WORRY less, EARN more

This this event itself is, uh, a bit of an exercise in bitachon. Because after such a, uh, busy Shabbos, actually, it's not just Shabbos Shabbos, which was, baruch Hashem, very fruitful and very busy, but since I arrived in London, we've been, uh, going from event to event for the past, uh, 3 days, 4 days. And this is the last event here before I head to the airport and head back to the States. And this point, you can hear my voice is a little bit, uh, a little bit hoarse. So, this is like This is the point where really physically, probably, I don't have anything left. I'm pretty much done. I was pretty much done once Shabbos finished. So, you're saying, "Well, what did I turn up for if I'm the guy who's telling me he's all done?" Like, "I should have come yesterday before he was all used up." But what I want to explain to you is I'm hearing my voice. You can really hear it. I'm going to continue to sip this hot coffee and hopefully it'll loosen up my, uh, my throat. But what I want to assure you is that since the success of anything really doesn't depend on our strength, but on Hashem's strength. So, probably even better that when I get to the point where I don't think I have anything particularly left of my own koach, that's probably actually the best time because it means I'm getting out of the way and we'll just let Hashem, uh, deliver whatever he wants to deliver through me and it'll be my zechus that hopefully something I say will be coherent. So, And that's I'm the way, I don't say this apologetically. I actually say this as a way of life that you know, sometimes it's actually good to put yourself into an unmanageable situation where it is clear that it's not it's that it's not possible that it's your own prowess and your own strength because your your resources are tapped out and then you can show up and be a vessel and let Hashem be the one who does the work and you just be the delivery system, which is the healthiest way, just to try to be a conduit. Usually ego gets in the way and we sort of we think that Hashem's doing part and we're doing part but when you come to a point where you've got nothing left, then you can't make any mistake and the ego can't even fool you to think that you're part of the success and then that's when you have the most success. It actually um reminds me of business advice that Moshe Reichmann gave at the end of his career, at the end of his life. So he he built himself up from nothing a Holocaust survivor, built himself from nothing to to billions and so they asked him what was the secret to his success and he said, "Well, the formula really was 5% seichel, 95% mazel." And they said, "And if you had to start from scratch, from the very beginning and do it all over again would you do anything different?" He said, "Yeah, the 5% seichel, I would switch in also for mazel." Meaning we think it's us, it's not us. It's Hashem. Moshe Reichmann called it mazel, you can call it bracha, you can call it shefa, you call it whatever you want to call it, but the point is we are just a delivery system. Okay, so how do we be a healthy delivery system to allow the brochos to enter our lives. Um let's talk a little bit about the perennial question that arises when we speak about bitachon in the context of parnassah, earning a living. The perennial question is always what is the proper balance between bitachon and hishtadlus? Bitachon meaning I rely on Hashem and hishtadlus meaning I got to do the work. So, how much do you do rely on Hashem and how much do you do I put in the work? So, maybe we could just prop the door open and it won't creak. That way people can go and get more food. This The food is outside by the way. So, if you haven't had a chance to partake of the lovely uh spread it's out there. Okay, we'll just leave it open. It's fine. Okay. So, Mhm? Tell them come over here? Maybe just leave it up. Let's leave it. Put Maybe put a chair there and just prop it open cuz it's it creaks every time people come in and out. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, there there there's a story that is uh Great. There's a story that's well known in uh Chabad circles story about the fifth Chabad Rebbe, the Rebbe Rashab. There was a businessman, a Jewish businessman back in Russia and he he was fairly well-to-do. And he made his living from manufacturing. Specifically, he had a factory where they made rubber boots, galoshes. And one Shabbos, he went to Lubavitch. He spent Shabbos by the Rebbe Rashab. And apparently, you know, like often is the case with the owner of the business even though it was Shabbos, he he had his mind on the business. Or he couldn't completely let go of thoughts about business. And when he came to the Rebbe Rashab, the Rebbe Rashab comment comment commented to him sort of to let him know that he he sensed the fact that this businessman had been preoccupied or at least in the back of his mind had been thinking harboring thoughts about business even during Shabbos. And as I mentioned, he had a galoshes factory. So the Rebbe Rashab says to this fellow, "This is very interesting. I've seen many times in my life somebody with his feet in his galoshes. It's my first time I'm meeting somebody with his head in his galoshes." So what what It's it's cute. It's a joke, but it's it's not just a cute joke. It's very deep. We know the concept of Yegia Kapayich Kiseichel Asher Lo Tayvoh Lach. That you will eat from the toil of your hands and it'll be good for you. You'll be happy. So what does it mean you'll eat from the toil of your hands? I mean, a very very literal reading of this verse means that basically, you should be a manual laborer. You'll eat from the toil of your hands. You'll literally make things with your hands. So, you know, go out and be a a carpenter, and that'll be good for you. So, you know, I don't know how many of us make our living that way, but especially in today's day and age when so many things are automated and technology and very few of us are actually in the trades, you know, a plumber, a carpenter, uh which are great jobs, by the way, pay very, very well, but most of us probably make a living not through our hands, but through our through our heads. We're thinking and we're answering questions and we're having to to deal with planning and and execution. You know, it's very cerebral. It's often very cerebral work. So, what does it mean that in order to really exercise bitachon properly, that it's supposed to be yegiya kapayich, it's supposed to be toil of your hands, as opposed to toil of of of your head? You You understand the question? Everyone understands what we're saying? Okay. So, First of all, I highly recommend anybody who hears anything today that peaks their interest and they would like to follow through with it, and maybe um make a a kvius setup and establish time for learning a subject that will help you to have more bitachon in the workplace, I would highly recommend the Maimer from Derech Mitzvosecha. Derech Mitzvosecha is a safer the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Chabad Rebbe. And specifically the maamar, if you wouldn't know that this is about bitachon and parnassah, you wouldn't know to look there because the name of the maamar is Tiglach l'Metzora, the shaving of the the leper. And you would never even think, "Oh, that's where it has that subject." But I'm letting you know that the source for a lot of these ideas is in that maamar, and I would I recommend that you would learn that maamar, Tiglach l'Metzora from Derech Mitzvosecha of the Tzemach Tzedek. So, the Tzemach Tzedek explains something like this. He says that when you want a bracha, when you want to receive a blessing from Hashem, you have to have a kli. A kli means a vessel. Cuz the bracha can come down, but you if you don't have anything to catch it, so it doesn't help. So, you have to have a a kli. Now, what is