty?" I say, "Make sure you give enough to charity." How much is enough to charity? 10%. But rabbi, I got bills. I can't give 10%. I said, "But you got bills because you're not giving 10%." Give 10%. But that's not logical. If you go to any income advisor, he's going to say, "This money increase your income and decrease your expenditures." That is an economics advisor. He is advising you according to nature. Spirituality does not go according to nature. It is above nature. Amuna is above nature. It's above logic. Where logic leaves off. That's where amun and begin. So if a person won one ploy for enhancing income is to make sure you give enough charity which the Torah says is a tithe. Many people give they want to get rich. they give 20% of their net income. Okay? And so that's a play for getting rich, but that takes a lot of behav trust in in Hashem. Okay? So now uh we're going to review what we said. This is not only in the mid the Gmorrah and Yuma page 75 trackct 8 Yuma also describes the three levels of people like we mentioned the midish and the Gmorrah says that now this is all over the Torah that those with absolute trust in Hashem receive their daily aotment at their doorstep. This is the top level of of be of of bhan and the minimum level of hishadlas. They had to go and they had to open the front door and they had to gather the mana and they had to make it into whatever they wanted to make it. If they had to form it into a loaf if they wanted to eat bread, they had to form it into a steak if they wanted to eat steak. They do it didn't get ready according to their heart's wishes. They had to do something. Okay. Then the person the people with moderate trust in Hashem the second group they had to leave their home and to wander around the camp to get their daily allotment of amuna. And the third group were those with little or no trust at all in Hashem. They had to go great distances and exert much effort in securing their daily portion of mana. So uh applies today. Everything we said applies just today. We have the same three groups today and but they're more specific. There's very many subgroups. But the characteristic of each group, if we talk about income and we substitute the word mana, then the same laws that apply to the mana, they apply to our income. And this describes the three levels, three levels. So level one is the people with absolute behen. So each level corresponds to a pro progressively different level of and we have each level of people on the level of their the level of their trust in Hashem. They had different levels of effort, different levels of soar describes that this what I said in the beginning wasn't my idea. This is right out of the gummor. Everything we say is the Gomorrah, the Zor, it's or somewhere in the Torah that you could describe it mathematically that the relationship between andadas are inversely proportionate. Okay, the more the ben the less thetadas and vice versa that the little the less the more theadas. Okay, so some of our sages disagree with this assumption. Got to be in all fairness some of our sages don't agree. Amongst our sages, there are proponents on of each level. And we're about to see some expect a person to serve Hashem all day long, sit and learn Torah all day long, and don't even have make an effort to make a living. That we're not supposed to be engaged in this world. We're supposed to have enough trust in Hashem. And others say, "No, no, no. that without person pursuing a living uh even making minimal effort then uh a person is relying on miracles and if a person relies on miracles then miracles are not going to happen and we do live in the physical world so we have to function according to the basic laws of the physical world that we must do someadas and this was a a argument in the Gmorrah between uh Rabbi Shimon and the famous Rabbi Shimai and Rabi and The Torah says that many people went according to Rabi Shimon and they failed because that was on Rabi Shimon's level of an absolute sadic. Rabbi Shan Pay wrote the Zor and but Rabbi Schmo who was also an absolute sadic. Rabbi Schmo he had a better idea of human nature and he gave the people that you you have to have but you have to do some work also. So the above distinction of the three levels of on a practical basis it's a bit problematic. G not not everything is hunky dory. Oh, it's a simple trust and you'll get it's not it's the vast majority of people cannot objectively uh assess their own level of beten and they're unable to identify what group they belong to. per say well wait I don't know do I how much do I need to work really if it's a spiritual okay and a lot of others we mentioned before they fool themselves and they think on a higher level they really are and they think that if they were Israelites in the desert that they would have gotten their mana on the front doorstep they could be sorely mistaken and it could be in reality that they'd have to walk quite a few miles to get their mana so our sages refer to the levels of b and re redefine them and they speak them as systems ofty identifying each one of our true levels of we're all aware of how much we work. We're all aware of the we do and and making a living and uh we perform the daily work that