The Key to Blessing | Rabbi Eli Mansour

A few years back, I met the Tzaddik, Rav Don Segal, may he live and be well. And it was the beginning of the Shovavim weeks, where people are a little more careful on ענייני קדושה, holiness and purity and things of that sort. So I asked the Mashgiach, Is there something that I could tell my congregation, that maybe will motivate them to be a little more careful in their behavior. A lot of these people go to work, they travel, they're out there and they're confronted with ניסיונות, with challenges and all sorts of tests. What can I tell them to motivate them, to give them, you know, an incentive to succeed, to pass the ניסיונות, to overcome the challenges? So he thought for a second and he put his hand on my hand and he said: Does your community and your people, do they like money? So I said: Yeah, I think that's fair to say. I don't think we're different than any other community. They like money, they like good things. He said: Good. Well, there's a certain way to guarantee a Beracha and prosperity, materially. I said: Okay, what is it? So he quotes me a Gemara, and this Gemara I knew it, it's a famous Gemara, but the way he explains it was novel. The Gemara says in Ta’anit, That if a person wants a Beracha, so you need to really protect yourself from the עין הרע. You know, you don't want people to look at what you're doing, so the Gemara says, if you keep things סמוי מן העין, if you keep them hidden, beneath the radar, cover it up, quiet, so the עין הרע won't be able to affect it negatively and there'll be a Beracha. That's the simple Pshat in that Gemara. But he said, Tell the people: You want a Beracha? When you close your eyes at the time of a temptation, when you have the urge to look and you’re סמוי מן העין, you close your eyes, and you refrain from that moment of looking, then already you have a Beracha. How many things do we do to try to make money, and everybody's looking for the edge, and everybody's looking for the angle and everybody’s looking for the advantage. It's not so easy to make money. It's not so easy to make a Parnassa, there's a lot of competition. But here’s a sure-fire way. And if you're in business, you can fulfill this Segulah countless times a day. Know, at the moment that you have the temptation and you close your eyes, סמוי מן העין, the Beracha is not that far behind.