this kli? What is this vessel? The bracha is spiritual energy, but you want it to manifest down here on the physical plane. Correct, yeah? You want it to actually translate as something tangible. Show me the money, right? So, you don't just want the bracha to remain spiritual in in in in the higher worlds. You want it to to come down here. All right. So, if you want the bracha to come down here, you have to prepare something down here. And that means something physical, something tangible, something natural. By natural, I mean not a miracle. And that's the kli. The kli is the hishtadlus. The kli is creating some type of natural means through which the blessing can come down and be absorbed and express itself in in the physical plane. So, there has to be some degree of natural effort, non-miraculous effort. You can't just tell Hashem, "I want to wake up in the morning and go davening and when I come home after davening, I'm going to check my bank account and there should be $100,000 in there that I didn't even know where it's coming. It just should should just appear. I shouldn't have to have a business, no plan, no deal, no nothing. I I went to davening and come home, open up the bank account, mysteriously there's $100,000 there I didn't even know about." That's called a miracle. What we need to do is establish some type of a natural way, some type of a normal way where the bracha can reach the world. So, that's called the clee, that's called the vessel. So, you have to have some type of way of making a living, whether it's a job, gainful employment, or it's a or it's a business, or or deals that you're making, but there has to be some natural way to make to make the money. Or rather, there you don't make the money with the deal, but there has to be some natural way to explain how the money got to you. In other words, think about it like this. Since really everything that Hashem gives us is a miracle, but he doesn't want it to be a miracle, has to be natural. So, therefore, what's our job in our histadlus? To provide Hashem plausible deniability. We're just giving him an alibi. So, that if we should say, "Oh, it's all miraculous." which we know it really is miraculous, Hashem can always turn around and say, "What do you mean it's not miraculous? You see, you have a business, that's how you made the money." Now, we know that really that's just the excuse, that's the smoke screen to hide the miracle. But that's how Hashem likes to operate, plausible deniability. There should always be a narrative if somebody asks, or if you ask yourself, "How did this money appear here?" Well, what do you mean how did it appear? I have a business, I did I made an investment, or whatever. You see, there's a narrative that's coherent, that makes sense, that that could account for how this money got here. But the whole thing is plausible deniability. So, therefore, the Tzemach Tzedek explains, there's a natural limit to how much hishtadlus really is useful. There's a natural limit. Cuz a lot of times, it's like you're trying to you're trying to figure it out. Where's the balance? Where Where's the limit? How much? Okay, he says, it's a natural limit. And that is if what you're doing on a natural level is enough of an excuse or an explanation of how you made this money, then that's enough. In other words, he says, make a budget. A lot of people don't realize this. He says, figure out how much money you need. Or even how much money you want. Fine, no problem. You want to be rich, you can be rich. He says, figure out how much money you want to make. And now come up with a plan that is a rational plan. Meaning to say, you can't say, "I want to make a million dollars a year, and my plausible deniability, my plea for that is going to be, I'm going to stand at the freeway overpass and sell oranges." I don't know if they have an equivalent to that in England. In America, they have people standing at the freeway overpass selling oranges. You know, you pull up at the car and then you give them cash, you give them 10 bucks, and they give you a bag of oranges. Yeah, they have something like that in England? What? Oh, they just have a car. They don't even sell the oranges. Okay. Okay. You know about the guy who said, "You know, if I would be Rothschild, I'd be even richer than Rothschild." Yeah, why would you be richer than Rothschild? "Cuz I would also do a little tutoring on the side. Make a few extra bucks. Okay. So, if you want to make a million dollars a year, let's say that's what you want to make. Be my guest, the Tzemach Tzedek says, but you can't say that your plausible deniability, which you're providing Hashem, is that you're selling oranges at the freeway overpass. It's just not possible to make that amount of money barring a miracle. Yeah, it could happen miraculously. Somebody pulls up AND SAYS, "I'LL GIVE ANYBODY A MILLION DOLLARS FOR AN ORANGE right now." My kingdom for a horse. But, that's a miracle. That's not happen. So, the plausible deniability means figure out a way that if everything goes well, you could use this business or this investment or this job as your excuse so that Hashem can remain anonymous the way he wants to remain anonymous. So, if that's the case, then really the degree of hishtadlus has a natural limit to it. And once you reach that limit, you're not gaining anything anymore. The only purpose of the hishtadlus, the the effort, it was never to generate more money. The effort doesn't generate more money. It's the brachos, it's the blessings from Hashem which generates money. And the way that we receive those blessings is through spiritual things. It's by davening and learning, mitzvahs, giving tzedakah, especially giving tzedakah, and especially giving tzedakah before the money came in. So, all of the spiritual things we do, that's how we elicit the flow of bracha. But, if we need a clee, we need a vessel to hold on to the bracha, okay. So, he's telling us and that means some coherent narrative that explains where this money came from. If that's the case, then once you have something like that in place, you have a business which theoretically, plausibly could make the amount of money that you're trying to make. So, then fine. So, then leave it alone. But, it's not making that much yet. So, that maybe I need to come up with a new hop. I need to come up with a new innovation. I have to think. I have to plan. That's not where you're going to increase your income from. So, the Tzemach Tzedek explains. He says, "Kaylim means vessels, but also kaylim in uh in rabbinic idiom, kaylim also means clothing. Clothing are called kaylim. I guess cuz like a container for your body. So, he uses like uh sort of like uh a metaphor or even you might even call it a pun where he says, "Imagine a person is wearing a suit. Kaylim. The suit is called kaylim. And um he says, "You know, I really like this suit. So, you know what I should do? I should make it bigger. I'll go to the tailor and I'll tell the tailor, you know, give me the quadruple extra large. You know, increase it so that there's extra there's extra fabric so that it'll be even an even better suit." The Tzemach Tzedek says, "Obviously that that's not an intelligent thing to do because it it exceeds its functionality and it doesn't make it a better suit. It actually Not only it doesn't make it a better suit, it could cause it could cause damage cuz now you have clothing that's too big for you and you start tripping on your robes. So he says that's exactly the idea of what he calls um his chakmus yeseda. That means putting your head in your galoshes. Thinking way too much, plotting, scheming. And by scheming by the way, I don't mean Hashem Shalom planning and doing anything wrong or unethical. Even if it's totally kosher stuff, but it's just way too much mental energy. He calls that excessive kaylum. Overflowing robes that you're going to trip on. So not only do