Shaar HaBitachon Lesson 39 with Rabbi Shais Taub

we are continuing in chapter five of shadow talking from jewish lavas we are learning the seven ways seven ways in which the one who has been talking differs from one who does not have been talking in regards to his feelings about making a living of the seven ways we have covered how many anyone remember this is i think tonight is lesson 39. so we've covered two of the ways so far yeah all right so now we're gonna continue with the third of the seven ways the hash leashi and the third way in which the one who has beethoven differs from the one who does not have been talking in terms of making a living his attitude toward making a living [Music] although he employs certainly employs uh means meaning natural means to make a livelihood he doesn't invest his heart in them he doesn't make his heart rely on them he's not emotionally attached malaya cava and he doesn't have any hope in them not to help him or harm him other than whatever hashem wants ah but rather misasic bohen leave him rather he employs these natural methods of making a living in order to serve the creator who commanded us to be involved in the world so as to build it up and adorn it what he does is the same thing as somebody who doesn't have the talking gets up goes to work has a job right but his feeling about it is totally different as far as what he does think about it what he doesn't think with let's talk about what he doesn't think about he doesn't think that his cliff or parnassa like we call it the vessel for making a living is the source of his parnosa any you know we we've we've used the analogy before about when the um ups guy comes and delivers you a present from your mother so he just dropped it off he didn't pick it out he didn't send it to you he didn't pay for it it's not from him he's just the delivery system so two you go to work and you have a job or an investment or a business deal whatever it is a natural way of making a living it's like the ups guy it's just a delivery system so the guy who has been talking he does the normal things that normal people well what's normal so-called normal why are we normalizing a lack of the talking i take that back strike it from the record anyways he does the things that people without patakan do but he feels totally different about it he doesn't have any emotional attachment to those things as having any bearing or any determining um factor in whether or not he makes a living from them or he doesn't it's only up to hashem so that's what he doesn't feel now as far as what he does feel this is very interesting when he goes to work and he employs natural means toward making a living what he feels is he's actually serving hashem by doing this now it's interesting because you think of well there's my religious life and then there's you know the regular mundane have a job and work and it's like a necessary evil what can you do you got to eat you know you're not just a soul you're a soul and a body so you have to have a job you have to make money so you can buy food okay what can you do but you know so i have my religious life for my soul you know i dive in i learn theta and then i have my you know mundane life where i'm just like any other person and you know it's just it's unavoidable no no the one with bittoken doesn't feel that way at all he feels that he's serving hashem in his business dealings and i'm not even talking about although obviously we could add this to it but you know when you keep halacha when you keep ishpat the area of shocking that deals with business and he has a kosher business and he does business fairly and all of that then obviously he's actually doing mitzvahs in business but i'm saying even just forget about any of the mitzvahs that you can do in the workplace just the fact he goes out and he has a job he's involved in yishav he's involved in making this world a settled place and and that itself is part of his service of hashem it's very uh it's very balshemptov even though rabbena bachaya is centuries before the baashamtiv but you know they talk about how the baashemtiv used to love the simple jews the the simple tailor with each stitch of the you know you'd stitch the the fabric and you would say you know i do this for the glory of hashem i do the stitch for the glory of hashem right because that's what the tailor was able to do he's able to stitch he says i'm doing it for the glory of hashem right so the one who has been talking not only he doesn't idolize and i use that term decidedly you know make a make an idol out of the means of making a living but he sees it as an act of worship an act of connection to hashem furthermore let's continue if these means yield him a profit or help him avoid a loss so let's say it works out whatever it is that he tried to do works he thanks hashem alone for it he doesn't become affectionate or or develop a love for the means again it's not like oh my ups guy is so loving he sent me a present on my birthday no your mother sent you a president on your birthday the ups guy delivered it and he doesn't make his soul rely upon those things it's not like he increases his his feeling of stability based on those things those things come and those things go those things fluctuate a way of making a living it's just whatever works for today no attachment he only strengthens his trust in hashem not in the means that he uses to make a living love and he causes his heart to rely on to trust on hashem alone not the causes not the means that he employs now what if the means he employs to make a living don't work out he knows that when hashem wants he'll send them his sustenance through the means that he wants to send it through the lawyers and he won't despise these means because of it behind la vedas a and he won't cease to pursue them in the service of the creator very interesting here very interesting the person who idolizes the means of making a living who thinks that it's actually the way that he's working that determines whether or not he profits or not when it doesn't work out it's like he takes it personal like he's mad at wall street because his investment didn't work out or he's mad at the real estate market because uh you know his investment didn't work out or he's mad at uh i don't know whatever the business he's upset at it he resents it because it didn't work out the person has been talking it's not taking it personal okay it's like oh i don't like my ups guy he's not good he didn't send me a present on my birthday this year no it's whoever you were expecting to send you a birthday present didn't send it to you the ups guy didn't choose that right so if hashem wants to send you your livelihood through this they'll send it to this who wants to send it through that they'll send it through that and you don't have to get mad at the thing that didn't work out because oh it didn't provide for me it doesn't provide for you anyways even when it works it's not providing for you okay and as for the one who does not have trust in hashem he employs means to a livelihood because he relies on them and those means trusting that they will yield him a profit and secure him against loss the imahinema election if it works out is son he praises them and he praises his own diligence in using them oh i'm so smart that i use that way of making a living that's why it worked and then he chooses them meaning he gets attached to them he says oh no now i can never do anything else i don't want to move because then maybe my mother won't send me a birthday present anymore because