we have to do and devote whatever we can to doing good deeds and to learning Torah. But by examining the nature of our rather than trying to rate ourselves on a scale then we gain a better insight into enhancing our ban and strengthening our Torah learning and divine service even more and earning a good income. For example, what type of ishadas do we do? What do we do? anistadas that is not according to Torah. In other words, is a person go trying to make a living as a money lender lending in interest. And there are ways that a person would be allowed that the banks are allowed to to to own a bank and lend with interest. But you have to talk to a rabbitical court judge and get an okay for this. It's called a hater isa. It's a compl it's complicated but it's possible. But if a person is using some type of dishonest means to make a living then he could be doing lots ofadas and it's not going to help. Okay. Now let's look at a few of the different types of ishadas that our sages describe and see what the what we call the systems. Okay. There is the three types of systems. One is noishtadas and one is a mediumishadas and one is full full force fistadlas. Some people think that oh you're down in this world and you got to do elbow grease. You got to knock out those 10-hour days. All right. So let's look at system number one. System number one is no wish list. You don't have to do you don't have to break your head at all to get an income. Now this is the level of those people that believe that Hashem will provide for them with no effort and on on making living. One person example my my rebbit the meliser rebbit I'm not on the level I'm not on level I write books I teach and but they sit and learn Torah all day long like he does I can't do that because I'm not on his level on his level. But this is that doesn't mean that they're idol. Oh no. When the Rebe learns Torah, you can't even talk to him. He is so immersed in what he's doing. And his day, the way he learns Torah for 15 hours a day. 15 hours a day, most people can't learn for an hour a day with the intensity that he learns. So this is uh it it's it one this is the quality of a person's the quality of a person's effort and that doesn't mean that uh if a person does minimalistadas use idle time no that means that what Joshua told the book of Joshua that the Torah shall not depart from your mouth and you shall you shall occupy it with day and night. In other words, you don't have to work, but my brother, you got to have your nose in the books. All right? And if you don't have your nose in the books, you're doing a disservice to your wife and kids. Okay? If you have your nose in the books, the stipler, the holy stipler, uh, Rabbi Visro Kamitki, he promised that anyone that learned 10 hours a day complete fullon. I mean the type of learning where a person breaks out like a like like a like a workout in the gym when people are intensely thinking where you can see that birds beats a perspiration. You go into an air conditioning study hall and you see guys are persspiring hey they're going away they're wor they're going at it. Someone that learns like that for 10 hours a day, they're working for Hashem. They are going to have this a promise from the stipler. But uh you see people, you could go into a study hall and see people every 5 minutes get up and they go to the coffee room and make themselves a coffee and they're not in their gamora. They're gossiping. They're tired. Not everybody that's in the study hall is doing what they should in the study hall. Just like person not everybody and working in a factory on the on the production line is that some people are goofing off some people are are slacking. Okay. But this means that Hashem is a loving father and those that serve him they're going to is going to be provided. Their needs are going to be provided. And it's explicit promise from the Torah. And the Torah says, "If you digitly dig if you diligently heed my commandments, you will gather your grain, your wine, and your oil." That that's it. That's it. So this mean double. In other words, if you get them Joshua said, Joshua said, "Learn Torah day and night." But yet Joshua was general of the army. Joshua would go out and defend the country. Okay? But even when he was and every free minute, every free minute he had his nose in the Torah. He had his nose in the books. The Joshua tells us whatever doing this is we have to have every free minute for Torah. So the inherent factor of this level of the no ishadas that would be noishadas in Torah, noishadas in work, not in the factory or or not in the sales room or where else is a person's dedicated commitment to round the clock. Torah study uninterrupted by anything other than prescribed daily prayers and basic fulfillment of a body functions. Certainly go to the bathroom, keeping the body healthy such as eating, drinking, sleeping, going to the bathroom. And it's a no frrill, no indulgence life. Okay, this is this is what you a person needs to honestly do be on the level of this mishadas. Now Jeremiah the prophet was the prime proponent of this system. Jeremiah Jeremiah believed in this system. Noadlas because Jeremiah chastised the people for chasing after income. And while they were