you not gain from it, but you lose. You lose. You end up interfering with the ability to receive the bracha. And that's what it means yegia kapayim. Yegia kapayim as opposed to yegia of the moach or of the lev, working your mind and your heart. It doesn't mean that you have to be a manual laborer. It doesn't mean you have to work in the trades. It means you could use your mind to work. I mean that's the way many of us work today is that you sit behind a computer screen and you read an email and you think about how to answer it and you send it and then somehow, you know, money appears in the account at the end of the day. But even when you're using your mind, you're using your mind to execute the basic tasks of the job. You're not using your mind to stay awake at night and to try to come up with new ideas and innovations and overthinking how you're going to create the plausible deniability for Hashem so that the miraculous bracha could reach you in a way that you could always say is natural. In other words, once you have a system in place that can be the vessel for receiving the bracha, you don't have to think anymore about it. It's fine. Leave it alone. Show up, do your job, and if you conduct yourself the way that you need to conduct yourself, then whatever vessel you have is sufficient to to absorb the the brochos. Okay. Now, I want to talk about something that will help us also fine-tune the hishtadlus, which I think is not spoken about very often, and actually I find counterintuitive, or at at least I initially found it counterintuitive. So, I want to share this with you. When we're talking about hishtadlus, we're talking about the kayli, we're talking about creating the deniable plausible plausible deniability, the natural means to receive the the the blessings. The question's like this. Based on what I just explained, then in theory, it absolutely does not matter what vessel you choose. Because if the vessel is just plausible deniability for Hashem, so what does it matter? I'll I'll I'll invest in stocks, I'll do some real estate, I'll you know, well I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll have a store, I'll sell stuff. What difference does it make? So, in theory, if the whole concept of having some type of job or some type of investment or some type of business is just to provide plausible deniability for Hashem, then in theory, it doesn't matter what you choose. Just do anything. Who cares? That's what your wife tells you, right? Who cares? Just go, get a job, doesn't matter. Okay. So, this is what I want to share with you, which when I first learned it, it it was it was surprising to me. And that is in Shaar Habitachon, Rabbeinu Bachya gives a martial of the animal kingdom. He says, "Look at the animal kingdom, and you'll see the different creatures are built for different types of functioning." He says, "Like, there's this bird, I think it's a stork or a crane, it's built its anatomy is designed in such a way it's obvious that it is good at swooping in and grabbing fish. So, how should it get its parnassah? Obviously, it should swoop down and grab fish. That's it. It's got it's got big wings and it's got a big beak. Like, that's what it's built for. And then you have an animal like a like a lion, which clearly it's it's it's fast, it's strong, it has these powerful claws and sharp teeth. So, how should it make its parnassah? It should go catch fish and swoop in in the lake and grab fish. No, clearly it's built for going and jumping on a zebra. That's what it's built for. And so on and so forth. So, the Shaar Habitachon says something, like I said, it to me it was surprising. He says, "A person should look at what he is suited for." Shaar Habitachon says this, and at first to me it struck me as so like antithetical to the idea of bitachon. Bitachon means the the parnassah is from Hashem, so what does it matter? It's just all brachas and we're just there to receive it. But he actually says, "No, it does matter." Why? Because if you have a certain if you're built a certain way. He says, "Some people are are meant for for for labor. Some people are meant for for things that are more cerebral. Um, some people are able to work these types of hours, some people work those types of hours, some people are good at this skill or that skill. He says that Hashem made you that way. And if Hashem made you that way, then part of the bitachon is actually going with that flow and taking it as a sign from Hashem that that's what you should be doing. So, I don't think this is spoken about very often. But you are supposed to be aware of your natural tendencies and your skills and play that up. Hashem made you who you are for a reason. So, everybody has things that they're good at. Everybody does. And if you can figure out how to use that thing to make a living, that's actually the most spiritually healthy way to go about it. Is it surprising to you a little bit? Cuz you would Yeah? Little bit cuz you would think if you really have bitachon, you shouldn't care what what way you make your living. But he says, "No, you should care and should do something that you're suited for and that you like and that's natural to you and that plays upon your strengths." So, you actually are allowed to say, which again surprising to me, you're allowed to say not only you're allowed to say, you should say, "No, I don't want that way of making a living. I'm not suited for that. That's not my thing. Let me do something that I'm more predisposed to." And that actually is a bitachon approach. The lack of bitachon is Hashem Shalom where the lack of bitachon comes in is once you start doing that thing that you're good at, so then you start thinking that you have to use the hishtakhlus you say that you have to start overthinking and coming up with new plans and new schemes and plots when the reality is, look, figure out what you're good at, figure out how to monetize it, figure out how to scale it so that theoretically that thing can make the amount of money that you figured out that you need to make, and just go do that. And don't worry about the rest. You following? Everyone's Is this Is this it clear? We'll do a little Q&A make sure that everything made sense, but I just want to check in with you this so far makes sense what I'm saying. Yeah? Okay. Now, I want to talk about another aspect of this which I kind of just alluded to a moment ago, which is scalability. So, I said, you find the thing that you're suited for, go set it up, and go do it, and don't stress about it anymore. Don't overthink it. Just do it. Show up for it. Provided that whatever it is, remember I told you some dude says make a budget, figure out how much you need to make, provided that what you've set up it makes sense that that whatever you have set up in place could make that amount of money. Like, for instance, I mean I mean I made a joke when I'm talking about a guy selling oranges by the the freeway overpass, but let's say you you earn a salary. You're paid by somebody else. And you say that you want to make a million dollars a year. I mean, unless you're like a CEO, then I don't see really you're going to make a million dollars salary a year. Okay, so and that's fine, and you may decide you don't need to make a million dollars a year, but if you have a certain amount that you feel that this is what you would like to make, then the claim that's put in place has to be something that could make that amount. Okay. So, this brings us to the whole question of scale. Scale means, okay, I'm doing it at this level. It's making $100,000 a year, but I would like to make a million dollars a year. So, you got to scale it up. Okay, so how do we scale it up? So, here's the thing. I want to just make sure that you understand, first of all, that what I'm talking to you right now, yes, everything I'm saying is based on my understanding of the holy texts. So, I'm