The way the world runs, it appears as though we are in control of what happens. A person goes to work and earns money; if he would stay home, he would not earn money. If a person takes ill and goes to the doctor and takes his prescribed medicine, he will get better; if he fails to take care of himself, his condition worsens. If we would tell somebody that these outcomes are not the result of our efforts or lack thereof, he would have a very hard time believing it, because everything we see indicates otherwise. In fact, Rav Yechezkel Levenstein observed that a person can live for 80 years and not once recognize any involvement on Hashem’s part in his life.
But as we know, the truth is that it is not the work that produces the money, and it is not the doctor or medicine that heals.
The question arises, though, if this is the case, then why do we only get money when we work? The answer is because Hashem decreed בזעת אפך תאכל לחם – that we have an obligation to invest personal effort to obtain our material needs. If we don’t go to work, or if we don’t go to the doctor, then we are not “paying our tax,” so-to-speak, and thus we fail to do our end of the deal.
Hashem is testing us. He makes it appear as though our efforts are obtaining what we need, but He wants us to recognize that really everything we have comes from Him. I spoke recently with a very wealthy man who told me that he sees so clearly how Hashem is in charge. He puts in his effort, but often the endeavors in which he invests the most effort yield no profits, and his money comes from places which he never expected to bring him anything. Hishtadlut is necessary, but our livelihood will not necessarily come as a result of our efforts. And so if a person spends several weeks working on a deal that eventually falls through, he should not feel that he wasted his time. He paid his “tax,” he fulfilled his obligation of בזעת אפך תאכל לחם, and now Hashem will send him blessing from somewhere else. We cannot understand why Hashem makes one deal work and the other fail, but we do know that He is behind everything that happens.
A couple of days after Yom Kippur, a man called me in the middle of the day in a state of panic. He had been working on a certain project for six months, developing a product which he was to sell to Walmart. He had met with Walmart representatives and they agreed to buy the product. This was going to be the largest order he ever made in his life. That morning, he received an email from Walmart saying that the situation does not look good, as the store might not have enough shelf space for the new product. He was told that they would get back to him with a final decision by 5pm that day.
“I’ve been saying Tehillim for three hours,” the man told me. “What else can I do? I need this order!”
“First of all,” I replied, “Walmart has no say in your income. This is all being orchestrated by Hashem. You don’t think they have shelf space? If they loved the product, they would make the space. Hashem wants something.”
“I know,” the man agreed. “I believe that Hashem is in charge and I want to go straight to the real Boss. I am going to spend the rest of the day thinking about what I can do to serve Hashem better.” The man proceeded to draw up a list. He committed to learning Torah with a rabbi every morning before prayers and to spending more time learning on Shabbat. He also picked an area of Shabbat observance in which to improve. Finally, he pledged to donate ten percent of the profits from the sale to a certain charitable organization.
At 5pm, he received another email informing him that the situation was looking more promising, and the final decision would be made by Thursday morning. When he told me about this email, I thought to myself, “Wow, Hashem loves this man. He wants to be close to him, and so He is helping him become more religious. It could be that the entire deal was put in place to bring him closer to Hashem!”
But then the man reminded me that Thursday was the first day of Sukkot. He would not be able to find out the final decision until after Shabbat.
The man later told me, “I went into Sukkot in very good spirits. I did not worry at all about the sale. I put in my effort, I made my commitments to Hashem, and I am going to keep them no matter what happens. And regardless of the outcome, I know that Hashem is doing what is best for me.”
He was even happier to find out after Shabbat that Walmart decided to go through with the deal.
“It’s amazing,” he told me. “I worked on something for so long and thought it was a done deal. Hashem took it away from me in a second, and then, when it seemed all was lost, Hashem brought it back just as easily.”
We must constantly remind ourselves that Hashem is the only one with any say. Our efforts should be directly only towards Him, and then we will enjoy His constant blessings.