chasing after income, they were neglecting Torah. He raised up a jar of mana had left over. Moses commanded that a jar of mana be left in the holy of holies together with the uh with the the the ark of the covenant together with the ten commandments and there was a jar of mana there. Jeremiah went into the holy temple. He was a coin and get the jar of mana and he held it up to the people and he said this is what our forefathers ate in the desert and Hashem can give us our income the same way. They said we got to act like they do. But the Gomorrah mentions this system and his proponents I mentioned before was Rabbi Shimboy. Rabbi Shimboy says is it acceptable that people should be toiling in the fields? what's going to be with Torah. So when a person devotes himself to divine will learning Torah and others do work for him that his work will be taken care of. They'll have uh he'll have uh workers from Thailand picking his crops. He could be a farmer. He could have a farmer but he's got no uh sir you sit and study Torah. Okay. you have a a a foreman from Thailand about the workers and they'll work for you and that for them that for them is a is a big it's a big service for them. It's a big privilege for them that they should be able to work on a plantation of a Torah scholar. This is a this for them is a great is a is a great system. The Torah tells us that when Mashiach comes that we better have very strong sit because it we're going to have these uh 70 of these foreigners holding on to every string. The string there's four corners, eight strings on every corner. 32 corners 70 times 32. Make a quick calculation of how many people holding on that they want to be part they want to be part of this this this Torah this Torah scholar. Okay, cuz that is a that's that's their tikunolum. All right, system number two. We got our system number two is not noishadas but minimalist. This is the system that most of our sages hold by. This most of sages hold by uh this is I myself try to live my my life this way. And the Gabbor mentions that Rabbi is he disagreed with Rabbi Shuai and he maintained a person must do some form of minimalist and make a living and then devote the rest of his time to Torah. Sir Raban Gamliel who was the son of Rab Juda Ni he would say beautiful is the study of Torah with worldly endeavor for toil and Torah sin that a person works and he learns and they keep a person that that idleness leads to sin that Torah study if it's not accomp accomplished with work it's destined to become null and void and cause sin this is the ethics of the fathers chapter 2:2 this is the ethics of the fathers they held by this system which is don't knock your head against the wall but you have to do your effort my brother my sister we're in the physical world okay so we got to do it so you could do it our effort could be spiritual we could teach we could teach Torah we can we do do all types of different things that help uh help society in the way Torah commands so king David In his younger years, he combined hurting sheep with his most devoted service with Shem. King David was a shepherd. And King David says in Psalm 128:2, "When you eat the fruits of your labor, you will be happy and all will be good for you." That's the words of King David, Mashiach, King David himself. This is by no means a license to work 12 hours a day to do more than the minimum because King David says how I love your Torah. It's on my lips all day long. This is ver in in in Psalm 19. Psalm 119 verse 97 says king David says do some work because you're going to be happy. It's going to make you happy. He says that you be but even when he was working he had Torah on his mind all the time. His thoughts were full of of Torah. So according to Rabbi Bak Ibakuda, he's our famous 12th century Spanish rabbi that wrote the duties of the heart at the most classic writings on in our history. This is the gate of in the duties of the heart. He says like this anyadas in excess of the bare minimum is a blemish in other words yourself anyhadas more than the bare minimum blessing. Now the holy al and they also say the system with noishadas is lofty but it's only workable for a tiny few. That's very fine only work with a tiny few and know we have a thing we have a a joke aidic joke people look the reb is a big sadic okay so a guy stranger comes into this sh and you see at the end of prayer the guys they kick with their feet when they say a len prayer they kick with their feet they got look what's that dude like a a sidekick with their feet and somebody goes up to one of the people in the congregation said why do you people have this strange custom of kicking with your and Elena. I said the rabbit we learned it from the rabbit. So the stranger goes up to the rabbit and rabbit says why do they do this strange thing? Reb says oh their ninkum poops. They started doing that. There was one day that a strange dog came into the synagogue and during a lenu started grabbing the cuff of my pants. So I started kicking the dog away. I didn't want to interrupt the prayer. Okay. But they they didn't see this and they keep going like that. This is this is what's called doing something mimicking. We don't mimic our spiritual leaders and guides. They do what