not making this up. It's not just me telling you my uh my clever thoughts. This is all grounded in in in Torah and Chassidus. But, I also do think at the same time, I just want to like qualify myself for whatever it's worth, cuz it may help you to actually believe me, that I have my own at least my own version of personal experience in this in this realm. Okay? I'm not in business. I've never been in business. Um but, I've dealt with money. I've dealt with increasingly larger amounts of money. Uh everyone knows, by the way, that there's a charity campaign for Bais Rivkah going on literally right now. Yes? Yes? Okay? And everybody gave already? Okay? Uh and you know, in Chicago, where I grew up, we're known for you know, corrupt politics. So, the joke is vote early, vote often. So. So, I just want to say, if you gave already to the Bais Rivkah charity campaign, give again. You can give again and give again. Okay. I'm mentioning this because I I'm involved in fundraising. Yeah, I'm not in business. It's a It's It's It is a different world, business and nonprofit, but as far as what I'm about to talk to you about about scalability, I think I do have experience. Okay? I've gone from having a budget which was basically just my personal salary that I needed plus a little bit extra expenses to uh to keep a small operation running. I've gone from that to within less than 10 years um having a budget of about $600,000 a year and having payroll to meet and expenses um that I have monthly expenses that I have to meet where other people's salaries are dependent on me. And in the past 2 years alone, I've raised I've raised I've other uh revenue streams for the nonprofit, but I've fundraised in the past 2 years over a million dollars. And I've just bought a property which uh was a big deal for me. I'm just saying in addition to my personal home, I bought a property for for the organization. And so I I do know a little bit about scalability. Relatively speaking for a little guy like me. So I know what it means to have to double and triple and quadruple and I haven't yet 10x my original uh what I was doing, but uh you know, God willing. So in 10x and 100x and 1,000x, there's no really there's no limit because Hashem is the one who's providing. So you know, we scalability has no limit. Okay. But I want to talk about scale. So you have the thing set in place that you're suited for. It's and makes sense that this is what you should be doing. Don't do something that's not really doesn't play to your strengths. So you have that thing set up. It makes sense that you should be the one doing it. Um and now you have to figure out, okay, how can this, on a natural level, without any miracles, account for the amount of money that I say I'm trying to make? So, that's where scale comes in. It means I have a I have a model here, but that model really only could explain how $100,000 a year is showing up in my bank. It doesn't It would not sufficiently explain how a million dollars is showing up in my bank. So, how do I get this this whatever I have in place, how do I get that from being a plausible deniability for us I'm putting 100,000 in my bank to putting a million in my bank? And the answer is scale. That whatever it is that you're doing, do it more. But, I want to explain something. When I say do it more, I do not mean think about it more. To the contrary, think about it less. You got something going, do it more. His chakras you say to means you have something good, but it's not enough. So, now, even though you have something that's working, you're staying up all night trying to think about the next big thing. What's the next big thing? Who Who are you going to chase? And what's the next opportunity? And you're spending all that time, that precious time in that giving away that precious head space that really should be spent for davening and for learning, and you're thinking about the tachbulas and how you how you're going to make the next big deal. It's not appropriate. What is appropriate is scale. So, if you can do it to this level, double it. Do it to the Do it Do it Do twice as much. Now, in order to do twice as much, it's going to you're going to you're going to have to undertake a certain amount of risk. Cuz the more you're trying to make, the more investment there is in that risk. You know, sometimes it's actual literal investment, so you're laying out money. But, even if it's something where it's buying and selling, so you have to take on new employees. That's risk. Now I have another salary to pay. Or maybe you need to get a new property. Cuz you maybe you're manufacturing. You need a need a new factory and you got to rent that or you got to rent machines. Anytime you want to scale, there's risk because you got to put money in in order to get more money out. Scalability really should be the easiest thing. And that's why there's a funny phenomenon which if you'll think about it, you may observe that it tends to be true, not always, but people who you would least suspect to really go to big numbers and you're like, "How did that That guy is not brilliant. How's he doing such big numbers?" That's precisely how he's doing such big numbers. Because scalability is about keeping it simple and not getting thrown off your game just because you've added a zero. So in a certain way, the more simple you are, the less of a genius you are, the easier it's going to be. There's an incredible marrow in the Gamorah in Bava Metzia. The Gamorah in Bava Metzia says um that if a person finds I'll just give you the background. If a person finds two lost objects at the same time and one is his and one is somebody else's and he can only take one of the other, so whose lost object should he recover? So the Gamorah says he should recover his own. And he should let the other guy's lost object go unclaimed. Why should he do this? What's the What's the the basis for this? It's a possuk cuz the Torah says "Efes ki lo yiheye ba'acha evyon." There should not be among you, meaning among the Jewish people, a pauper. So, if there should not be among you a pauper, what does that mean? It means you should prevent a Jew from becoming poor. Who's the first easiest Jew for you to prevent from becoming poor? Yourself. So, you have only the ability to rescue one object or the other. So, "Efes ki lo yiheye ba'acha evyon" means make sure you don't go broke by doing mitzvahs and not recovering your own lost object. But, then the Gemara continues and says, "By the way, there's a disclaimer here. There's a caveat." Like everything, you know, it's true, but then you got to read the fine print. And it says, "Kol hamkayem ba'atzmo kakh." Anybody who does this, and by does this it means somebody who like makes a habit of it, of always looking out for himself first, in the end it says, he's going to actually become the evyon. So, he was trying to prevent himself from becoming the pauper, but through this practice of trying to prevent himself from becoming the evyon, from becoming the pauper, ironically, he's going to become the evyon. He's going to become the pauper. So, how Why What's the explanation? So, the Maggid of Mezeritch says like this. He says, imagine a person who's who's walking across a river on a plank. He puts like a board from one bank of the river to the other. And he has to walk on this thin board across this river. So, he may fall in because you know, it's just this little thin board that's crossing this river. But if I'll take the same board, same exact board, and put it on the ground, and you tell him walk on it, walk along the board on the ground, he'll do it just fine. He's not going to fall. He's not going to falter. He's not going to trip. He'll just walk across it, no problem. So, the Talmud says, it's all about your mental state. That when you're afraid of falling, you fall. Cuz if you're going across the river, the stakes of falling are