i'll have a different ups guy right now i don't want to use a different klee for parnosa because then they wish they might not be able to send me parnosa anymore it wasn't it was never the klee for pronouncing it it was the amish and what if it doesn't work out oh let's let's see what he how he reacts when it doesn't work out he abandons them condemns them loses interest in that gets upset kamehameha like the verse says therefore he sacrifices to his neck and burns incense to his troll you know what a troll is it's like when you go fishing it's similar to a net the truth is i don't know the difference between a net and a troll but it's how you catch fish so what does it mean he sacrifices to his neck and burns incense to his troll he goes out fishing and he gets a bunch of fish he says oh why did i get so many fish today because my net is so good my troll is so good it's the net it's the troll they did it for me right so he turns them into idols that's why it says he sacrifices to his net he burns incense to his troll like they are the ones who caused him to make a living no it's hashem hashem caused him to make a living the net in the troll that's just a a kaley that's just a vessel for hashem to put the blessings in all right so that's the third difference laravey and the fourth difference one who trusts in hashem if he has anything beyond what he needs for his maintenance spends it on what pleases the creator with a generous soul and a cheerful heart kamehameha like it says for all is from you and from your hand have we given to you it all comes from hashem so when you give to hashem you're really just giving him back his own what's the point the point is that it's all hashems it's all his so he gave it to me i paid my bills today i have left over no problem i'll give it right back to him it was it wasn't mine you understand the one who thinks i earned it i earned it okay so even if i pay my bills and i have money left over but hold on why should i part with it i earned it i should give it to god why should i give it to god let god earn it but if it sounds preposterous when you say it but that's the mentality but if i say no no hashem gave this to me it's not mine it's hashem's and he's letting me use it he's letting me use you know daddy's credit card basically and i paid my bills today now if i have money left over why wouldn't i be comfortable spending on things for hashem like tadaka primarily or tuition or doing mitzvos bihidur but primarily tzedakah why not i should be very comfortable doing that um but the one who doesn't trust hashem the world and all that is in it does not seem sufficient to provide for him and satisfy his needs so even if he would have everything in the world he would not have enough he wouldn't be secure you know security is just a matter of uh you know it's a very relative it's an emotional thing how much money would you need to feel secure well the vitae bashem says i don't feel secure because of money in the first place so how much money do i need to feel secure i'm secure already then there's another guy who says well i need a certain amount to feel secure and then he has that but he's still not secure all the money in the world won't make him secure and therefore he's very stingy he's very careful in saving his money much more than in fulfilling his duties to the creator and to his fellow men they know and he actually he doesn't even realize it he doesn't he's not even aware at me and he's left without it kamehameha like the wise man king shlamus said ye there's one who gives freely yet amass is more the sake then there's one who withholds charity and suffers loss so there's one who spends all of his money meaning not like on you know silly things like candy and uh toys but on mitzvahs and on sadaka and he always he has enough and then there's another who's stingy and he's saving it up and it's all gone right because in the end of the day it's not our hashtagless that determines our paranosa is just the delivery system through which hashem gives us the pranas hashem is the one who determines the hakamishi and the fifth the fifth out of seven differences between the one who trusts hashem and the one who doesn't trust hashem when it comes to their feelings about making a living the one who trusts in hashem occupies himself with worldly means in order to provide for his latter end his final destination what does that mean the mark says it means alam habba for the spiritual world it means that even when he has to make a living he makes sure that what he's doing to make a living is consistent with his morals and his values as a jew he says so clearly as we continue um only when he is sure that a certain occupation is safe for his religious and secular interests will he engage in it um and he will not take up a profession that might in any way damage his religious life or lead to disobedience of the creator so as not to bring upon himself sickness instead of health remember that letter i don't remember which lesson it was one of the early lessons four or five maybe six but uh back when we were still in the in the doma when we're still in the uh the compiler's preface rubino bahaya's preface we had that letter from igris where somebody wrote to the rabbi and said he had a a job that was going to cause him to miss minion he needed to say kaddish he needed he wanted to know what to do remember that ever gave him this whole long answer about you know really you know the different had tatum the different dispensations for not doing it and then at the very end remember never said i don't know how you stand regarding but talking but if you haven't talking by the way this isn't really a question because for sure you'll be able to find a livelihood that will not present you a challenge as far as you described right so that's what i'm reminded of right here the person who has been talking is not going to do anything as a livelihood that would cause him to compromise his values just it's not even a dilemma how would it be possible that hashem would make me do something immoral in order to to receive the panaso that he wants to give me it's like it's an inherent contradiction it doesn't even make sense to the one who has trust in hashem however in contrast let's talk about in contrast he trusts in the means that he uses to make a living but and his mind is rested upon them meaning that's where his security comes from i mean that's where he feels his security comes from the hack and he cannot refrain from any of them the assassin and he will do both those that are admirable as well as reprehensible here we're saying we're not saying a guy who's specifically looking for a sleazy way of making a living and he wants to do reprehensible things no no if he can do something that's admirable and upright of course he would prefer that but if the only way to make a living in his eyes is is something reprehensible what can i do i have no choice i gotta eat right so he does the reprehensible thing he's not thinking about the end he's not thinking about his world to come kamehameha like the wise man shleiman malek said about this a wise person fears and avoids evil and the rest of the verse is but a fool becomes blusterous and overconfident and this is applying to people who rationalize doing something beneath their standards and principles because they think it's the only way to make a living fine so that that's what we're gonna do for tonight all right okay so we've covered five out of the seven uh tomorrow night we'll continue and we'll see you tomorrow night