they do. Okay, we do what we're supposed to do. But they never had the sense to ask the Rebi, is this something we should do? The Reb would laughed at them. He told them that this is a joke. Yeah, it's a joke. But we tell a joke to how this false mimicking people think, oh, Sadi does this. I'm going to be at Sadic. uh Rabbi El Melik of Lzensk, he would give away all his money every day to poor people and he said, "Hashem like the mana is going to give me new money in the morning." So woman comes to the rabbi, he said, "Rabbi, we got nothing to live on. There's no no money for bread, milk for the kids in the morning." So rabbi calls the husband and he said, "What do you do?" He said, "The Noah Milik, Rabbi Noah Milik gave all the money away last night. A poor person gave I all the money in the house." He [laughter] said, "But says you got to feed your own family before you feed somebody else." You don't give all your money away without taking care of your own family. Just like people, they go over their nose. They jump over their nose and they fall flat on their faces. Okay? Making things light. But we can see that it it it's really it's when a person goes beyond his or her spiritual level, it can it can be absurd even to the level of being ridiculous. So the they say that this no level of no level of the it's only for a few people. Okay. And there everyone has to adopt situation abroad of minimalistadas. Another important proponent of the minimalist is the Ramal Moshim. Now we go to system number three. System number three is full throttle, full gas. This system maintains that since we live in the physical world, we have to do whatever effort is needed according to nature and not rely on miracles. But there are two types of people that engage in foolish studas. They work all day long and they work lots of overtime. The first group are the believers, the ones that they do trust in Hashem. But they work because of the primeval curse by the sweat of your breath that we mentioned that when Adam and Eve sin that they were cursed with that and they put their trust in Hashem once they do their best effort as King Solomon indicates where he says that the horse is prepared for battleable but the victory is for hems. The horse prepared. Okay, guy's got a job where the boss requires him to work for eight and a half hours a day. Okay, if he doesn't work there eight hours, he's going to lose a job. Well, he can't lose his job. We won't let him lose his job. You don't lose your job unless somebody gives you a better job. They give you that pays the same for six hours or pays you more for the same thing. No. And somebody comes to me that even a 9-hour a day, you don't give up a job. Especially not now. Okay. Okay. Don't give up a job. People are being laid off because of AI and I say thousands of people I hear for people income do not. And now hear this. Anybody that wants to jump over their nose because of our tongue lessons, this is not a permit. This is not a permit. This is to strengthen ourselves within our level of my biggest thing is first of all, let's take the free time we do have. Suppose you're working 10 hours a day and you want to do less shadas. But with your free time, okay, you have an hour and a half of free time. Instead of eating a meal with your wife or with your husband, you're on social chat, you're on the days, you're wasting time. That's not doing it. If you want to free time, you want to volunteer in a hospital, you're learning Torah, okay? Then Hashem will give you more free time. But if you're wasting your time, don't expect Hashem to give you free time. Because one of the system, the system of the believer, one thing in fullness, there's the believers, not the believers. That the believers, they take their free time and they're teaching Torah to orphans and they're volunteering a hospital and they're learning Torah themselves and they're tutoring people that can't afford tutors for their kids. They're doing all types of good stuff. Okay. Now this same person could be working for 10 hours a day but with the two hours a day the Hashem gives him the family doesn't feel neglected and the other times it not thing if a if if a if a wife or a husband feels neglected then somebody's somebody's doing something wrong that's not we have to then again there's the that your time just as you give of your money you give of your time we have to first give of our time at home to one another. So, King Solomon is teaching us that a soldier must do everything he can to be victorious. If you're a soldier in the army, you can't say, "No, no, no, no. I'm going to go on now a three-hour watch." No, my friend. That uh your commander requires you to do two 4-hour watches day. You got to do eight hour watches day. All right? You can't do less. And but you have to understand that you got to do your ishadless. You got to do your effort that you better keep that weapon impeccably oiled and not a bit of rust on it. So it should be jammed. And if you have free time, first of all, before you sit down and open your Gamora, you have to make sure your tank is maintained and well equipped. And soldier's got to maintain good physical condition to keep yourself in good physical condition. Once that's been