are concerning. So, you're thinking about it, and if you're thinking about, "Oh, I don't want to fall." Then you do fall. You put the same plank on the ground, and there's really no stakes. There's nothing really what if you fall? So, big big deal. And once falling is really no big deal, then you don't fall. So, this is what he explains. He says, Taki de Gamorah says, at first, don't allow yourself to become impoverished. Recover your lost object. But then the Gamorah says, "But if you're always making sure to prevent yourself from becoming poor, you will become impoverished." He says, "Why is that?" He says, "Because somebody who's constantly trying to prevent himself from becoming poor, means that he's living in a state of fear. And the fear itself will bring the poverty. So, it's ironic. Like, I guess if he does it once or twice, that it's okay. But if it becomes a habit because he's always insecure that he could become the poor one. So, then ironically, all of his efforts to prevent himself from becoming poor are actually a manifestation of fear, which will then bring on the very thing that he's trying to avoid. Just like the person walking across the board, that when it's on the ground, he has no problem walking across it. When it's across the river, all of a sudden he starts falling because the fear causes the falling. So, what what What do we understand from this? What we understand from this is that when you're doing something that doesn't feel like it's a big deal if you fail at it you'll actually succeed. And when you're doing something that feels like if I mess this up it could wipe me out. You know what it'll do to me? You know how much it'll set me back if this doesn't work? If that's the attitude it actually increases the chances, God forbid, that that negative outcome is exactly what's going to transpire. So bitachon on a on a psychological level means that I'm able to do things that have high stakes but I'm not afraid because I know Hashem is the one who's running the show and therefore there's no there's no fear of falling. And once there's no fear, then things can go smoothly. Now think about it like this. Let's say that you walk across the board across the river and you don't fear. You say, "You know what? This is silly. It's the same board whether it's on the ground or whether it's across the river." And you walk across the river. Hooray, it works. I know how to do this. I can do this. And now there's no more fear. And now you actually you're pretty proficient at it and you could successfully do this. In other words, what I mean in the nimshal is there was a deal that you were afraid to do because the stakes were high. You were afraid of the risks. But then you had the bitachon in Hashem and you went and you did it without fear and it worked. You were like, "Oh, there's nothing to fear." And once there's nothing to fear, then you're able to do it again and again and again with success. But the problem is what happens when you have to scale it up? And they say, "No, hold on a second. You're going to walk across the river again?" "Oh, I can do that. I can walk across" "No, no, no. We're going to take the board and we're going to lift it up." And now you're walking 10 m off the ground. Oh, now this is scary again. This is scary. And what happens? Then you because you're afraid of the risk of falling, you actually increase the probability of falling. So, scale is key if you really want to hit the numbers that you want to hit. But the method for hitting those high numbers, for adding those zeros, is to make sure that you don't become intimidated by those numbers. So, and this is something that I've practiced in my own like I told you in my own uh capacity uh fundraising. And it's also something I advised people who in the business world who are dealing with with uh large numbers. My advice is always like this. You are doing something you're suited for. Like the stork is catching fish and not trying to jump on zebras. And the lion isn't catching fish, the lion is catching zebras, right? So, you've chosen something you're good at. Whatever it is. This you're suited for this. Don't be Don't be intimidated. Just do it on a bigger scale. I Doing it on a bigger scale means there's bigger risk, there's bigger investment, there's the higher stakes. Who cares? We rely on Hashem. This thing works at this level, let it work at this level. It's the same principle. And I've seen this repeatedly as the formula for success. Partially, I think why it's so effective is because it does prevent a lot of his Hakmas Yisrael. Because instead of trying to reinvent yourself and come up with something radically new and different and the next big thing that nobody thought of yet, don't be so don't be so creative. Do the thing that everybody thought of. Everybody knows it. You know why? Cuz you're already doing it. And now just scale it. Just do more. So it prevents these Hakmas Yisrael. It prevents the overthinking. Which itself makes sure that you don't have the the oversized robes that you're going to end up tripping on. But but another reason why I think that it's uh such a life hack is because it respects the fact that there is a certain sanctity in your line of work. Having bitachon doesn't mean having disdain for your line of work. And and and and looking at it as this necessary evil. Like, oh, if only I could just sit and learn all day, but never I have to go to this workplace. It's not the proper attitude. I know sometimes people assume that attitude because they think it's holy. It's not a holy attitude. Because what it really means if you say that is that the whole time that you're at the workplace, you're admitting that it's not holy. And then how do you think you're going to behave over there? And what do you think is going to be on your mind over there? So instead of saying well, really I should be learning all day, but never I have to go work. All right, well, but but that the reality is you're not learning all day. You are working. So, instead of looking at it as a necessary evil or as a as a departure from your from your connection to Hashem, there's a different way to look at it. This itself is my connection to Hashem. Hashem gave me a certain skill set. He gave me certain opportunities, maybe certain relationships. Whatever it is, it's all practice. Hashem set it up. And now by using that to make an honest living, I'm actually respecting the fact that Hashem made me a certain way and put me in certain situations and gave me certain opportunities. I'm respecting the fact that I was built for something. I'm suited for something. And now I'm using that as my vessel to receive a parnassah. So, actually, when you look at what you're already doing, and you just scale it, you just add the zero, and then add another zero, what you're actually doing is you're affirming the fact that when you're going out and making a living, you are expressing a gift or you are manifesting a gift that Hashem has given you. There's nothing shameful about figuring out what Hashem made you good at and monetizing it. Not only is it not shameful, it's it's holy. If Hashem didn't want you to go out and monetize your talents, he would have kept your soul in heaven, and you could have just been basking in in rays of of holiness, and you don't have to worry about a thing. Then in the midst of you're getting sustained from from godly light. You don't have to go down there and make money and have to be involved in the whole thing. But the fact that you came down here, and you were born at this time and this place, and this family, with these opportunities, these challenges, these strengths, these weaknesses, this personality, whatever it is that you were given, and within that, you work with that, and you figure out, how does one make a living with this? That actually is a way of honoring Hashem and showing Hashem that you respect