We are continuing with the Bet Halevi. He now tells us that just like human beings do not control other human beings, but rather, ultimately Hashem decides, so too when it comes to man's parnasa, or man’s knowledge. Man's efforts do not help at all, neither to add to, nor to subtract from what has been decreed upon him.
He says we learn this from the manna. The manna was the siman for future generations. It was the sign, the omen, for how things would be in the future. It says about the manna, “The like one that added in his efforts did not receive more, the one that limited his efforts did not receive less.” They'd all go out and gather, and when they came back and measured, it would always measure an Omer per person in their household.
Furthermore, the Midrash in Yalkut Shemoni teaches us that the amount of manna that fell every day was enough to provide sustenance for thousands of years! The obvious question is, if each person could only gather an Omer, why was there so much out there?
Rav Dessler explains that Hashem wanted to teach them, and us as well, that Hashem's supply of sustenance is limitless. One should never worry that someone else is taking away from his source of livelihood. I always like to say the man that started
Microsoft, Bill Gates, one of the wealthiest men in the world, could have been Bill Gross or Bill Grazi. It could have been someone in the Jewish community that made it. Hashem's ability to sustain us is endless. Even today, we see there's an abundance of food that sometimes is put to waste, just because of the rules of supply and demand. If there's too much food, the prices get too cheap, and the farmers don't make any money. There’s an abundance of food, an abundance of water, and an abundance of oxygen. Everything that we need is there in an abundance.
That’s another lesson of the manna. And the proof that manna is there for generations is that Hashem commanded Moshe to take a jar of manna and place it in front of the Aron Hakodesh, to remain there for safekeeping for future
generations. It says that centuries later, Yirmiyah rebuked the people for decreasing their involvement in Torah and Mitzvot because of their excessive involvement in pursuing their livelihoods, and he showed them the jar of manna and said,
“This is how your forefathers survived.”
These lessons are timely lessons. Although they say, the more effort you put in, the more you'll take out, we, as believing Jews, know otherwise. Extra effort can never change what was decreed for us by Hashem. Like the Gemara says in Masechet Betza,
How much food a person will have is decided on Rosh Hashanah.
Another famous lesson from the manna is in the Gemara in Masechet Yoma. It says that Hashem gave the manna in daily portions. Why didn’t Hashem give it in occasional, larger installments? Let it come once a week, once a month, maybe once a year. Hashem could do anything. Why did it have to come down daily? The Gemara explains that it’s because Hashem wants a relationship with us. It's like a king who gives his son a year's allowance, which means that the son only has to come home once a year. The king obviously doesn't want to have a relationship with him. But when he gives his son a daily allowance, that means he wants to see his son every single day. That's true of us as well. Hashem wants to keep a connection with us.
That's why we have all these twists and turns in life.
The Brisker Rav brings out another interesting point. His daughter once turned to him when there was a grave shortage of food in Eretz Yisrael. She said, “What are we going to do? The price of food keeps rising.”
The Brisker Rav answered that when the Gemara talks about our income being determined from Rosh Hashanah, it doesn't say our money is determined from Rosh Hashanah. It says Mezonot/our food is determined. So regardless of how high the price goes, Hashem decides how much food you're going to get. Hashem decides the bottom line of what you'll get.
And that's also interesting because sometimes people might have a lot of money but don't have a lot mezonot, and the opposite.
God decides the bottom line, of what mezonot we are going to have every single year, and no one can affect what we're going to have. No efforts can change that, and that should cause us to live a much less stressful life, B’Ezrat Hashem.
Have a wonderful day.