done, then he could go in battle and cast his heart and hopes to Hashem for victory and salvation. All right? So he does once he does his basic effort, then he's got free time. There's a lot of guys I got beautiful pictures of guys in Gaza and taking their free time and learning Gomorrah, learning dapyomi. I mean, these are such heroes. Such heroes. And they they were had the day day and night watch. By the same token, a merchant must be sure that his store is clean and well stocked and appealing to customers. If your business is slipshot, and you have a a a food store, grocery store, you're a a green grosser or a butcher and somebody walks in there and it doesn't smell good and dirty and oh sham, where's my income? Where's your income? Clean up the place, sir. Okay. Get get it in order. get an order your grocery people don't buy from you because your shelves are empty. Don't be a cheapkate. Stock up the store. You have to do your ishadas. And but once that has been done, we have to do and for this we need our our business advisors. Our business advisers tell us what we need to do to run a good business and how do okay once we've done that that's it. So the second group that we're talking about, this is the first group, the believers. Second group engage in fulllus, but they're non-believers. These are the ones that believe that their income depends on them only and has nothing to do with Hashem. Heaven forbid. And these are the ones with no amuna. So they're knocking their heads out from sun up to sunset. And not only that, they come home, they eat dinner, wife hasn't spoken to them all day long and they've got their heads and they're answering emails while the you see the non-believer see non-believers in synagogue also. Oh, they come to synagogue and all the time you hear the beeping the beeping of their their smartphones, the income, they're looking at their emails. By the way, uh with with us, uh person is not allowed to come into the synagogue with the phone. And if it does, it's not allowed because what do you need to do? Uh you want to talk to Hashem. Instead of talking to Hashem, you look at your email. You expect Hashem to give you an income. That's insulted. Can you imagine for you have you've been waiting for two years to get an appointment with a prime minister and now you're finally the prime minister with a president and you're talking to president and while you're the president you get beeps and buzzers on your phone and you say, "Excuse me, Mr. President." You ignore the president. Go throw you out of there. So yeah, no this talking to this is the non-believer. Heaven forbid. And people with no money, they're knocking their heads up from sun up till sun down. So although both groups, the believers and the non-believers, they're in full steam. There's a huge difference between the two. The believers adhere to the laws of Torah and they won't touch a scent that doesn't belong to them. people that uh I know store owners. There's one green grosser. The guy works for maybe 11 hours a day. And when he's not working, he's at home or learning Torah. He guards his eyes. He speaks politely to everyone, but he doesn't look at at at strange women. And forget that anathema to him. He's so careful about giving change. And you can see when you can see people in And the guy is not the cheapest green grosser, but everybody loves him. Everybody comes to him. Why they come to him? Because Hashem sends them to him. This is the the blessing the blessing that that that he has. Now he himself, he's not the greatest Torah learner, but he's got three sons full-time in rabbitical coilers. He's he keeps his sons in his raising his kids in Torah. He's doing great things. So a person like that even though it's first full steamadlas believes in the Torah and observes the Torah impeccably and would not and that the most important laws in the Torah are the financial laws about shortch changing and not swindling a person and being honest dealings. It's the first thing we're asked. We go upstairs how much Gomorrah did you learn? Did you negotiate fairly? Negotiate fairly. You know how the Gomorrah says did negotiate fairly? Did you negotiate? Did you negotiate with amuna? That's how the gore says. This is the first question that they ask a person when he gets to the the heavenly gates. This did track take track take Shabbat. So such these people, they're so careful with their money. They're so careful. What's more, you can be sure that they give as much to charity as they can. Not just the minimum, but much Gary Chan. And they also pray at prescribed times. and they look for Shem to help. Now, the non-believers, they ignore the laws of Torah and they fight for the daily dollar. In other words, that vacuum clean salesman or that uh used car salesman, he's not going to tell you what that car, that vacuum cleaner is all about. He just wants to get his foot in the door. And for them, in comes a war. And what they have this expression, all is fair and love and war. That is very a nonuna expression. All is not fair and love and war. love another person. You have to love your neighbor as yourself. That means you don't lie to another person. You don't cheat to another person. We don't even make it's