the fact that he knows what he's doing when he gave you the life that he gave you. Now, I just want to talk about one more uh topic here, which is fear that doing things the right way, meaning the Torah way, is uh is a handicap. Meaning, if I didn't have the restrictions that Torah places on me, maybe I could I could do better. So, obviously, I mean, when I say that, you understand that that's wrong-headed thinking. Because if you understand that all of our parnassah comes from Hashem, so how could violating Hashem's will cause Hashem to give me more bracha? And I you're going to say, but I see people who violate Hashem's will, and they've got plenty of bracha. And uh I'll reiterate something that I said at on Shabbos, Shabbos morning we were learning a ma'amar, and it was talking about how bracha, how how blessings enter our lives. And somebody asked a question, well, you see people who they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, and it seems like they have a lot of blessing. And uh so, those who weren't here learning the ma'amar on Shabbos morning, so I'll repeat what I said, which is that having the money isn't necessarily having a blessing. A blessing means that not just something's in your life, but you're able to internalize it. You know, think about like a glass of water. If you're thirsty, so you need to take the glass of water and sip from it, so it goes into your throat and it fills your cells. And that's how you get the water. But if you don't put the water in your mouth, if you put the water you pour it on your head. So even if you have a whole bucket of water, it doesn't help. Even if you have a whole fire hose of water, and you're being squirted with with gallons and gallons and gallons of water and it's all going on around you, it's hitting you, but it's not there's not one drop going in your mouth, so that's not called having water. So there are people who have a lot of money around them, but it's not integrated within them. What What does it mean it's not integrated within them? It means it's not actually being spent on anything that benefits them, that enriches their lives or the or their families' lives. The money is like sort of like this fire hose of water that's just all around you, so there are the affectations of wealth, you're surrounded by things, but it's not in an internalized way where it's nurturing you and bringing you greater peace of mind. And In fact, it could be bringing the exact opposite, bringing more worry and more anxiety. So that that's just one thing to understand about having a lot of money in your life doesn't necessarily mean that you've integrated it and it's become something that you're you're at peace with. It doesn't mean that it's actually improving your life, it could mean even the opposite. But let's talk about the idea, okay, fine, no problem. I get this concept that not everybody who has a lot of money is it necessarily a brocha for them to have that money. But at the by the same token not having the money is don't tell me that that's the brocha. I don't I don't have it. I can understand someone does have it, it's not a brocha for him, but don't tell me not having it is a brocha for me. I I need the money. And I'm looking at this guy, he doesn't play by the rules, and he has the money, and I'm playing by the rules, I don't have the money. Okay. So I'll tell you a story. The story is like this. There was a guy who an Israeli guy who grew up completely irreligious. Um but he had one thing that he kept for some reason. I don't know why this was his thing. But he never ate pork. I mean, he would he didn't keep kosher at all, but he never ate pork. And he was on a business trip to China. And he he accidentally ate pork and he found out about it later. And he was very upset about this. So this Israeli Jew, his name is Reb Ammi. He spoke to somebody about it, and they told him to write to the Rebbe. So he wrote to the Rebbe and he said, "What should I do? I ate pork." And the Rebbe gave him some type type of a tikkun, and that's how they established contact. So later on he um he starts to become more interested in Yiddishkeit. I told you he was completely unobservant, non-observant. He had a retail store in Los Angeles, in downtown LA. Downtown LA has been developed a lot since this story happened in the '80s. But, uh if you know if you know LA, downtown LA was a interesting neighborhood. He had a sporting goods store. Basically, he was selling like sporting clothes, you know, like tracksuits and stuff to uh you know, very like urban type of clientele. And basically, uh 99% of his business was on Saturday. People come in and they would buy their, you know, their sweatsuits and that's that was his business. So, he decided that he wants to start keeping Shabbos, which was a very new thing for him. It was a big jump. But, he understood that if he's going to keep Shabbos, he would close on on on Saturday. That's 99% of his business. So, there's really no way that he's going to be able to to stay in business if he makes this if he makes this commitment. But, at some point, it was just nagging at him so much. He says, "You know what? I got to do it either way. I got to one way or another, I got to do it." The only problem he had, he was ready to to go under. The only problem he had was that he had a 20-year lease on the on the store, which was like a a corner property and a on a like a prominent intersection in downtown LA. So, he had leased out this very large retail space. And he had a 20-year lease on it. In fact, when he signed the 20-year lease, the landlord said to him, "Do you know what you're getting into? Like, don't take a 20-year lease unless you want a 20-year lease." Obviously, it was a better deal. The 20-year lease was a better rate than, you know, shorter lease, but the the landlord told him, "Do not sign this 20-year lease unless you really mean it because I promise you, I'm not one to joke around. If you ever think of breaking this lease, I will chase you for the rest of the of your life and make sure that you are wiped out. And the guy, you know, was a tough guy. He meant it. So, Reb Ammi is sitting there with this dilemma. I'm going to start keeping Shabbos. That's 99% of my retail business is Shabbos. I'm going to go under. Okay, fine. So, I'll go under. But, I have 20 years of a lease. I got to pay for this huge property with with this with this with this enormous rent. So, he said he went around trying to find people who wanted to buy the lease. Nobody wanted it. Nobody would take it over. He even told them, you know, I'll continue to even pay part of it. Take part of my lease. You know, take pay pay a portion of it and I'll subsidize it just so he can try to mitigate his loss. Nobody wanted it. The people say, I we don't need this type of, you know, this retail property in this corner of this intersection. So, he finally got to a point where he says, you know, I'm going to write to the Rebbe. I'm making making the decision. I'm writing to the Rebbe. It's very interesting what he wrote to the Rebbe. He wrote to the Rebbe, I'm making a decision I'm keeping Shabbos. Store's going to be closed on Shabbos. I'm asking the Rebbe a brocha I shouldn't get hurt. That's what he wrote. I shouldn't get hurt. So, he wrote to the Rebbe. The Rebbe wrote him back. Very interesting. The Rebbe gave him a $10 bill, a $5 bill, a $2 bill, and a $1 bill. Total 18. And the Rebbe told him, "Close at shkiah, at sundown. This will be a brocha and you should give tzedakah." Now, something he didn't tell the Rebbe, which was that when he made the commitment he's going to close on Saturdays, he only made a commitment to close on Saturdays. He was not yet thinking about Friday night. So, if it would be the wintertime and Shabbos comes in at 4:00, but business hours are until 7:00, so Friday night he would have stayed open. It was just Saturdays he was