We continue with the Bet Halevi’s essay, and he is now talking about understanding that your hishtadlut/ your effort does not bring your success; God's decree brings your success. He says, from here we see the mistake of those people that involve themselves in hishtadlut/efforts that are illegal. They involve themselves in businesses that have robbery, cheating, and other forbidden things. About them, he says the pasuk says, They hatch poisonous eggs- meaning they're incubating eggs (thinking they are hatching chicks) that will hatch poisonous snakes, which is obviously not going to bring any good.
If you ask them, What are you doing? they’ll admit that it's illegal, but they’ll say, “What am I supposed to do? I'm compelled to do so, otherwise I'm can’t make a living. My whole margin is based on the profit that I make.”
It's like a butcher who says, “My profit margin is the fact that my scales are off by 4%. Everything else goes towards my workers and my expenses and my advertising. Without that, there'd be no profit left.”
So, what's the answer to this man? He says, the answer is your whole approach is wrong. It what comes first, the chicken or the egg? It's only because you are engaging in the forbidden activities that your livelihood only comes about through that. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If you had not engaged in this kind of activity, Hashem would make available to you to a proper means of earning a livelihood. You decide your own destiny. And he quotes a pasuk in Yirmiyah (2,13), which is one of my favorites, quoted in Pele Yoetz at length.
כִּֽי־שְׁתַּ֥יִם רָע֖וֹת עָשָׂ֣ה עַמִּ֑י אֹתִ֨י עָזְב֜וּ מְק֣וֹר ׀ מַ֣יִם חַיִּ֗ים
My nation did two things wrong.
The Jewish people forsook Me, the Mekor Mayim Chaim/a living wellspring.
And what did they choose?
You had choice to take a live wellspring. You could have the Poland spring water source, but instead-
לַחְצֹ֤ב לָהֶם֙ בֹּאר֔וֹת בֹּארֹת֙ נִשְׁבָּרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־יָכִ֖לוּ הַמָּֽיִם
You decided to dig for yourself broken cisterns that can't hold water.
That means Hashem is the source of everything. But rather than go to the source, you go to the middleman. And not only a regular middleman, but a broken middleman.
And now, a little further on, the pasuk continues and says,
וְעַתָּ֗ה מַה־לָּךְ֙ לְדֶ֣רֶךְ מִצְרַ֔יִם לִשְׁתּ֖וֹת מֵ֣י שִׁח֑וֹר
Why is it that you're on the road to Egypt and drink the waters of the Nile?
What does that mean? It's like a man saying, “What do you want from me? I have to drink the waters of the Nile!”
And the answer is, “Yeah, because you moved to Egypt, you have to drink the waters of the Nile.
If you wouldn’t have moved to Egypt, you could drink fresh water locally. So, you decided your own punishment!”
This is an important lesson, of deciding a destiny with illegal activities.
A cute joke is told of the man who traveled all over the world. His journey brought him to the Arctic, where he met a community of Eskimos. He observed their lifestyle and could not help but notice just how difficult it was to live under such conditions. Finally, he turned to one of them and asked, “Tell me, why do you live here? It's so hard. Why don't you go live somewhere with better weather?”
The Eskimo replied, “If I moved to a warmer climate, there'd be no ice to make an igloo. Where would I live?” Quite obviously, if he would move to a warmer climate, he would live in a house. He would not need an igloo. This mashal brings out this concept that people have their own self-fulfilling prophecies, where they basically decide their destiny and then they say, “Well, what would happen if I didn't do this?”
Of course, if you didn't do this, you wouldn't need it.
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***A special man, who shall remain anonymous, reached out to me and said that he would like to sponsor the Bet Halevi books for 500 people.
He wants to have 25 ambassadors, who will each get 20 Bet Halevi’s mailed to them, and they'll find 20 people who are the right fit. So, for example, if your shul, school, or other group wants to start a class, you can get 20 Bet Halevi’s to give the class or your school or whatever it may be.
The first 25 people to send in their mailing address will receive 20 copies of the Bet Halevi. Once we get to 25, that's the end of the story. So please fill out your name and mailing address and we will send you your free copies of a pocket-sized, hard-covered Bet Halevi on Bitachon from Artscroll for no charge. So, whoever wants to be involved in spreading the wonderful words of the Bet Halevi, now is your chance.
Have a wonderful day.
*Send your name and mailing address to rmsetton@aol.com to receive your 20 copies (to be sent to the first 25 people )