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Shiurim by Rav Davidson in KBY.
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שלום חביבס.
We are in שער הביטחון,
פרק ד.
We've been speaking until now,
the last couple of days,
about life and death and what's considered dangerous and how a person's not allowed
to put himself in a situation of danger.
And now we're talking about other things as well,
not just about life and death:
health,
food,
clothing,
home,
and then more character-oriented things,
מידות טובות,
surroundings of people that you're around.
Mechovato leharchik me'alav et kol ma she'omed benigud la'emtza'im ha'ele מחובתו להרחיק מעליו את
כל מה שעומד בניגוד לאמצעים האלה.
Whatever's going to prevent you from doing these things properly,
you have to be on guard.
Al af sheberura lo ha'emunah אף על פי שברורה לו האמונה,
because you have אמונה,
but don't let the אמונה mislead you.
You have אמונה.
Ki ha'emtza'im ainam mo'ilim bime'umah lehasig devarim ele כי האמצעים אינם מועילים במאומה להשיג
דברים אלה.
We lead our lives in a kind of a dual reality.
On the one hand,
it's all Hashem.
On the other hand,
I have to put in maximum effort.
It's kind of funny.
It can't go together.
If it's me,
all me,
all me,
then what's Hashem doing here?
If it's all Hashem,
all Hashem,
all Hashem,
then why do I have to put in effort?
But we lead our lives in that sense of a dual reality.
On the one hand,
ha'emtza'im ainam mo'ilim bime'umah lehasig devarim ele האמצעים אינם מועילים במאומה להשיג דברים אלה,
ela im habore yisbarach gazar אלא אם הבורא יתברך גזר.
Whatever I do isn't going to make any difference,
if Hashem decided that's what's going to be,
that's what's going to be.
וכל זאת,
hu mechuyav lachazer achrei ha'emtza'im ha'ele הוא מחויב לחזר אחרי האמצעים האלה.
Nevertheless,
he has to put in efforts.
Kemo she'al ba'al ha'adamah lacharoash et admato ulenakota mehakotzim velizroa ulehashkota kesheyesh lo mayim
veyachad im ze alav livtoach al habore שיפריא אדמתו וישמרה מנזק.
Agriculture is the best example of it.
Agriculture is something which on the one hand you have to put in efforts
and if you didn't put your efforts nothing is going to happen,
but on the other hand there's so many factors that are out of your
control.
If it's going to rain,
if there's going to be a swarm of locusts,
if there's going to be very hot weather that's going to dry everything up.
You can't control that.
You can't control the weather.
You can try and seed clouds,
you know,
but you can't control the weather.
Veyachad im zot alav livtoach ba'Hashem sheyafria admato ויחד עם זאת עליו לבטוח בהשם
שיפריא אדמתו.
At the end of the day,
God grant him protection,
yarbe te'uvato veyishlach et birchato ירבה תבואתו וישלח את ברכתו,
kemo shelo nachon mitzido le'hazniach admato כמו שלא נכון מצדו להזניח אדמתו.
So you can't do either side.
You can't say,
Hashem,
I'm not going to work the land,
if you want this to be successful it's all on you.
You can't do that.
You can't not plant and you can't just trust in Hashem.
You can't say if Hashem decreed that it's going to happen then it's going
to happen,
if not,
not.
Gam ba'ale melacha vehasocherim mitzuvim lachazer parnasatam גם בעלי מלאכה והסוחרים מצווים לחזר פרנסתם.
Everyone who is working is obligated to put in the efforts to work.
At the same time,
yachad im ze livtoach ba'Hashem shehaparnasa netuna beyado uvirshuto יחד עם זה לבטוח בהשם
שהפרנסה נתונה בידו וברשותו,
vehu ha'arev la'adam shetihiye lo parnasa uveyado le'hamtzi ota והוא הערב לאדם שתהיה לו
פרנסה ובידו להמציא אותה.
I often think about it.
We've probably discussed this before,
but there are certain times where people make a particular investment and the investment
they make makes them millions because the market was right,
the timing was right,
the company was right,
everything was right.