a it's an a prohibition of Torah to make another person sad. Not even talking about verbal abuse and and saying something even says sometimes you you see somebody who may be religious quote not quote even a big rabbi quote unquote but someone that he looks down looks at him and makes a face like that. Hey, uh, Rabbi, do you know something? You just did something eating worse than pork. What do you mean? What's Because if you eat pork, heaven forbid, you've made a transgression against Hashem. But by insulting another person, even with a gesture, says a gesture is lush, that even a bad gesture is just like slander. And if it causes anguish to that other person, forget about Yum Kipper, your prayers. Oh, you're beating your chest. You got bruised on your chest on the night after Yum Kipper. No, Shem says, "Forget about it. I'm not listening to your prayers until you ask forgiveness from that person you insulted." But some people, they're such snobs. They look around. They look but everybody like that. Okay, now go and find all the people. How do you know all the people you insulted? And they wonder why doesn't Hashem answer my prayers? I'm so religious. Hashem doesn't want religious. Hashem wants believers. Hashem wants observance. Hashem wants that we should subjugate ourselves to him. And when a person is arrogant, that means he's subjugate himself to himself only. Heaven forbid. So the non-believers, they and they're non-believers that uh they they they look like they're dressed up for porium. Not everybody that looks observant is observant and not everyone that looks non-observant is not observant. You can't tell your player without a program. Only Hashem knows who we are. Okay? For the for the non-believers, income is a war and everything is fair. They can say whatever they want and do whatever they want and they short change their workers. Don't pay the workers in time. They give promises and they don't keep their promises. Give promise to their customers. Give promise to their suppliers. Oh yeah, supplier calls and say, "Oh, where's the bill? Your last bill from last month? It's overdue." "Oh yeah, I'm going to send the check today." Guy doesn't send the check today. So, and in in addition to being late with his payments, everything, he's lying and he's stealing and he's cheating and this is not the the terms of business. So, they'll run to the ends of earth in search of income. Rabbi Nakam explains that. Rabbi Nakam says these are the play what you don't understand. We say in the and the second commandment you should have other gods and that people that they what what other gods but as other gods who does idolatry nowadays Rabbi Akman says like this and Rabbi was very stiff about this he says the reference to other gods is those people that don't believe that Hashem gives them the amount of money they need. Hashem doesn't give them enough. So they take the law in their own hands, whether it's shortch changing, whether it's not paying on time, whether it's not paying their bills, whether whatever they're doing, but they're violating Torah in order to make more money. That means that money is their god. And we say we're talking all about that in our in the middle of that in our story about Rabbi Nakam, the master of prayer, the country of wealth. That's exactly what they believed in. Money was their god. That is false gods. That's other gods. Uh and then they're the people that do business on Shabbat. And even people even if they might keep Shabbat, but they're talking business during the Torah reading on Shabbat. And this guy doesn't believe in Hashem and this guy doesn't believe in Hashem. It's a very serious thing. We're reading from the king's annals and and somebody's talking like he's greeting. If it was in the king's court, the sergeant of garbs off with the guy's head. Wow. Okay. So, with the above in mind, everything we learn, these three levels, a person who engages and full gas must strengthen his or her to make sure that while they're doing their effortless, they observe the laws of Torah in order to make a living. And this is the bare minimum that's demanded from all of us. It doesn't matter whether a person is is Jewish, whether person is a noahhide and a munahide, doesn't matter what they are. This is demanded for all of us that while we're making a living uh if they do make an honest living that is why for one of the seven not only one ten commandments it's a very important one of the seven noahide commandments and as we always mentioned the no high commandments are not only seven you go through they're actually 40 like the Rambam tells us included in this is slander and uh a lot of the business laws okay so that's it for this week our levels of istadas I know it's a lot to swallow But this introduction we are going to elaborate it on it more and more in coming lessons. I think this was uh lesson excuse me this lesson four and we have at least another two lessons in pan. So meanwhile Hashem should provide everyone with all the money they need exactly when they need it and everything they need in life. Good health, good income. Those that need soulmates get good soulmates. All your hearts wishes the best and have a wonderful week. God bless. [music] >> [music]