going to be closed. So, it was interesting that the Rebbi wrote him back and said, "Closing at shkiah, at sundown, will be a bracha." So, then he understood not only he has to be closed on Saturday, he has to be closed on Friday also, Friday night. But the Rebbi told him it's going to be a bracha. So, after he gets the Rebbi's letter, he marches down to the the landlord's office. He gets himself all pumped up. And um he marches down there and he's ready to give his speech. "I'm a Jew. I have to keep Shabbos. There's nothing I can do about it. This is So, it has to happen." And he's all ready. He's rehearsed his speech and he goes down to the landlord's office. He tells the secretary, "I need to see Mr. So-and-so. I have to tell him something very important." And she says, "He's not here." So, you know, a little anticlimactic. He's not here. All right, so he got himself all worked up and for nothing. So, he goes back to his store. Gets back to his store and somebody comes in and says, "Who Who's the Who runs this place?" He says, "Me." He says, "How How can I rent this place?" He says, "What, you want to rent this?" He says, "Yeah, I I want to rent this property." Wow, it's the answer to his dreams. Yeah, he says, "Well, great. Go talk to the landlord. The landlord will rent it to you. Yeah." He says, "No, no, no. I I I I was by the landlord already and he told me that I have to speak to you. He says, 'You're holding a 20-year lease.'" So, uh so Ami says, "Yeah, I am holding a 20-year lease." So, the guy says, "Well, then tell me, how much do I have to pay you to break it?" So, now he's really his head is just flying because not only a guy shows up out of nowhere, nobody wanted this lease. And now this guy is coming to him saying he wants the lease, which Ami would have paid somebody to take over the lease. And now the guy is saying, "How much do I have to pay you?" So, he didn't even know a number to say. He said he just He just stood there dumbfounded. Which happened to work in his favor. If you know the first rules of negotiation, is don't be the first one to say a number, right? So, the guy says, "Will such and such" I don't know the number cuz Ami never publicly said the number. I actually met him at the oil and hadn't heard He told this story on gem, my encounter, and then I saw him at the oil and actually he told me the story. He doesn't say the number, but he says the guy says, "Will such and such be enough?" And he said the amount the guy was paying him just to walk away from a building that he was going to walk away from anyway. He said, "I won't say the number, but the amount of that check was enough that I was able to then buy a factory and to go into manufacturing, set my own hours, be closed Shabbos, be closed Yom Tov. And even after I had the factory, which gave me parnossa for many years, I had enough to also buy a house." So, I tell you the story first of all cuz it's a great story. Second of all, like I said, I met the guy at the oil and I heard it from him uh from his own mouth. When we do what Hashem wants us to do, that's when miracles can happen. When we're putting together our cle, there has to be plausible deniability. It has to make sense in a natural way that that could work, that could bring in that amount of money. But when it comes to following Hashem's rules, for that, if Hashem has to make a miracle, he'll also make a miracle. Why? Because that's his business. He's the one who told you that this is how you have to do business, and now you're you're you're following his rules, he'll have to figure out a way. He'll have to figure out a way to make it work. You're putting it back in his court. So, it's never a liability to follow Hashem's rules. It's an asset because what it essentially means is as much as it was always up to Hashem all along, now it's really up to him because it's on you, Hashem. I I I I I I I I I I I I I'm doing this cuz this is what you're telling me to do. You have to You have to find a way that this should work for me. But never ever think, and I've heard people speak this way, that there's something noble or holy in saying, "I'm going to do what Hashem wants, and it's okay. I'll take the hit. I'll suffer because I I at least I did the right thing." That's not the proper way to think about it. The proper way to think about it is like this. Not that there's a trade-off that by doing what Hashem wants, now I'm going to have less success in the material world. You only think about it that way if you don't realize that your success in the material world is Hashem's success. Anytime Hashem gives parnossa to a Yid who keeps Torah, that's a kiddush Hashem. So, you think you want the money? Hashem wants you to have the money more than you want to have the money. So, if you realize that, then you don't have to feel like, "Well, there's a trade-off. I'll keep I'll keep what Hashem wants me to keep, whether it's Shabbos or it's choshen mishpat or whatever it might be, and and I'll I'll somehow suffer for it." You don't suffer for it. What happens is that doing Hashem's will opens up the tzinor. It opens up the pipeline so that the bracha's can flow. So, doing things the kosher way is not a trade-off. It actually is an asset that will allow more miraculous bracha's into your into your into your life. Okay. So, I think what we'll do here do a little Q&A. And uh Yeah, okay. So, what what do people want to talk about? Mhm. In the back. Yes. See, what what are you asking? Giving tzedakah when you don't yet have the money? And when you have it, both. Right. Yeah. Give tzedakah? Yeah, there's a charity campaign right now. Charity with a D, e.com/base with an E, Gavriel. Um that's right. And you can Which page should we use? You don't care which page. Just give. Just give. Yeah. So, the question you're asking is is it legitimate if you want a lot of money, but it's not necessarily for holy purposes? So, not for prohibited purposes, but not specifically for holy purposes. Well, yes, but I think it's important to define what holy purposes means. Um holy purposes doesn't only mean that you're going to buy a more expensive asset. Like I mean, I need a million dollars so I can buy a more Muhuda asset. Well, that doesn't account for the million. Okay. Yeah, he wants to buy a Rolls-Royce. Okay. So, I remember a guy came up to me once and he asked me about buying a certain car. And I don't remember And the guy could afford it. He He had plenty of money. And he asked me, "Is it okay to buy" and I forget which car. It wasn't a Rolls-Royce, but it was some other luxury car. He says, "Is it okay to buy such and such?" And I said, "Really, you know, it depends on why do you want it?" So, he says, "Because it's cool." I said, "Well, I respect your honesty, but the answer is you probably shouldn't buy it." And he looked like disappointed. He didn't He didn't like my answer. And I said to him, "By the way, you realize there probably a hundred answers you could have told me about why you want to buy that luxury car, and I would have told you you you probably should buy it. He says, "Oh, yeah? What are one of those answers?" I want There are legitimate reasons why a person may want a luxury car. There are legitimate reasons. But you have to redefine the whole way you look at life. You know, the the There's a story once um the Rebbe was speaking at a farbrengen about one of his chassidim was on a radio show, and it was a call-in show, and somebody asked the question, "Why does Torah have prohibitions about things that are totally your personal business? Like I understand things that are about social justice, because that affects others. But Torah has laws about like Shabbos, like who does that hurt? You walk into your own house, and you you throw a twig into the oven, who does that affect? And that some of these things, there's even harsh punishments for violation of it." So they asked this