And a parallel person can make the same type of investment around the same
time.
Pinchas ani tzarich otcha be'sheva va'reva פנחס אני צריך אותך בשבע ורבע.
The same person could make a similar parallel and the same exact offer comes
and the same rough timing comes,
but it just happens to be very very slight difference and within some small
clause,
and because of him he lost everything.
Now that doesn't make sense.
As far as השתדלות was concerned,
they both did the same thing.
A real story that I heard from a Rebbe once,
that his father had worked for a living in a,
I don't know what he did exactly,
but something that doesn't earn a lot of money but gave him some savings.
And then there was someone who was working in a bank who said to
him that they're doing investments,
does he want to invest?
And he wanted to make him a partner in an investment firm that was
coming out of a bank.
And he had to put in basically all the money that he had and
the potential of earning was very very great.
And he was offered the same offer twice,
once by one person in one situation and once by someone else in a
different situation,
but the same offer twice.
And this Rabbi's father said no both times.
He had worked very hard,
didn't want to take any risks or chances and so on.
So he said,
I'd rather not be rich but not be poor.
That was his philosophy.
He had what he had,
was living simply but it was enough.
Long term what happened?
Of the two offers,
one was extremely successful and if he would have become a partner with that
man he would have been a multimillionaire.
And the other one,
the investments went bad,
the guy wasn't as ישר,
which they didn't know ahead of time but he didn't do everything in the
most ישר way.
He had to declare bankruptcy,
lost everything.
Now this Rabbi's father said that as far as his father was concerned,
they were both the exact same offer.
Like he couldn't see any reason or difference why one was good and one
was not good.
They both presented the same opportunity.
One worked,
one didn't.
So his father was wise or cautious,
and he said,
I don't want to invest either way.
I just want to do everything how they are.
I'd rather leave it the way it is.
But you see from such a story and many,
many,
many parallel stories that there is certain times where you do the normal and
correct and valid השתדלות.
And the outcome could be here or here.
Because when it comes to פרנסה,
as well as learning תורה,
you have to put in your maximum effort and you have to recognize that
without סיעתא דשמיא nothing's going to happen.
But without your effort also nothing's going to happen.
You have to show הקדוש ברוך הוא that you're willing to put in your
part and then you can turn to השם and you could say השם I
did my part and now you do your part.
It works as a partnership.
That's true not only for life and death but for all these other areas
as well.
ואל יחשבו שהגורם עצמו יכול להועיל או להזיק להם מאומה.
ואם האדם משיג את פרנסתו על ידי אמצעי שהוא עוסק בו,
לא נכון מצדו לבטוח באמצעי עצמו ולשמוח בו ולהשתדל להחזיק בו יותר או לרכז
בו את מחשבותיו כאילו היה אמצעי זה המפרנסו.
So let's say you do invest in something or you work in something and
you're successful.
And you're successful.
So what happens now?
Now's the test of your אמונה.
What happens now?
Some people will say,
if this was successful,
this is where my hope comes from.
It's all in the merit of this thing.
And I'm going to invest in this more and I'm going to rely on
this more and I'm going to praise this thing and and they kind of
make that business enterprise their god.
All my fortune comes from here.
Fortune,
that's not a Jewish word.
I know,
but that's what it is.
This is why my fortune comes from here.
That's one perspective.
כאילו היה אמצעי זה המפרנסו.
It's as if they're saying that their real money is coming from this particular
enterprise,
this particular business.
If you do that,
על ידי כך נחלש בטחונו בהשם.
If you do that,
you're missing the mark.
You're forgetting השם.
ולא נכון מצדו לחשוב כי האמצעי עזר לו יותר ממה שהבורא החליט מראש.
The truth is,
the truth is that that enterprise helped you exactly according to the degree that
הקדוש ברוך הוא determined.
So that was the means that השם used,
but it's still השם.
It's no less השם than any other enterprise you could have done.
That was השם and this is השם.
And it's unhealthy for us to rejoice over that particular—you can rejoice over the
fact that you're successful,
but to attribute it to such and such in this world,
you miss the mark.