guy, "Well, how could it be there's these harsh punishments?" They actually they asked about the death penalty. How could there be the death penalty for things that doesn't even harm anybody else? It's just something private between you and God. So the Rebbe said that the the chassid answered, "Well, the truth is, they rarely carried out the death penalty." That's how he answered it. Once in 7 years, once in 70 years, different opinions in the Gemara. So the Rebbe actually said, "He could have answered so much better. Like instead of saying, 'Well, you're right, but they didn't do it that often.' He could have said a much better answer." And the Rebbe said he could have based it on current events. That week there'd been a um, a launch. It was actually, um, I think it was a Soviet rocket, but it was like a manned space launch. And it was during the space race, you know, during that era. So, the Rebbe said, "Everybody's thinking about astronauts. And since I'm the forefront of people's minds, this this this rabbi could have answered like this. A guy is trained by his government to be able to go on a a flight into space. And he clearly he works for the government, he has his job, he has his mission, and he's going on a mission. Now, let's say he has a break, he has a couple minutes to himself, and he's up there in the in the space capsule, and he says, "Oh, I got a couple minutes break." Now, this is back in the '60s, so this is more normal back then. And he says, "Oh, I want to take a cigarette break." And he lights up a cigarette there in the in the space capsule. So, why not? He wasn't taking a break. It's his 2 minutes, let him do it. So, the Rebbe said, "Everybody will understand that you can't light up a cigarette in a space capsule. You're going to jeopardize the safety of everyone, you're going to waste all of the resources that were put into this mission. Not allowed to do that." And everyone will understand that. So, the Rebbe said, "The same thing with life itself. That there's no such thing as, 'Oh, I'm on my own time now. This is my personal business. What does anybody care what I do? It's just just me, it's just private.' There's no such thing. You're you were sent here on a mission, and therefore, everything affects the mission. Everything affects the mission. Now, you can take this concept to explain why Torah cares about how you spend your personal time, and you could understand a little bit more why we have certain restrictions. And that's one way of understanding the story, which is surely correct. But I also want to point out that this you can extrapolate from this story or from this explanation of this story that it also explains to us the sanctity of what we consider to be our mundane lives. That if you are on a mission and you understand that everything you do in this life is a mission. Now all of a sudden everything is a business expense, isn't it? And who are you working for? You're working for Hashem. So if you truly see your life, all of your life, not just when you come to shul and daven. Not just when you come to a shear and you learn, but you see your entire life as service of Hashem. Now everything's a business expense, which he has to pay for. So there are plenty of reasons you could tell me why in order to do your job here in the world that your soul was sent to a body to do, that you could do that job better with a Rolls-Royce. I personally don't need one. But I could see why some people might and maybe you're one of the people who could make use of a Rolls-Royce. And if there is a legitimate way that you could make use of it in order to do your job better then don't be ashamed of it. Think factor it into the budget and and make it make your list. This is what this is how much money you have to net this year. And then go look at your at your cle and make sure that that cle provides plausible deniability to have enough money to procure the things that that need to be in your life in order to do your job. It's not selfish. It's not indulgent. It's about being a good employee. If you needed a faster computer at work and you have to ask the boss, could you replace my computer? Is that being selfish or is that being a good employee? So, anything you can do to uh especially, by the way, to invest in yourself to save time because time is so precious. Anything you can do Actually, I heard a great thought from uh I think it was Mark Cuban who said that, you know, he's got tons of money. He could buy whatever he wants. So, he says, "When I'm spending money though, you know, it has to have value to me." So, he says, "What do I spend it on?" He says, "I spend it on a private jet." Why do I spend it on a private jet? Because that could seem very indulgent. Private jet, you got to fly private. He says, "No, I fly private because it's time. You don't have to deal with airports. You don't have to wait. You do it on your schedule. You need to go 3:00 in the morning, you go 3:00 in the morning." So, he says, "If it frees up my time and I have the money for it, it's totally worth the expense." So, anything that streamlines your day, anything that will make your life more efficient or your families' lives more efficient is is a very justifiable expense. So, I don't know if the Rolls-Royce is necessary if you'll be able to like shave 5 minutes off of carpool time in the morning by having a Rolls-Royce or not. But, if in theory, that's what it would have it would allow you to do, so then, you know, you could dive into the extra 5 minutes chakras before you have to go home and get the kids because now carpool takes 5 minutes less because you have the right car for it, then that's a very legitimate expense. Will you stick around for a bit if people want to have a quick chat? Yeah, I will stick around. One more question. One more question. Okay. Sorry, you you spoke mainly about the concept of becoming and helping people in finance and getting wealthy. My personal experience, which is based on my Luna, was through myself. And and that is not the Yeah, so he mentions about ma'aser by giving a tenth of your income as being an important way of bringing blessings into your life. Which it most certainly is. So, I can repeat what you said. Um, but if you you ask me to to enhance it, I can add something to it as well. And that is that there is something not only to giving a tenth of your earnings in order to bring more blessing. But there's actually a concept of projected ma'aser. Um Yitzchak Avinu is the one our forefather Isaac is the one who started the mitzvah of ma'aser. He talks about his crop that he he gathered uh he planted his crop and he collected mea shorim. He collected a hundred measures, hundred times what he should have collected. So Rashi actually asks how did he know it was a hundred times what he should have collected? Like what number was he is a hundred times what? What number was he beginning with? So Rashi says well, he projected the the crop the crop that hadn't yet come in for the sake of ma'aser. So that's how he knew cuz he was going to give his tithe. So he knew how much was supposed to come in and what came in a hundred times what was supposed to come in. That's what Rashi says. That's what Rashi in Homish. Which every five-year-old reads. The Rebbe says something very interesting, which is, hold on a second, that doesn't really make sense, because maaser you give after the crop comes in. So, why did he know the calculation for the purposes of maaser before the crop came in? The Rebbe says this is the concept of projected maaser. That sometimes you give a tenth not of what you made. And this is not the halacha, by the way. But this this is a an exercise of bitachon. That you give maaser of what you would like to make. And then Hashem backs you up and makes it true. And you can do that at charity.com/basicverizon. Thank you very much, Rabbi Taub. Yeah, I'll tell you something.