You miss the fact that it's הקדוש ברוך הוא doing it all.
ואל ישמח על האמצעי שדבק בו אותו האמצעי ולהשתדל ולהשיג אותו אלא יודה לבורא.
You should always turn to השם and trust in השם.
That He's the one who enabled you to have this פרנסה.
ולא נתן שעמלו וטרחתו יהיה לריק.
Nothing he did went to waste.
As the פסוק says,
יגיע כפיך כי תאכל אשריך וטוב לך.
You put in effort,
you'll have what to eat,
you're fortunate and it's good for you both in this world and the next
world.
Why in this world and the next world?
Because you identified that it's השם.
We'll finish off with one story because this is a very short piece.
I'll do this story here.
אחד החסידים אמר,
there was once a righteous man that said,
אני מתפלל על מי שנותן לחברו את מה שהבורא גזר עליו לתת לו ואחר
כך הוא מזכיר לחברו את הטובה שעשה לו בזה ומבקש ממנו להודות לו על
זה.
I'm surprised by people who they give something to someone else and really it's
הקדוש ברוך הוא determined they have to give that to them.
And then afterwards they say,
you see,
you owe me one,
who helped you out here,
without me you wouldn't have been able to do it.
They're taking all the credit.
They're saying it's all because of me.
I'm surprised.
הקדוש ברוך הוא,
He's the one who put it in their mind in the begin with.
There's a story,
ועוד יותר אני מתפלל על מי שמקבל את פרנסתו על ידי אחר,
and I'm even more surprised about someone who receives his פרנסה from someone else
that that person has to give it to him and nevertheless he relates to
him with this great honor and he submits himself to him and he speaks
to him and he praises him and he says it's all because of you.
He should really do that towards הקדוש ברוך הוא.
It's one thing to have הכרת הטוב to that person,
that's true and that's in place,
but no less he should be מודה ומשבח the person who arranged it to
happen.
So there's this famous story that I read in the סיפורי חסידים.
Very nice story,
with this we'll end.
That there was a person once who came to the train station because he
had to go to a particular place but he didn't have the money to
go.
So he put in his efforts to try and earn money,
he earned what he could,
he didn't have enough for the train ticket.
And then he came to the train station and he was standing next to
someone else on line who he knew.
And the person said,
oh,
where are you going?
So he said,
such and such a place.
And he said,
oh,
like,
you can afford it?
So he said,
actually I can't.
I raised all the money that I could but I only got like halfway.
But I trust in השם that it'll work out.
And the guy's like laughing at him.
What do you mean,
you're standing on line,
like what are you going to do when you get there?
You're going to say can I pay half price?
It's not going to work.
So I trust in השם that it's going to work out.
I did my effort.
I did the maximum I could do.
What more can I do?
I did my effort,
I need to get there.
So they're getting closer and the guy's laughing him more,
laughing him more,
laughing him more,
laughing him more.
And then eventually זהו.
First guy pays,
leaves.
The second guy comes and he gets to the counter.
He says,
look,
I need to get to such a place.
This is what I have.
He puts the פרוטות that he has there on the table.
And they said like we're sorry can't do it.
He says please you have to help me,
I have to get there.
And he says I'm sorry can't help you there.
The price of the ticket costs such and such an amount,
without that you can't do it.
This other wealthy guy who is standing in front of him is watching from
behind,
he's like laughing.
He says you see?
You see?
You can't,
you can't do that,
you can't do that.
Don't worry I'll help you.
And the guy goes and pays and buys him a ticket and says to
him okay here you go,
you see?
Don't do that trick again where you're like relying on השם.
You know I'm the one at the end of the day who helped you.
He trusts in הקדוש ברוך הוא.
הקדוש ברוך הוא was כביכול מכריע this person to go and help.
הקדוש ברוך הוא helped him.
This guy didn't see it as השם,
this guy took the credit as I'm the one who helped you.
השם didn't help you,
I'm the one who helped you.
But this צדיק,
he knew all along.
I put in my utmost השתדלות,
at the end הקדוש ברוך הוא is going to help me.